British writer, best known for his creation of the detective Sherlock Holmes and his companion Doctor Watson. Doyle practiced medicine as an eye specialist until 1891 when he became full time writer. First novel about Holmes, A Study in Scarlet, was published in 1887.

Sherlock Holmes short stories were collected in five books. The first appeared in 1892 under the title THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES. The later were THE MEMOIRS OF SHERLOCK HOLMES, THE RETURN OF SHERLOCK HOLMES, HIS LAST BOW, and THE CASE-BOOK OF SHERLOCK HOLMES.

In 1983 Conan Doyle was so wearied of his famous detective that he devised Sherlock Holmes' death, but restored him later because of public demand.

Conan Doyle was knighted in 1902. After the death of his son from wounds incurred in World War I, Conan Doyle dedicated himself in spritualistic studies. An example of these is THE COMING OF FAIRIES, in which he supported the existence of "little people" and spent more than a million dollars on their cause.

Conan Doyle's other publications include plays, verse, memoirs, short stories, and several historical novels and adventure novels. His stories of Professor George Edward Challenger, which blended science fact with fantastic romance, were also very popular.

Sherlock Holmes, whose literary forefather was Edgar Allan Poe's detective C. Auguste Dupin and on the other hand a real life person, Conan Doyle's teacher in the University of Edinburgh, Joseph Bell, have also inspired many later writers to continue Holmes stories. Among them are O. Henry, Robert L. Fish and Nicholas Meyer with his novels The Seven-Per-Cent Solution and The West End Horror.

SEE ALSO: Jacques Futrelle, the American Conan Doyle, who died on the Titanic 15 April 1912; Lawrence Treat and modern police procedural novel; Beverly Nichols; Sax Rohmer; Aleister Crowley and occultism; poet W.B. Yeats, who was interested in occult and magical knowledge and joined The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. - In Dr. Fu Manchu novel Ten Years Beyond Baker Street (1984) the Evil Doctor fights Sherlock Holmes.

Selected works:

• A STUDY IN SCARLET, 1887
• THE MYSTERY OF CLOOMBER, 1889
• MICAH CLARCE, 1889
• THE SIGN OF FOUR, 1890
• THE WHITE COMPANY, 1891
• THE DOINGS OF RAFLES HAW, 1892
• THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES, 1892
• THE MEMOIRS OF SHERLOCK HOLMES, 1894
• THE WAR IN SOUTH AFRICA: ITS CAUSE AND CONDUCT, 1902
• THE HOUND OF BASKERVILLES, 1902 - Baskervillen koira - film 1931, dir. by V. Gareth Gundrey, script Edgar Wallace and Gundrey; film 1939, dir. by Lidney Lanfield; film 1959, dir. by Terence Fisher; film 1977, dir. by Maul Morrissey
• THE RETURN OF SHERLOCK HOLMES, 1905
• THE LOST WORLD, 1912
• THE POISON BELT, 1913
• THE VALLEY OF FEAR, 1915
• HIS LAST BOW, 1917
• THE COMING OF THE FAIRIES, 1922
• THE CASE-BOOK OF SHERLOCK HOLMES, 1927

Compiled by Kuusankoski Public Library, Finland (© 1997) and René Märtin (© 1998-2001).