Facts about Arthur Conan Doyle
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The character of Sherlock Holmes was inspired by Dr. Joseph Bell, a surgeon Arthur Conan Doyle studied under at the University of Edinburgh.
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Sherlock Holmes first appeared in A Study in Scarlet, which sold only 11 copies in its initial print run of 1887, making it one of literature's slowest commercial starts.
- 09
Conan Doyle's passion for cricket led him to play as a cricketer for the MCC team in 1900, earning a respectable batting average during his competitive seasons.
- 08
Spiritualism consumed Arthur Conan Doyle's later life so intensely that he spent his final years promoting séances and communicating with the dead rather than writing fiction.
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Twenty-two years after publishing his first Sherlock Holmes story, Arthur Conan Doyle killed off the detective in The Final Problem, published in 1893.
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Over 300 million copies of Sherlock Holmes stories have been sold worldwide, making Arthur Conan Doyle's detective the most translated literary character in history.
- 05
Before creating Sherlock Holmes, Arthur Conan Doyle wrote A Study in Scarlet in 1887, which introduced the detective character to readers for the first time.
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Knighted in 1902 for his writings about the Boer War, Arthur Conan Doyle became Sir Arthur Conan Doyle following King Edward VII's coronation honors.
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Arthur Conan Doyle's 1912 novel The Lost World sold over 30,000 copies in its first year, establishing him as a major figure in science fiction literature.
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During the Second Boer War from 1899 to 1902, Arthur Conan Doyle served as a physician in a field hospital, treating wounded soldiers in South Africa.
- 01
In 1901, Arthur Conan Doyle published The Hound of the Baskervilles, serialized across 29 monthly installments in The Strand Magazine.