Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930) was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, where his father had moved from London after taking a job as a civil servant. In 1882, after studying medicine at Edinburgh University, he established a medical practice near the southern English city of Portsmouth. He had begun writing short stories to supplement his income while still a student, and he continued to do so while starting out as a doctor. Doyle’s first published novel, A Study in Scarlet, which appeared in the popular magazine Beeton’s Christmas Annual in 1887, introduced the characters of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. The story enjoyed only modest success in Britain, however, and Doyle continued work on what he considered more important projects, such as the historical novels Micah Clark (1889) and The White Company (1890). A second Sherlock Holmes novel, The Sign of Four, appeared in 1890, but not until the 12 short stories later collected as The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes did the fictional detective and his creator achieve sudden fame. Published in the new monthly magazine The Strand, the stories caused a literary sensation and contributed significantly to the magazine’s great success.
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