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Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
(1859-1930)
Legendary crime writer
Nigel Cooper
December 2002
Receiving a posthumous Honorary Fellowship from the Royal Society of Chemistry even though you never actually lived is quite an achievement. But then, Sherlock Holmes is used to achieving – he's been one of the world's most popular detectives for over 100 years. At first, awarding a fellowship to a deceased fictional detective seems ludicrous, but on closer inspection it is strangely fitting. After all, the sleuth has given a great service to science. He was the first fictional detective to use forensic science to solve crimes and he pioneered the use of fingerprint analysis and serology (the study of blood and fluids) in criminal investigations. In doing so he demonstrated the true value of science to society – a task many scientists still struggle with today.
Early life
The creator of Sherlock Holmes, Arthur Conan Doyle, was born in Edinburgh on 22 May 1859, five years after his more famous offspring, Sherlock Holmes, whose fictional birth date was 6 January 1854.
Doyle's father Charles was a low-earning civil servant. He increased his income by illustrating books but life was still difficult for the staunch Catholic family. Out of ten children, only seven survived into adulthood. Despite this hardship, Arthur showed early promise and produced his first story when he was just six. At the age of nine he was sent to Hodder, a Jesuit boarding school in Lancashire. It wasn't a happy experience for the young Arthur and he quickly began to lose his faith. By the time he left his secondary school, Stonyhurst, he was an agnostic – a belief he would later pass on to Sherlock Holmes.
The creation of a legend
In 1876, while studying medicine, Doyle met the major inspiration for his detective in the shape of surgeon and forensic expert Dr Joseph Bell, professor at the University of Edinburgh Medical School. Doyle studied his mentor intently, noting Bell's outstanding ability to deduce large amounts of information simply from looking at a patient. Bell told his pupils: 'The student must be taught to observe … he can discover in ordinary matters information such as the previous history, nationality and occupation.'
When he qualified, Doyle set up a medical practice in Southsea, near Portsmouth. It wasn't a great success, however, and he was left with plenty of time to write. His first published work was The Mystery of the Sasassa Valley in 1879 when he was 20. In 1885 Doyle married Louisa 'Toulie' Hawkins, with whom he would have two children.
Sherlock Holmes didn't appear until 1887 when A Study in Scarlet was published in the Beeton Christmas Annual. Doyle couldn't know it then but he had made history and in the process created a character who would fast begin to outshine his creator. The Strand Magazine began to publish The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes in July 1891 and Holmes, Watson and Moriarty became instant hits. In fact, the detective stories became so successful that Doyle gave up his Southsea practice and devoted all his time to writing.
The famous sleuth wasn't Doyle's only success though. He also wrote several historical novels and romances such as Micah Clarke (1888), The White Company (1890), Rodney Stone (1896) and Sir Nigel (1906). But Holmes was his most popular creation by far, and he is the one Doyle is remembered for. This fact wasn't lost on the author, and he began to develop a growing resentment for his detective.
The death of Sherlock Holmes
In 1888 an edition of A Study in Scarlet was published with illustrations by Doyle's father. Unfortunately, his father was already descending into alcoholism and this, coupled with severe epilepsy, led him to become institutionalised. He died in 1893. In the same year, Arthur, growing more irritated with the time Sherlock Holmes demanded of him, wrote The Final Problem, killing off both the detective and his nemesis Professor Moriarty. The story was published in the December issue of the Strand. Doyle's fanatical readers were so distraught that many wore mourning bands and the Strand lost almost 20,000 subscriptions.
By now, Doyle was feeling more eclipsed than ever by his detective and killing him had only served to make matters worse. He told his mother: 'He takes my mind from better things … I weary of his name.'
But Holmes refused to die. Demand for the detective eventually persuaded Doyle to bring him back. In 1902 a new Holmes adventure appeared – The Hound of the Baskervilles, a tale of one of the sleuth's earlier, but previously untold, exploits. Many more stories followed until The Case Book of Sherlock Holmes in 1927, the detective's last outing. By this time, Holmes and Watson had appeared in four novels and 56 short stories.
Fact or fiction?
Doyle won acclaim in 1902 for his non-fiction works The Great Boer War (1900) and The War in South Africa: Its Causes and Conduct (1902). He had broken free (if only temporarily) from the chains of Sherlock Holmes.
Four years later his wife Louisa died. He found happiness once more, however, meeting and marrying Jean Leckie. But tragedy struck again when his son Kingsley died in the First First World War in 1918. Doyle published his autobiography, Memories and Adventures, in 1924. He died six years later on 7 July 1930 in Sussex.
That Doyle is most remembered for Sherlock Holmes is undeniable, but the detective was also a millstone around his author's neck, a character destined to steal his creator's glory at every opportunity. Holmes, not Doyle, is still winning awards in the 21st century. An Honorary Fellowship to the Royal Society of Chemistry is an accolade usually bestowed upon academics and high profile achievers. It is testament to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's writing skill that his detective is the first fictional character to receive such an honour.
Perhaps we should spare a thought for the man trapped in Holmes' shadow. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle seems destined to remain eclipsed by his creation, despite the fact that it was Doyle's scientific knowledge of chemistry and forensics that gave flesh to the Sherlock Holmes character. It was Doyle, not Holmes, who reinvented the detective novel and brought the power of scientific reasoning to the attention of the masses.
Through Sherlock Holmes, Doyle advanced public knowledge of forensic science and moved the detective fiction genre into a new era. But perhaps in the end, Doyle's greatest achievement was to create a character so well-loved and enduring that he could not be contained by fiction.
Find out more
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Websites
Royal Society of Chemistry
www.rsc.org
Website of the Royal Society of Chemistry, the Learned Society for the chemical sciences and the Professional Body for chemical scientists in the UK.
The Arthur Conan Doyle Society
www.ash-tree.bc.ca/acdsocy.html
The Arthur Conan Doyle Society was founded in 1989 with the aim of bringing together those people sharing a common interest in the author. Contains discussions of his work.
Sherlock Holmes Museum
www.sherlock-holmes.co.uk
Supporting website for the Sherlock Holmes Museum with facts and trivia about the fictional detective, including a biography. The museum itself, in London, is open every day (except Christmas day) from 9.30am-6pm.
The Chronicles of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
www.siracd.com/index.shtml
Large site containing a wealth of material about Doyle's life and work, including his belief in spirits and fairies.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
www.kirjasto.sci.fi/acdoyle.htm
Biography of the writer including a full list of all his works.
Books
Memories and Adventures by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (Greenhill Books, 1988) Out of print.
The autobiography of the author, recounting the many adventures of his own life.
The Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Reader: From Sherlock Holmes to spiritualism edited by Jeffrey and Valerie Meyers (Cooper Square Press, 2002) £17.99
Encompasses his eclectic range, representing the oeuvre of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930): Sherlock Holmes tales, horror stories, excerpts from novels, science fiction, non-fiction reporting, and, in its entirety, the apocalyptic novel, The Poison Belt.
Sherlock Holmes: Selected stories (Oxford Paperbacks, 1998) £6.99
This selection draws the best stories from the several Sherlock Holmes volumes, and shows how the famous detective and his assistant are elevated above the level of fiction and into the realm of mythology, where the learned and the simple meet on equal footing.
The Real Cracker by Stephen Cook (Channel 4 books, 2002) £6.99
Explores the work of real-life offender profilers as they investigate five horrific recent crimes. How do they compare to the public's image inspired by Fitz, TV's larger-than-life psychologist?
The Casebook of Forensic Detection by Colin Evans (John Wiley and sons Inc, 1998) £13.50
A selection of Holmes' finest stories including A Study in Scarlet, The Sign of Four and The Hound of the Baskervilles.
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