"Steel True, Blade Straight, Arthur Conan Doyle, Knight, Patriot, Physician, & Man of Letters."
By Phil Bothun
Student of UW-Rock County
The names Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Sherlock Holmes are, for most intents and purposes, synonymous with each other. Much of what Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, writer, physician, and spiritualist, is remembered for is within one of the most recognized and revered characters of the twentieth century. Yet, so much more is contained in the life of such an iconic author, a life wrought with drama, adventure, secrets and death, all the makings of a well-written Sherlock Holmes story.One thing that is common with any biographical work about Conan Doyle is his constant thrill for the dangerous and adventurous. Throughout his life, Conan Doyle has adventured across the globe, spending much of his time on English soil maintaining several homes throughout Scotland and England including Windlesham Manor in Surrey, Groombridge Place and Undershaw, south of London, as well as on African soil. After a period from 1876 to 1881 at the University of Edinburgh, Conan Doyle was employed as a ship’s doctor on the SS Mayumba for a voyage to the West African coast. Thereafter, 1885, he achieved his doctorate on the subject of tabes dorsalis, a degenerative condition pertaining to sensory neurons. His experience as a doctor and his adventurous nature would later resurface as he served as a doctor in South Africa during the Boer War during one of the largest typhoid epidemics.
Throughout all of this, his extensive work as a doctor, abroad and domestic, his brief period of performing ophthalmology in 1891, and political aspirations, Conan Doyle was grappling with one of his most prevalent rivals: Sherlock Holmes. Sherlock was first created in A Study in Scarlet, first appearing in Beeton’s Christmas Annual in 1887. From then on, Holmes would be printed in The Strandmagazine. Based off of Joseph Bell, a university professor, Doyle was said to created Holmes "round the centre of deduction and inference and observation which I have heard [Joseph Bell] inculcate I have tried to build up a man." The semblance was close enough for Robert Louis Stevenson, also a former student of Bell, to recognize the man while he resided in Samoa.
Watson and Holmes by Sidney Pagnet
Ironically, Sherlock Holmes was Conan Doyle’s most popular asset, yet several times Conan Doyle juggled the idea of killing off the character, doing so finally at Reichenbach Falls in1893. However, due to immense popular demand, Conan Doyle was forced to resurrect the great detective in The Hound of the Baskervilles in 1901, claiming Sherlock had to remain hidden from even more dangerous foes. Something that runs throughout all of the Holmes stories is this theme of deception and simplification. Conan Doyle uses Sherlock’s amazing skill of observation, logic and criminal understanding to turn something that, to all appearances, was confusing and commonplace into extravagant answers to seemingly impossible cases.
Another major theme throughout these stories is this battle between the supernatural and the natural world. Sherlock Holmes himself doesn’t believe in ghosts or the supernatural, claiming that there is always a plausible physical answer for everything, which he proves in every case. Strangely enough, later on in life Conan Doyle himself would become a staunch spiritualist, conducting seances and speakings.
The Hound by Sidney Pagnet
Finally, Conan Doyle uses the literary device of foreshadowing in almost all of the Sherlock Holmes stories. Foreshadowing, the method of showing the reader a sign of sorts in order to speculate at what is to come, is in many ways a pivotal part of any Holmes story. Without the expositional information that the reader makes inferences upon the stories themselves wouldn’t have gained as much popularity as they had. That exposition also offers a sort of foreshadowing such that the reader can speculate about the case as well as its solution based upon the small signs embedded in that introduction.
Another device that sometimes fall under the topic of foreshadowing is a character device known as a ‘red-herring.’ A red herring is a solution or scapegoat that the author throws out in order to distract or throw off the reader. A perfect example of this is the convict character in The Hound of the Baskervilles. The convict is first suspected to be the perpetrator because of his strange doings as well as his history of being a convict. It later turns out that he is innocent and the perpetrator was someone else. However, for a brief time, the reader was distracted, thus making the solution all that more amazing when Holmes reveals it.
All in all, Arthur Conan Doyle is a brilliant author, a man of many faces and talents, yet he is always taken as only the creator of Sherlock Holmes. Below are a few sources to get anyone who wishes for a more in-depth learning of Conan Doyle to begin searching. I hope that these help any prospective reader open their mind to Conan Doyle and learn that he is far more than the creator of one of the most recognized characters world wide. All you must do is click, rather “elementary” as our great caper would say.
Arthur Conan Doyle's study in Groombridge.
Arthur Conan Doyle: A Life in Letters[1] This particular monograph supplies events, motivations, and actual emotions directly from the hand of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in correspondence between himself and his family and friends. The compiler explains that they will take much time explaining specific events that Conan Doyle writes of, as well as background information with his family. This book does much to humanize Conan Doyle, outlining his troubles with his medical practice, his poverty stricken beginnings, his constant rejections in literature, as well as the intense struggle fighting for his first spouse's life against tuberculosis, all the while maintaining a hidden ten-year romance with his second wife. These letters are directly penned from Conan Doyle giving very interesting insight into his life, revealing one of the most interesting facts, his own love-hate relationship with his most famous character: Sherlock Holmes.
The introduction to this work opens with one of my favorite Conan Doyle stories. A reporter doing profiles on prominent Brits during the Boer War asks a solitary doctor busy working during the height of the typhoid epidemic in South Africa what his favorite Sherlock Holmes story was. Agitated, he responds, “Perhaps the one about the serpent, but for the life of me I cannot remember the name of it.” This solitary man is no other than Arthur Conan Doyle, the writer of said story. The author then goes on to explain that this single exchange can be the one moment that describes all of Conan Doyle’s life. This book takes upon the challenge of drawing one’s eyes from Sherlock Holmes, instead focussing on the man and his pleasures, his pursuits to follow danger and excitement, and how he very much was nothing like the character he created. In this book some of the most obscure stories and strange settings of Conan Doyle’s life are explained and explored, including his advances in medical science, his political aspirations and writings, and, towards the end of his life, his aspirations to become a leading member of spiritualism. Arthur Conan Doyle: Beyond Baker Street takes on the challenge of establishing Conan Doyle as a man, not just an author.
"The Foreign and the Female in Arthur Conan Doyle: Beneath the Candy Coating"[3]
The Canonical Sherlock Holmes
This article focuses on Conan Doyle’s position on women and foreigners in his novels. There is a very strong emphasis, the article states, that Conan Doyle carried imperialistic, bordering on nationalistic, persuasions when it came to foreigners, almost always placing the superior force as English, and the less superior as “other than English.” The same can be said with male and female relationships. The article rpeats this idea, with textual references throughout, that men (Sherlock, Watson, Inspector Lestrade) always triumph and that women are placed as murderous, insidious, and all around undesirable. The article also draws a direct correlation between the way that England policed and controlled its colonies to the way that a man should police and control a woman. This is present in several of Conan Doyle’s novels.
"Sherlock Holmes and the Problem of War: Traumatic Detections"[4]
This particular article explores Arthur Conan Doyle’s experience during the Boer War in the early 20th Century. The article focuses on Doyle’s patriotism and how he served to his utmost as a doctor during one of the worst typhoid breakouts of the century. Yet, I believe the key to the article is how all of this experience fundamentally changed Conan Doyle. After exploring his experiences as a doctor, the author uses textual references of many Sherlock Holmes stories to suggest how Conan Doyle used Holmes as an outlet for his feelings about the war. The author also writes of the desensitizing of war, the feelings of English superiority, and the dawn of what is now called Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, and how these are emulated in Sherlock Holmes.
This scholarly article from the University of Oklahoma explains the timelessness of Conan Doyle’s “Great Detective.” The article primarily revolves around the character Adrian Monk on the show Monk on the USA Network, along with other USA Network characters. The writers for these shows such as, Law and Order: Criminal Intent, House, and Monk, all use the paradigms set up by Conan Doyle, as well as Edgar Allen Poe, to set up detectives of immense genius.
A common thread running throughout are these detectives’ derivations from what most people would call “normal.” Monk is obsessive-compulsive and is relatively unable to operate without his nurse and psychiatrist. However, this disorder is also his greatest strength, allowing him to notice things others would not. Detective Goren, of Law and Order: CI, is a brilliant man who has an ability for reading people, a walking criminal encyclopedia, yet he has problems with coping with his family, as well as keeping up social conventions, usually remaining rather awkward. Finally, House, of the show sharing the same name, is a medical “detective” of sorts, his main job diagnosing medical diseases. Yet, House has a debilitating pain in his hip along with an addiction to Vicodin. These three men all emulate the pattern set up by Conan Doyle and Poe with their visage of the “Great Detective.”
Throughout his life Arthur Conan Doyle had two separate wives. After completing doctorate degree, Arthur Conan Doyle married Louisa Hawkins in 1885. He would remain with her until she ultimately lost her life in a bout with tuberculosis in 1906. During his time with Louisa, Doyle sired two children: Mary Louise, born on January 28, 1889 and Arthur Alleyne Kingsley, born on November 15, 1892.
In 1907, a year after Louisa's death, Arthur Conan Doyle married Jean Elizabeth Leckie and remained with her until his death in 1930. However, Conan Doyle kept up a steady love relationship for ten years prior to Louisa's death, remaining silent for Louisa's health. At this point Sir Arthur, knighted after his work on the Great Boer War and its justification, sired three children with Jean Elizabeth: Denis Percy Stewart, born March 17, 1909, Adrian Malcolm, born November 19, 1910, and Jean Lena Annette, born December 21, 1912.
22 May 1859: Birth of Arthur Conan Doyle
1885: He completed his doctorate on the subject of tabes dorsalis
1885: Conan Doyle married Louisa (or Louise) Hawkins
1887: A Study is Scarlet is published in Beecham’s Christmas Annual.
1890: Conan Doyle studied ophthalmology in Vienna
1891: Moved to London to set up a practice as an ophthalmologist
1893: A.C. Doyle kills off Holmes to dedicate more time to his historical works.
1901: Due to popular response, Holmes is resurrected
1906, 4 July: Louisa suffered from tuberculosis and dies
1907: marries Jean Elizabeth Leckie
1912: The Lost World is published.
7 July 1930: Death of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Deputy Lieutenant of Surrey
1. What type of character relationship exists between Watson and Holmes?
2. What element makes Sherlock a great detective?
3. Who were Sherlock Holmes’ most nefarious archenemies, and how do they personify certain aspects of society?
4. Can you extrapolate how certain events in Conan Doyle’s life affected his stories of Sherlock Holmes?
5. Did Sherlock Holmes have a love interest? Why or why not, and what conclusion can be drawn from this?
Doyle, Arthur Conan, et al. Arthur Conan Doyle: A Life in Letters. Ed. Daniel Stashower, Jon Lellenberg, and Charles Foley. London: HarperPress, 2007. Print.
Favor, Lesli J. “The Foreign and the Female in Arthur Conan Doyle: Beneath the Candy Coating.” English Literature in Transition, 1880-1920 43.4 (2000): 398-409. MLA International Bibliography. Web. 1 May 2011.
Wynne, Catherine. “Sherlock Holmes and the Problems of War: Traumatic Detections.” English Literature in Transition, 1880-1920 53.1 (2010): 29-53. MLA International Bibliography. Web. 3 May 2011.
Westminster Library, and Rose Roberto. Arthur Conan Doyle: The Prolific Writer, an Online Exhibit from the Westminster Library. City of Westminster, Jan. 2011. Web. 1 May 2011. .
By Phil Bothun
Student of UW-Rock County
The names Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Sherlock Holmes are, for most intents and purposes, synonymous with each other. Much of what Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, writer, physician, and spiritualist, is remembered for is within one of the most recognized and revered characters of the twentieth century. Yet, so much more is contained in the life of such an iconic author, a life wrought with drama, adventure, secrets and death, all the makings of a well-written Sherlock Holmes story.One thing that is common with any biographical work about Conan Doyle is his constant thrill for the dangerous and adventurous. Throughout his life, Conan Doyle has adventured across the globe, spending much of his time on English soil maintaining several homes throughout Scotland and England including Windlesham Manor in Surrey, Groombridge Place and Undershaw, south of London, as well as on African soil. After a period from 1876 to 1881 at the University of Edinburgh, Conan Doyle was employed as a ship’s doctor on the SS Mayumba for a voyage to the West African coast. Thereafter, 1885, he achieved his doctorate on the subject of tabes dorsalis, a degenerative condition pertaining to sensory neurons. His experience as a doctor and his adventurous nature would later resurface as he served as a doctor in South Africa during the Boer War during one of the largest typhoid epidemics.
Throughout all of this, his extensive work as a doctor, abroad and domestic, his brief period of performing ophthalmology in 1891, and political aspirations, Conan Doyle was grappling with one of his most prevalent rivals: Sherlock Holmes. Sherlock was first created in A Study in Scarlet, first appearing in Beeton’s Christmas Annual in 1887. From then on, Holmes would be printed in The Strandmagazine. Based off of Joseph Bell, a university professor, Doyle was said to created Holmes "round the centre of deduction and inference and observation which I have heard [Joseph Bell] inculcate I have tried to build up a man." The semblance was close enough for Robert Louis Stevenson, also a former student of Bell, to recognize the man while he resided in Samoa.
Ironically, Sherlock Holmes was Conan Doyle’s most popular asset, yet several times Conan Doyle juggled the idea of killing off the character, doing so finally at Reichenbach Falls in1893. However, due to immense popular demand, Conan Doyle was forced to resurrect the great detective in The Hound of the Baskervilles in 1901, claiming Sherlock had to remain hidden from even more dangerous foes. Something that runs throughout all of the Holmes stories is this theme of deception and simplification. Conan Doyle uses Sherlock’s amazing skill of observation, logic and criminal understanding to turn something that, to all appearances, was confusing and commonplace into extravagant answers to seemingly impossible cases.
Another major theme throughout these stories is this battle between the supernatural and the natural world. Sherlock Holmes himself doesn’t believe in ghosts or the supernatural, claiming that there is always a plausible physical answer for everything, which he proves in every case. Strangely enough, later on in life Conan Doyle himself would become a staunch spiritualist, conducting seances and speakings.
Another device that sometimes fall under the topic of foreshadowing is a character device known as a ‘red-herring.’ A red herring is a solution or scapegoat that the author throws out in order to distract or throw off the reader. A perfect example of this is the convict character in The Hound of the Baskervilles. The convict is first suspected to be the perpetrator because of his strange doings as well as his history of being a convict. It later turns out that he is innocent and the perpetrator was someone else. However, for a brief time, the reader was distracted, thus making the solution all that more amazing when Holmes reveals it.
All in all, Arthur Conan Doyle is a brilliant author, a man of many faces and talents, yet he is always taken as only the creator of Sherlock Holmes. Below are a few sources to get anyone who wishes for a more in-depth learning of Conan Doyle to begin searching. I hope that these help any prospective reader open their mind to Conan Doyle and learn that he is far more than the creator of one of the most recognized characters world wide. All you must do is click, rather “elementary” as our great caper would say.
This particular monograph supplies events, motivations, and actual emotions directly from the hand of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in correspondence between himself and his family and friends. The compiler explains that they will take much time explaining specific events that Conan Doyle writes of, as well as background information with his family. This book does much to humanize Conan Doyle, outlining his troubles with his medical practice, his poverty stricken beginnings, his constant rejections in literature, as well as the intense struggle fighting for his first spouse's life against tuberculosis, all the while maintaining a hidden ten-year romance with his second wife. These letters are directly penned from Conan Doyle giving very interesting insight into his life, revealing one of the most interesting facts, his own love-hate relationship with his most famous character: Sherlock Holmes.
Arthur Conan Doyle: Beyond Baker Street[2]
The introduction to this work opens with one of my favorite Conan Doyle stories. A reporter doing profiles on prominent Brits during the Boer War asks a solitary doctor busy working during the height of the typhoid epidemic in South Africa what his favorite Sherlock Holmes story was. Agitated, he responds, “Perhaps the one about the serpent, but for the life of me I cannot remember the name of it.” This solitary man is no other than Arthur Conan Doyle, the writer of said story. The author then goes on to explain that this single exchange can be the one moment that describes all of Conan Doyle’s life. This book takes upon the challenge of drawing one’s eyes from Sherlock Holmes, instead focussing on the man and his pleasures, his pursuits to follow danger and excitement, and how he very much was nothing like the character he created. In this book some of the most obscure stories and strange settings of Conan Doyle’s life are explained and explored, including his advances in medical science, his political aspirations and writings, and, towards the end of his life, his aspirations to become a leading member of spiritualism. Arthur Conan Doyle: Beyond Baker Street takes on the challenge of establishing Conan Doyle as a man, not just an author.
"Sherlock Holmes and the Problem of War: Traumatic Detections"[4]
This particular article explores Arthur Conan Doyle’s experience during the Boer War in the early 20th Century. The article focuses on Doyle’s patriotism and how he served to his utmost as a doctor during one of the worst typhoid breakouts of the century. Yet, I believe the key to the article is how all of this experience fundamentally changed Conan Doyle. After exploring his experiences as a doctor, the author uses textual references of many Sherlock Holmes stories to suggest how Conan Doyle used Holmes as an outlet for his feelings about the war. The author also writes of the desensitizing of war, the feelings of English superiority, and the dawn of what is now called Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, and how these are emulated in Sherlock Holmes.
"Mr. Monk and the Pleasing Paradigm"[5]
This scholarly article from the University of Oklahoma explains the timelessness of Conan Doyle’s “Great Detective.” The article primarily revolves around the character Adrian Monk on the show Monk on the USA Network, along with other USA Network characters. The writers for these shows such as, Law and Order: Criminal Intent, House, and Monk, all use the paradigms set up by Conan Doyle, as well as Edgar Allen Poe, to set up detectives of immense genius.
A common thread running throughout are these detectives’ derivations from what most people would call “normal.” Monk is obsessive-compulsive and is relatively unable to operate without his nurse and psychiatrist. However, this disorder is also his greatest strength, allowing him to notice things others would not. Detective Goren, of Law and Order: CI, is a brilliant man who has an ability for reading people, a walking criminal encyclopedia, yet he has problems with coping with his family, as well as keeping up social conventions, usually remaining rather awkward. Finally, House, of the show sharing the same name, is a medical “detective” of sorts, his main job diagnosing medical diseases. Yet, House has a debilitating pain in his hip along with an addiction to Vicodin. These three men all emulate the pattern set up by Conan Doyle and Poe with their visage of the “Great Detective.”
The Arthur Conan Doyle: The Prolific Writer, an Online Exhibit from the Westminster Library[7]
The Captain of the Polestar and Other Tales - 1890
The Sign of Four - 1890
The White Company - 1891
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - 1892
The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes - 1894
Round the Red Lamp - 1894
The Stark Munro Letters - 1895
A Duet: With an Occasional Chorus - 1899 The Great Boer War - 1900 The War in South Africa: Its Cause and Conduct - 1902
The Hounds of the Baskervilles - 1902
The Return of Sherlock Holmes - 1904
Sir Nigel - 1906 Waterloo (With W. Gillette) - 1907
The Crime of the Congo - 1909 The Lost World- 1912
Great Britain and the Next War - 1914
The Valley of Fear - 1915
The Origin and Outbreak of the War - 1916
His Last Bow - 1917
Spiritualism and Rationalism - 1920
The Poems of Arthur Conan Doyle - 1922
The Case for Spirit Photography - 1922
The History of Spiritualism - 1926
The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes - 1927
In 1907, a year after Louisa's death, Arthur Conan Doyle married Jean Elizabeth Leckie and remained with her until his death in 1930. However, Conan Doyle kept up a steady love relationship for ten years prior to Louisa's death, remaining silent for Louisa's health. At this point Sir Arthur, knighted after his work on the Great Boer War and its justification, sired three children with Jean Elizabeth: Denis Percy Stewart, born March 17, 1909, Adrian Malcolm, born November 19, 1910, and Jean Lena Annette, born December 21, 1912.
1885: He completed his doctorate on the subject of tabes dorsalis
1885: Conan Doyle married Louisa (or Louise) Hawkins
1887: A Study is Scarlet is published in Beecham’s Christmas Annual.
1890: Conan Doyle studied ophthalmology in Vienna
1891: Moved to London to set up a practice as an ophthalmologist
1893: A.C. Doyle kills off Holmes to dedicate more time to his historical works.
1901: Due to popular response, Holmes is resurrected
1906, 4 July: Louisa suffered from tuberculosis and dies
1907: marries Jean Elizabeth Leckie
1912: The Lost World is published.
7 July 1930: Death of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Deputy Lieutenant of Surrey
2. What element makes Sherlock a great detective?
3. Who were Sherlock Holmes’ most nefarious archenemies, and how do they personify certain aspects of society?
4. Can you extrapolate how certain events in Conan Doyle’s life affected his stories of Sherlock Holmes?
5. Did Sherlock Holmes have a love interest? Why or why not, and what conclusion can be drawn from this?
Doyle, Arthur Conan, et al. Arthur Conan Doyle: A Life in Letters. Ed. Daniel Stashower, Jon Lellenberg, and Charles Foley. London: HarperPress, 2007. Print.
__
Pascal, Janet B. Arthur Conan Doyle: Beyond Baker Street. New York: Oxford UP, 2000. Print.
Favor, Lesli J. “The Foreign and the Female in Arthur Conan Doyle: Beneath the Candy Coating.” English Literature in Transition, 1880-1920 43.4 (2000): 398-409. MLA International Bibliography. Web. 1 May 2011.
Wynne, Catherine. “Sherlock Holmes and the Problems of War: Traumatic Detections.” English Literature in Transition, 1880-1920 53.1 (2010): 29-53. MLA International Bibliography. Web. 3 May 2011.
Davis, J. Madison. “Mr. Monk & the Pleasing Paradigm.” World Literature Today 83.3 (2009): 11-13. MLA International Bibliography. Web. 3 May 2011.
Museum of Sherlock Holmes. The Sherlock Holmes Museum. N.p., 8 Aug. 2006. Web. 2 May 2011. .
Westminster Library, and Rose Roberto. Arthur Conan Doyle: The Prolific Writer, an Online Exhibit from the Westminster Library. City of Westminster, Jan. 2011. Web. 1 May 2011. .