Happy Birthday, Father of Sherlock Holmes

It is difficult to term any creation as the ‘best’, whether it is a piece of painting, literature or film. Even the greatest of connoisseurs fail to make that choice in almost any genr00e of art. But if someone talks about the detective story or more precisely the most popular detective character in English literature, perhaps the unanimous name would be Sherlock Holmes. The enigmatic character has been a part of almost every Anglophonic reader around the world.  The character is still alive in the public memory and anything, namely literature, film or advertisement that is related with Sherlock tends to become most popular. The creator of this magnificent character, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, himself was a very interesting character. He was born 158 years ago, on 22nd May at Edinburgh.

Let us see some of the interesting facts about Sir Arthur.

Cricketer

Arthur was a cricketer, he was a right handed batsman and slow bowler and he played cricket together with JM Barrie, the author of Peter Pan.

The man who penned Sherlock played 10 first class matches, 8 of them at Lord’s, the Mecca of Cricket.

Footballer

Arthur was also a very good goalkeeper and he played under the pseudonym AC Smith for Portsmouth FC.

Doyle was the first goalkeeper for the team that became Portsmouth Football Club.

Traveller

Arthur was a physician by profession and he sailed to Africa as a ship doctor. However, when he started an ophthalmology practice back in London, not a single patient would come to his doorstep. That allowed him writing to pass his time at the chamber.

Arthur Conan Doyle in Bloemfontein Langham Hospital, South Africa, 1900

Magician

He also had interest on magic and spirituality. Harry Houdini, one of the greatest magicians of all time, was one of his best companions though the duo had some bitter spat on spiritualism that broke their friendship.

Houdini and Doyle

Detective

He used ‘Sherlock deduction methods’ to solve mysteries in real life as well.  He solved murder case of Marion Gilchrist, a wealthy 82-year-old woman from Glasgow.

Marion Gilchrist’s case became infamous in Glasgow

Politician

Arthur ran for parliament (representing the Unionist Party) once in Edinburgh (in 1900) and once in the Border Burghs (in 1906). Although he received a respectable vote both the times, he was not elected.

Election Poster of Doyle

Romance even at the last breath

He died on Monday, July 7, 1930, in his garden, clutching a flower. His last words were addressed to his wife. He whispered, “You are wonderful.”

A portrait of young Jean Leckie Doyle

During and after Sherlock Holmes. He wrote more than 240 fictions of all genres like history, fantasy, adventure, science-fiction, crimes, drama, war… and more than 1200 other works as essays, pamphlets, articles, letters to the press, poems, interviews and plays on politics, spiritualism, war as well as crimes, etc. Here is the full bibliography of his published writings.

Here is a link that shows his full collection of works. https://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com/index.php?title=Sir_Arthur_Conan_Doyle:Complete_Works