Arthur Conan Doyle biography is short. Marriage and literary breakthrough
Sir Arthur Ignaishus (in an obsolete transmission - Ignatius) Conan Doyle (Doyle) was born May 22, 1859 in Edinburgh to an Irish Catholic family known for their achievements in art and literature.
The name Conan was given to him in honor of his mother's uncle, artist and writer Michael Edward Conan (eng. Michael Edward Conan). Father - Charles Oltemont Doyle (1832-1893), architect and artist, on July 31, 1855, at the age of 23, he married 17-year-old Mary Josephine Elizabeth Foley (1837-1920), who passionately loved books and had a great talent for storytelling. From her, Arthur inherited his interest in chivalric traditions, deeds and adventures.
The family of the future writer experienced serious financial difficulties - solely because of the odd behavior of his father, who not only suffered from alcoholism, but also had an extremely unbalanced psyche. Arthur's school life was spent in preparatory school Godder. When the boy was nine years old, rich relatives offered to pay for his education and sent him to the Jesuit closed college Stonyhurst (Lancashire) for the next seven years, from where the future writer took out a hatred of religious and class prejudices, as well as physical punishment. The few happy moments of those years for him were associated with letters to his mother: he retained the habit of describing current events to her in detail for the rest of his life. In addition, at the boarding school, Doyle enjoyed playing sports, mainly cricket, and also discovered his talent for storytelling, gathering around him peers who listened to stories they made up for hours on the go.
It is said that while studying in college, Arthur's least favorite subject was mathematics, and he pretty much got it from fellow students - the Moriarty brothers. Later, Conan Doyle's memories of his school years led to the appearance in the story "The Last Case of Holmes" of the image of the "genius of the underworld" - professor of mathematics Moriarty.
In 1876 Arthur graduated from college and returned home: the first thing he had to do was to rewrite in his name the papers of his father, who by that time had almost completely lost his mind. Doyle chose to pursue a career in medicine rather than art (to which his family tradition predisposed him), largely under the influence of Brian C. Waller, young doctor, to whom his mother rented a room in the house. Dr. Waller was educated at the University of Edinburgh: Arthur Doyle went there for further education. Future writers he met here included James Barry and Robert Louis Stevenson.
As a third-year student, Doyle decided to try his hand at literary field. His first story, The Mystery of Sasassa Valley, influenced by Edgar Allan Poe and Bret Hart (his favorite writers at the time), was published by the university's Chamber's Journal, where Thomas Hardy's first work appeared. In the same year, Doyle's second story " American history(The American Tale) appeared in the London Society magazine.
February to September 1880 Doyle spent seven months as a ship's doctor in Arctic waters aboard the whaling ship Hope (Hope - "Hope"), receiving a total of 50 pounds for his work. The impressions of the Arctic journey formed the basis of the story "Captain of the Pole-Star" (Captain of the Pole-Star). Two years later he made a similar voyage to the West African coast aboard the Mayumba steamer between Liverpool and west coast Africa.
Having received in 1881 a university degree and a Bachelor of Medicine degree, Conan Doyle went into medical practice, first jointly (with an extremely unscrupulous partner - this experience was described in the Stark Munro Notes), then individual, in Portsmouth. Finally, in 1891 Doyle decided to make literature his main profession. In January 1884 Cornhill magazine published the story "Message of Hebekuk Jephson". During those same days, he met his future wife, Louise "Tuya" Hawkins; the wedding took place August 6, 1885.
In 1884 Conan Doyle began work on a social novel with a crime-detective plot " Trading house Girdlestone" about cynical and cruel money-grubbers. A novel clearly influenced by Dickens was published in 1890.
In March 1886 Conan Doyle began - and already in April largely completed - work on "A Study in crimson colors(The title was originally intended to be A Tangled Skein, with the two main characters named Sheridan Hope and Ormond Sacker). Ward, Locke & Co bought the rights to the novel for £25 and printed it in Beeton's Christmas Annual. 1887 , inviting the writer's father, Charles Doyle, to illustrate the novel.
In 1889 Doyle's third (and possibly strangest) novel, The Mystery of Cloomber, was released. Story " posthumous life» three vengeful Buddhist monks - the first literary evidence of the author's interest in paranormal activity- subsequently made him a staunch follower of spiritualism
In February 1888 A. Conan Doyle completed work on the novel "The Adventures of Micah Clark", which told about the Monmouth uprising (1685), the purpose of which was to overthrow King James II. The novel was published in November and was warmly received by critics. From that moment on, a conflict arose in the creative life of Conan Doyle: on the one hand, the public and publishers demanded new works about Sherlock Holmes; on the other hand, the writer himself was increasingly striving to gain recognition as the author of serious novels (primarily historical ones), as well as plays and poems.
The first serious historical work of Conan Doyle is the novel "The White Company". "White Squad" was published in Cornhill magazine, and was published as a separate book. in 1891. Conan Doyle always said he considered him one of his the best works.
With some assumption, the novel "Rodney Stone" can also be classified as historical ( 1896 ).
To the Napoleonic Wars, from Trafalgar to Waterloo, Conan Doyle devoted the Exploits and Adventures of Brigadier Gerard. The birth of this character refers, apparently, by 1892 when George Meredith handed Conan Doyle the three-volume "Memoirs" of Marbo: the latter became the prototype of Gerard. First story new series, "Medal of Brigadier Gerard", the writer read for the first time from the stage in 1894 while traveling in the United States. In December of the same year, the story was published by Strand Magazine, after which the author continued work on the continuation in Davos. April to September 1895"The Exploits of Brigadier Gerard" were published in Strand. Here, for the first time, "Adventures" ( August 1902 - May 1903). While the plots of the stories about Gerard are fantastic, historical era written with great certainty.
In 1892 The "French-Canadian" adventure novel "The Exiles" and the historical play "Waterloo" were completed. In the same year, Conan Doyle published the novel "Doctor Fletcher's Patient", which a number of later researchers consider as one of the author's first experiments with detective genre.
"A Scandal in Bohemia", the first story in the "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" series, was published in Strand magazine in 1891. The prototype of the protagonist, who soon became a legendary consulting detective, was Joseph Bell, a professor at the University of Edinburgh, famous for his ability to guess the character and past of a person from the smallest details. For two years, Doyle created story after story, and, in the end, began to own character. His attempt to "finish" Holmes in a fight with Professor Moriarty ("The Last Case of Holmes", 1893 ) turned out to be unsuccessful: the hero, beloved by the reading public, had to be “resurrected”. Holmes epic culminated in the novel "The Hound of the Baskervilles" ( 1900 ), which belongs to the classics of the detective genre.
Four novels are devoted to the adventures of Sherlock Holmes: A Study in Scarlet ( 1887 ), "The Sign of Four" ( 1890 ), "The Hound of the Baskervilles", "Valley of Terror" - and five collections of short stories, the most famous of which are "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" ( 1892 ), "Notes about Sherlock Holmes" ( 1894 ) and The Return of Sherlock Holmes ( 1905 ).
At the time of writing The Hound of the Baskervilles in 1900 Arthur Conan Doyle was the highest paid author in world literature.
In 1900 Conan Doyle returned to medical practice: as a surgeon in a military field hospital, he went to the Boer War. Released by him in 1902 the book "The Anglo-Boer War" met with the warm approval of conservative circles, brought the writer closer to government spheres, after which the somewhat ironic nickname "Patriot" was established behind him, which he himself, however, was proud of. At the beginning of the century, the writer received a noble and knighthood and twice in Edinburgh took part in local elections (both times he was defeated).
July 4, 1906 Louise Doyle, from whom the writer had two children, died of tuberculosis. In 1907 he married Jean Lecky, whom he had been secretly in love with since the moment they met in 1897.
Early 1890s Conan Doyle developed friendly relations with the leaders and staff of The Idler magazine: Jerome K. Jerome, Robert Barr and James M. Barry. The latter, having awakened in the writer a passion for the theater, attracted him to (not very fruitful in the end) cooperation in the dramatic field.
In 1893 Doyle's sister Constance married Ernst William Hornung. Having become relatives, the writers maintained friendly relations, although they did not always see eye to eye. Main character Hornunga, the "noble burglar" Raffles, was very reminiscent of a parody of the "noble detective" Holmes.
In 1912 Conan Doyle published the science fiction novel " lost World"(subsequently filmed more than once), followed by "The Poison Belt" ( 1913 ). The protagonist of both works was Professor Challenger, a fanatic scientist endowed with grotesque qualities, but at the same time human and charming in his own way. Then the last detective story "The Valley of Terror" appeared. A work that many critics tend to underestimate, Doyle's biographer J.D. Carr considers one of his strongest.
The main themes of Conan Doyle's journalism in 1911-1913 there was the failure of Britain at the 1912 Olympics, Prince Henry's car race in Germany, the construction of sports facilities and preparations for the 1916 Olympics in Berlin (which never took place).
The outbreak of World War I completely turned Conan Doyle's life upside down. First, he volunteered for the front, being sure that his mission was to set a personal example of heroism and service to the motherland. After this offer was rejected, he devoted himself journalistic activity.
Beginning from August 8, 1914 Doyle's letters appear in The Times of London on military theme. In the Daily Chronicle's "German Politics: A Bet on Kill" series, Doyle described with his characteristic passion and force of conviction the atrocities of the German army in the air, at sea, and in the occupied territories of France and Belgium. Doyle becomes even more embittered when he becomes aware of the torture that English prisoners of war were subjected to in Germany.
In 1916 Conan Doyle rode through the battle positions of the British troops and visited the Allied armies. The result of the trip was the book "On Three Fronts" ( 1916 ). Realizing that official reports greatly embellish the real state of affairs, he nevertheless refrained from any criticism, considering it his duty to maintain the morale of the soldiers. In 1916 his work "History of the actions of the English troops in France and Flanders" began to appear. By 1920 All 6 volumes have been published.
Brother, son and two nephews of Doyle went to the front and died there. This was a great shock for the writer and left a heavy seal on all his subsequent literary, journalistic and social activities.
At the end of the war, as is commonly believed, under the influence of upheavals associated with the death of loved ones, Conan Doyle became an active preacher of spiritualism, which he was also interested in since the 1880s. The main works of Conan Doyle on this topic are considered to be "The New Revelation" ( 1918 ) and the novel "The Land of Mist" (The Land of Mist, 1926 ). The result of his many years of research on the "psychic" phenomenon was the fundamental work "The History of Spiritualism" (The History of Spiritualism, 1926 ).
In 1924 Conan Doyle's autobiographical book Memories and Adventures was published. Last major work writer was the science fiction novel "The Maracot Abyss" ( 1929 ).
All the second half of the 1920s years the writer spent traveling, having visited all continents, without stopping his active journalistic activity. Came to England for a short time in 1929 To celebrate his 70th birthday, Doyle traveled to Scandinavia. This last trip undermined his health: he spent the next spring in bed surrounded by loved ones.
At some point, there was an improvement: the writer immediately went to London in order to demand the repeal of the laws that persecuted mediums in a conversation with the Minister of the Interior. This effort proved to be the last: in the early morning July 7, 1930 Conan Doyle died of a heart attack at his home in Crowborough, Sussex. He was buried near his garden house. On the tombstone, at the request of the widow, the knightly motto was engraved: Steel True, Blade Straight (“True as steel, just like a blade”). Later reburied with his wife at Minstead, in national park New Forest.
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His last words before his death were addressed to his wife. He whispered, "You are wonderful."
Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle was born on May 22, 1859 in Picardy Place, the capital of Scotland, Edinburgh, in the family of an artist and architect. His father Charles Altamont Doyle married, at the age of twenty-two, Mary Foley, a young woman of seventeen, in 1855. Mary Doyle had a passion for books and was the main storyteller in the family, and later Arthur very touchingly remembered her. Unfortunately, Arthur's father was a chronic alcoholic and therefore the family was sometimes in poverty, although he was, according to his son, very talented artist. As a child, Arthur read a lot, having completely diverse interests. His favorite author was Mine Reed, and his favorite book was The Scalp Hunters.
After Arthur reached his nine years of age, wealthy members of the Doyle family offered to pay for his education. For seven years he had to attend a Jesuit boarding school in England at Hodder, a preparatory school for Stonyhurst (a large closed Catholic school in Lancashire). Two years later he moved from Arthur Hodder to Stonyhurst. Seven subjects were taught there: alphabet, counting, basic rules, grammar, syntax, poetry, rhetoric. The food there was quite poor and had no great variety, which nevertheless did not affect health. Corporal punishment was severe. Arthur at that time was often exposed to them. The instrument of punishment was a piece of rubber, the size and shape of which resembled a thick overshoe, which was used to beat on the hands.
It was during these difficult years at boarding school that Arthur realized that he had a talent for storytelling, so he was often surrounded by a collection of admiring young students listening to the amazing stories he composed to entertain them. In his senior year, he publishes a college magazine and writes poetry. In addition, he played sports, mainly cricket, in which he achieved good results. He goes to Germany to Feldkirch to teach German, where they will continue to play sports with passion: football, football on stilts, sledding. In the summer of 1876, Doyle goes home, but on the way he stops by Paris, where he lives with his uncle for several weeks. Thus, in 1876, he was educated and ready to meet the world and wished to make up for some of the shortcomings of his father, who had by then gone mad.
The traditions of the Doyle family dictated to follow artistic career, but still Arthur decided to take up medicine. This decision was influenced by Dr. Brian Charles, a wally, young lodger whom Arthur's mother had taken in to make ends meet. Dr. Waller was educated at the University of Edinburgh and so Arthur chose to study there as well. In October 1876, Arthur became a student at the Medical University, before which he faced another problem - not getting the scholarship he deserved, which he and his family needed so much. While studying, Arthur met many future authors, such as James Barry and Robert Louis Stevenson, who attended the university. But greatest influence he was influenced by one of his teachers, Dr. Joseph Bell, who was a master of observation, logic, inference, and error detection. In the future, he served as the prototype for Sherlock Holmes.
While studying, Doyle tried to help his family and earned money in his spare time, which he carved out by more accelerated study of disciplines. He worked both as an apothecary and as an assistant to various doctors...
Doyle reads a lot and two years after the start of education, Arthur decided to try his hand at literature. In 1879 he writes little story The Mystery of Sasassa Valley in Chamber's Journal. In the same year, he publishes his second story, The American Tale, in the London Society magazine and realizes that this is how he can also make money. His father's health is deteriorating and he is placed in psychiatric hospital thus Doyle becomes the sole breadwinner for his family. Twenty years old, in his third year at university, in 1880, Doyle was offered a position as surgeon on the whaler Hope under the command of John Gray in the Arctic Circle. First, "Nadezhda" stopped near the coast of Greenland, where the brigade turned to seal hunting. The young medical student was appalled at the brutality of this. But at the same time, he enjoyed the camaraderie on board the ship and the subsequent whale hunt fascinated him. This adventure found a place in his first story touching the sea, the chilling tale of Captain of the Pole-Star. Without much enthusiasm, Conan Doyle returned to his studies in the autumn of 1880, having sailed for a total of 7 months, earning about 50 pounds.
In 1881, after graduating from the University of Edinburgh, where he received a Bachelor of Medicine and a Master of Surgery, he began to look for a place to work. The result of this was a position as a ship's doctor on the ship Mayuba, which sailed between Liverpool and the west coast of Africa, and on October 22, 1881, another voyage began. While swimming, he found Africa as disgusting as the Arctic seductive. Therefore, he leaves the ship and moves to England in Plymouth, where he works together with a certain Kallingworth, whom he met in the last courses in Edinburgh, namely from the end of spring to the beginning of summer 1882, for 6 weeks. (These early years of practice are well documented in his book The Stark Monroe Letters.) But disagreements arise and after them Doyle leaves for Portsmouth (July 1882), where he opens his first practice, settling in a house for 40 pounds per annum, which began to bring income only by the end of the third year. Initially, there were no clients, and therefore Doyle has the opportunity to devote his free time to literature. He writes stories: "Bones", "Bloomensdyke Ravine", "My friend is a murderer", which he publishes in the London Society magazine in the same 1882. In order to somehow help his mother, Arthur invites his brother Innes to live with him, who brightens up the gray everyday life of a novice doctor from August 1882 to 1885 (Innes leaves to study in closed school in Yorkshire). During these years, the young man is torn between literature and medicine. During his medical practice, there were also deaths of patients. One of them is the death of the son of a widow from Gloucestershire. But this case allows him to get acquainted with her daughter Louise Hawkins (Hawkins), whom he marries in August 1885.
After his marriage, Doyle is actively involved in literature and wants to make it his profession. It is published in Cornhill magazine. One after another, his stories are published: "The Message of Hebekuk Jephson", "The Long Non-existence of John Huxford", "The Ring of Thoth". But stories are stories, and Doyle wants more, he wants to be noticed, and for this it is necessary to write something more serious. And in 1884 he wrote the book "Gerdlestones Trading House". But to his great regret, the book was never published. In March 1886, Conan Doyle began writing a novel that brought him popularity. At first it was called A Tangled Skein. Two years later, this novel was published in Beeton's Christmas Annual (Beaton's Christmas Weekly) for 1887 under the title A Study in Scarlet (A Study in Scarlet), which introduced readers to Sherlock Holmes (prototypes: Professor Joseph Bell, writer Oliver Holmes ) and Dr. Watson (the prototype of Major Wood), who soon became famous.As soon as Doyle sends this book, he starts a new one, and in early 1888 he finishes Mickey Clark, which comes out in February 1889 by Longman. meets Oscar Wilde and on the wave positive feedback about "Mickey Clark" writes in 1889 "White Squad".
Despite his literary success and a flourishing medical practice, the harmonious life of the Conan Doyle family, enhanced by the birth of his daughter Mary, was restless. At the end of 1890, under the influence of the German microbiologist Robert Koch and even more Malcolm Robert, he decides to leave the practice in Portsmouth, and travels with his wife to Vienna, leaving his daughter Mary with her grandmother, where she wants to specialize in ophthalmology in order to find work in London in the future, but when faced with a specialized German language and after studying for 4 months in Vienna, he realizes that time is wasted. During his studies, he wrote the book "The Acts of Raffles Howe", according to Doyle "... not a very significant thing ..." In the spring of the same year, Doyle visits Paris and hastily returns to London, where he opens a practice on Upper Wimpole Street. The practice was not successful (there were no patients), but at that time they write short stories, in particular, for the Strand magazine, he writes stories about Sherlock Holmes. "With the help of Sidney Paget, the image of Holmes is created and the stories are published in The Strand magazine. In May 1891, Doyle falls ill with the flu and is dying for several days. When he recovered, he decided to leave the practice of medicine and devote himself to literature.This happens in August 1891.
In 1892, while living in Norwood, Louise gave birth to a son, they named him Kingsley (Kingsley), Doyle writes the story "Surviving from the 15th year", which is successfully staged in many theaters. Sherlock Holmes continues to weigh on Doyle and a year later, in 1993, after his trip with his wife to Switzerland and a visit to the Reichenbach Falls, despite everyone's requests, the surprisingly prolific, but very impulsive author decided to get rid of Sherlock Holmes. As a result, twenty thousand subscribers unsubscribed from The Strand magazine, and Doyle writes the best novels, in his opinion: "Exiles", "The Great Shadow". Now exempt from medical career and from fictional character, which oppressed him and obscured what he considered more important. Conan Doyle absorbs himself into more intense activity. This hectic life may explain why the former doctor did not pay attention to the serious deterioration in his wife's health.
Over time, he finally learned that Louise had been diagnosed with tuberculosis (consumption) and suggests that this was their joint trip to Switzerland. Although she was given only a few months, Doyle began a belated departure and he managed to delay her death by 10 years, from 1893 to 1906. Together with his wife, they move to Davos, located in the Alps. In Davos, Doyle was actively involved in sports, starting to write stories about Brigadier Gerard, based mainly on the book "Reminiscences of General Marbo". He had long been drawn to Spiritualism, joining the Society for Psychical Research was considered public statement his interest in and belief in the occult. Doyle is invited to give a series of lectures to the United States. In the late autumn of 1894, together with his brother Innes, who by that time was finishing a boarding school in Richmond, the Royal military school in Woolwich, becomes an officer, goes to lecture in more than 30 cities in the United States. These lectures were a success, but Doyle himself was very tired of them. At the beginning of 1895, he returned to Davos to his wife, who by that time was feeling well. At the same time, The Strand magazine began publishing the first stories from Brigadier Gerard and immediately the number of subscribers increased.
In May 1914, Sir Arthur goes to inspect with Lady Conan Doyle and the children. National Reserve in Jessier Park in the northern part of the Rocky Mountains (Canada). On the way, he calls in New York, where he visits two prisons: Toombs and Sing Sing, in which he examines the cells, the electric chair, and talks with prisoners. The city is found by the author to be unfavorably altered in comparison with his first visit twenty years earlier. Canada, where they spent some time, was found charming and Doyle lamented that her original grandeur would soon be gone. While in Canada, Doyle gives a number of lectures. They arrived home a month later, probably because for a long time, Conan Doyle had been convinced of the coming war with Germany. Doyle reads Bernardi's book "Germany and the Next War" and understands the gravity of the situation and writes a response article "England and the Next War", which appeared in the Fortnightly Review in the summer of 1913. He sends numerous articles to the newspapers about the upcoming war and military readiness for it. But his warnings were judged as fantasies. Realizing that England provides only 1/6 of itself, Doyle proposes to build a tunnel under the English Channel in order to provide himself with food in case of blockade of England by German submarines. In addition, he proposes to supply all sailors in the fleet with rubber circles (to keep their heads above the water), rubber vests. Little was heeded to his proposal, but after another tragedy at sea, the mass implementation of this idea began. Before the start of the war (August 4, 1914), Doyle joins a detachment of volunteers, which is completely civilian and was created in case the enemy invades England. During the war, Doyle also makes suggestions for the protection of soldiers and, as such, offers something similar to armor, that is, shoulder pads, as well as plates that protect the most important organs. During the war, Doyle lost many people close to him, including his brother Innes, who by his death had risen to the rank of adjutant general of the corps and Kingsley's son from his first marriage, and two cousins and two nephews.
On September 26, 1918, Doyle travels to the mainland to witness the battle that took place on September 28 on the French front. After such an amazingly full and constructive life, it's hard to understand why such a person would retreat into the imaginary world of science fiction and spiritualism. The difference was that Conan Doyle was not a man who was satisfied with dreams and wishes; he needed to make them come true. He was manic and did it with the same stubborn energy that he showed in everything he did when he was younger. As a result, the press laughed at him, the clergy did not approve of him. But nothing could stop him. His wife does it with him.
After 1918, due to his deepening involvement in the occult, Conan Doyle wrote little fiction. Their subsequent trips to America (April 1, 1922, March 1923), Australia (August 1920) and Africa, accompanied by their three daughters, were also like psychic crusades. As the years passed, spending up to a quarter of a million pounds in pursuit of his secret dreams, Conan Doyle was in need of money. In 1926 he wrote The Land of Mist, The Disintegration Machine, When The World Screamed. In the autumn of 1929 he goes on his last tour of Holland, Denmark, Sweden and Norway. He was already ill with Angina pectoris.
In 1930, already bedridden, he made his last journey. He got up from his bed and went into the garden. When he was found, he was on the ground, one of his hands was squeezing it, the other was holding a white snowdrop. Arthur Conan Doyle died on Monday, July 7, 1930, surrounded by his family. His last words before his death were addressed to his wife. He whispered, "You are wonderful." He is buried in Minstead Hampshire Cemetery.
On the grave of the writer are carved the words bequeathed by him personally:
"Do not remember me with reproach,
If carried away by the story at least a little
In the capital of Scotland, Edinburgh, on Picardy Place.
As a child, Arthur read a lot, having completely diverse interests. His favorite author was Mine Reid and his favorite book was The Scalp Hunters.
After Arthur was nine years old, wealthy members of the Doyle family offered to pay for his education. Two years later he went to boarding school in Stonyhurst. Seven subjects were taught there: alphabet, counting, basic rules, grammar, syntax, poetry, rhetoric.
In his senior year, Arthur published a college magazine and wrote poetry. In addition, he played sports, mainly cricket, in which he achieved good results. Then he went to Germany in Feldkirch to learn German, where he continued to play sports with enthusiasm: football, football on stilts, sledding. In the summer of 1876 Doyle returned home.
In October 1876 he became a medical student. While studying, Arthur met many future famous authors such as James Barry and Robert Louis Stevenson, who also attended the university. But he was most influenced by one of his teachers, Dr. Joseph Bell, who was a master of observation, logic, inference, and error detection. In the future, he served as the prototype for Sherlock Holmes.
While studying, Doyle tried to help his family by earning money in his spare time. He worked both as an apothecary and as an assistant to various doctors.
Two years after the start of education, Doyle decided to try his hand at literature. In the spring of 1879 he wrote a short story, The Mystery of Sasassa Valley, which was published in Chamber's Journal in September 1879.
During this time, his father's health deteriorated and he was placed in a psychiatric hospital. Doyle thus became the sole breadwinner for his family.
In 1880, Arthur received a position as a surgeon on the whaler "Hope" under the command of John Gray, which went to the Arctic Circle. This adventure found a place in his story "Captain of the North Star".
In the autumn of 1880, Conan Doyle returned to university studies.
In 1881 he graduated from the University of Edinburgh, where he received a Bachelor of Medicine and a Master of Surgery, and began looking for a job. The result of these searches was the position of a ship's doctor on the Mayuba ship, which sailed between Liverpool and the west coast of Africa, and on October 22, 1881, its next voyage began.
In July 1882 Doyle left for Portsmouth where he set up his first practice. Initially, there were no clients, and Doyle had the opportunity to devote his free time to literature. He wrote the stories "Bones", "Bloomensdyke Ravine", "My Friend is a Murderer", which he published in the London Society magazine in the same 1882.
On August 6, 1885, Doyle married twenty-seven-year-old Louise Hawkins. After his marriage, Doyle decided to take up literature professionally.
In 1884 he wrote the book Girdlestones Trading House. But the book did not interest publishers. In March 1886, Conan Doyle began writing a novel that brought him popularity. At first it was called A Tangled Skein. Two years later this novel was published in Beaton's 1887 Christmas Weekly under the title A Study in Scarlet, which introduced readers to Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. separate edition the novel was published in early 1888 and was supplied with drawings by Doyle's father, Charles Doyle.
In February 1888, Doyle wrote The Adventures of Micah Clark, which was published in February 1889 by Longman.
In January 1889, the Doyles had a daughter, Mary. Doyle left his practice in Portsmouth and moved with his wife to Vienna, where he wanted to specialize in ophthalmology. Four months later, the Doyles returned to London, where Arthur opened his practice. During this time, he began writing short stories about Sherlock Holmes.
In May 1891, Doyle decided to leave the practice of medicine for good. At the end of that year, his sixth Sherlock Holmes story came out of print. At the same time, the editors of the magazine "Strand" ordered Doyle six more stories.
In 1892, Doyle wrote the novel The Exiles. In November of the same year, his son was born, who was named Alleyn Kingeli.
At this time, the Strand magazine again offered to write a series of stories about Sherlock Holmes. Doyle set a condition - 1000 pounds for the stories, and the magazine agreed to this amount.
From 1892 to 1896, Arthur traveled the world extensively with his family, while not forgetting to work: during this time he lectured at various universities and began work on the novel Uncle Barnack. In May 1896 he returned to England. At the end of 1897 he wrote his first theatrical play"Sherlock Holmes".
In December 1899, the Boer War began, and Doyle volunteered there as a military doctor. Then, in 1902, he wrote the book The Great Boer War.
In 1902, Conan Doyle was knighted by King Edward VII for his services to the crown during the Boer War.
Then Doyle decided to enter politics, took part in local elections in Edinburgh, but was defeated. At the same time, he completed work on another major work about the adventures of Sherlock Holmes - The Hound of the Baskervilles.
On July 4, 1906, his wife Louise died, and on September 18, 1907, Doyle married again - to Jean Lecky. The Doyle family had a daughter, Jean, and sons, Denis and Adrian.
A few years after his marriage, Doyle staged The Ribbon of Colors, Rodney Stone (under the name The House of Terperley), Points of Destiny, Brigadier Gerard.
On August 4, 1914, Doyle joined the volunteer detachment, which was completely civilian and was created in case the enemy invaded England. During the First World War, Doyle lost many people close to him, including his brother Innes, who by his death had risen to Adjutant General of the Corps and Kingsley's son from his first marriage, as well as two cousins and two nephews.
IN last years In his lifetime, Doyle became interested in the teachings of spiritualism and in the spring of 1922, together with his family, went on a trip to America to promote this teaching. During the trip, he gave four lectures at New York's Carnegie Hall. In the spring of 1923, Doyle recovered on his second tour of America, where he visited Chicago and Salt Lake City. In the autumn of 1929 he went on his last tour of Holland, Denmark, Sweden and Norway. In the same 1929, his last book The Maracot Deep and Other Stories.
On July 7, 1930, Arthur Conan Doyle died.
The material was prepared on the basis of information from open sources
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Biography
Childhood and youth
Arthur Conan Doyle was born into an Irish Catholic family, noted for their accomplishments in the arts and literature. The name Conan was given to him in honor of his mother's uncle, artist and writer Michael Edward Conan (eng. Michael edward conan). Father - Charles Oltemont Doyle (1832-1893), architect and artist, on July 31, 1855, at the age of 23, he married 17-year-old Mary Josephine Elizabeth Foley (1837-1920), who passionately loved books and had a great talent for storytelling. From her, Arthur inherited his interest in chivalric traditions, deeds and adventures. " Real love to literature, I have a penchant for writing, I believe, from my mother, ”wrote Conan Doyle in his autobiography. - " Vivid images the stories she told me in early childhood completely replaced in my memory memories of specific events in my life of those years.
The family of the future writer experienced serious financial difficulties - solely because of the odd behavior of his father, who not only suffered from alcoholism, but also had an extremely unbalanced psyche. Arthur's school life was spent at Godder Preparatory School. When the boy was nine years old, rich relatives offered to pay for his education and sent him to the Jesuit closed college Stonyhurst (Lancashire) for the next seven years, from where the future writer took out a hatred of religious and class prejudices, as well as physical punishment. The few happy moments of those years for him were associated with letters to his mother: he retained the habit of describing current events to her in detail for the rest of his life. In addition, at the boarding school, Doyle enjoyed playing sports, mainly cricket, and also discovered his talent for storytelling, gathering around him peers who listened to stories they made up on the go for hours.
They say that during his college years, Arthur's most unloved subject was mathematics, and he pretty much got it from fellow students - the Moriarty brothers. Later, Conan Doyle's memories of his school years led to the appearance in the story "The Last Case" of Holmes, the image of the "genius of the underworld" - professor of mathematics Moriarty.
In 1876, Arthur graduated from college and returned home: the first thing he had to do was to rewrite the papers of his father, who by that time had almost completely lost his mind, in his name. The writer subsequently told about the dramatic circumstances of the conclusion of Doyle Sr. in a psychiatric hospital in the story The Surgeon of Gaster Fell, 1880). Doyle chose to pursue a medical career rather than art (to which his family tradition predisposed him), largely under the influence of Brian C. Waller, a young doctor to whom his mother rented a room in the house. Dr. Waller was educated at the University of Edinburgh: Arthur Doyle went there for further education. Among the future writers he met here were James Barry and Robert Lewis Stevenson.
The beginning of a literary career
As a third-year student, Doyle decided to try his hand at the literary field. His first story, The Mystery of Sasassa Valley, influenced by Edgar Allan Poe and Bret Garth (his favorite authors at the time), was published by the university Chamber's Journal where the first works of Thomas Hardy appeared. In the same year, Doyle's second story "American History" (Eng. The American Tale) appeared in the magazine London Society .
From February to September 1880, Doyle spent seven months as a ship's doctor in Arctic waters aboard the whaling ship Hope (Eng. Hope - “Hope”), receiving a total of 50 pounds for his work. "I boarded this ship as a big, clumsy youth, and walked down the gangplank as a strong adult," he later wrote in his autobiography. Impressions from the Arctic journey formed the basis of the story "The Captain of the Pole Star" (Eng. Captain of the Pole-Star). Two years later, he made a similar voyage to the West Coast of Africa aboard the steamer Mayumba (eng. Mayumba), plying between Liverpool and the West Coast of Africa.
Having received a university diploma and a bachelor's degree in medicine in 1881, Conan Doyle took up medical practice, first jointly (with an extremely unscrupulous partner - this experience was described in Stark Munro's Notes), then individual, in Portsmouth. Finally, in 1891, Doyle decided to make literature his main profession. In January 1884 the magazine Cornhill published the story "Hebekuk Jephson's Message". During those same days, he met his future wife, Louise "Tuya" Hawkins; the wedding took place on August 6, 1885.
In 1884, Conan Doyle began work on a social-everyday novel with a crime-detective plot "Trading House Girdlestone" about cynical and cruel money-grubbers. The novel, obviously influenced by Dickens, was published in 1890.
In March 1886, Conan Doyle began - and already in April basically completed - work on A Study in Crimson A Tangled Skein, and the two main characters were named Sheridan Hope and Ormond Sacker). Ward, Locke & Co bought the rights to the novel for £25 and printed it in a Christmas edition. Beeton's Christmas Annual 1887, inviting the writer's father, Charles Doyle, to illustrate the novel.
In 1889, Doyle's third (and perhaps most bizarre) novel, The Mystery of Cloomber, was released. The story of the "afterlife" of three vengeful Buddhist monks - the first literary evidence of the author's interest in the paranormal - subsequently made him a staunch follower of spiritualism.
Historical cycle
In February 1888, A. Conan Doyle completed work on the novel The Adventures of Micah Clark, which told of the uprising of Monmouth (1685), the purpose of which was to overthrow King James II. The novel was published in November and was warmly received by critics. From that moment on, a conflict arose in the creative life of Conan Doyle: on the one hand, the public and publishers demanded new works about Sherlock Holmes; on the other hand, the writer himself was increasingly striving to gain recognition as the author of serious novels (primarily historical ones), as well as plays and poems.
The first serious historical work of Conan Doyle is considered to be the novel The White Squad. In it, the author turned to a critical stage in the history of feudal England, taking as a basis the real historical episode of 1366, when a lull came in the Hundred Years' War and "white detachments" of volunteers and mercenaries began to appear. Continuing the war in France, they played a decisive role in the struggle of pretenders for the Spanish throne. Conan Doyle used this episode for his artistic purpose: he resurrected the life and customs of that time, and most importantly, presented chivalry in a heroic halo, which by that time was already in decline. "White Squad" was published in the magazine Cornhill(whose publisher James Penn declared it "the best historical novel after Ivanhoe"), and was published as a separate book in 1891. Conan Doyle has always said that he considers it one of his finest works.
With some assumption, the novel Rodney Stone (1896) can also be classified as historical: the action here takes place in early XIX century, Napoleon and Nelson, playwright Sheridan are mentioned. Initially, this work was conceived as a play with the working title "The House of Temperley" and was written under the then famous British actor Henry Irving. In the course of working on the novel, the writer studied a lot of scientific and historical literature (“History of the Navy”, “History of Boxing”, etc.).
In 1892, the "French-Canadian" adventure novel "The Exiles" and the historical play "Waterloo" were completed, leading role in which the famous actor Henry Irving played in those years (who acquired all rights from the author). In the same year, Conan Doyle published the novel "Doctor Fletcher's Patient", which a number of later researchers consider as one of the author's first experiments with the detective genre. This story can be considered historical only conditionally - among the minor characters in it are Benjamin Disraeli and his wife.
Sherlock Holmes
At the time of writing The Hound of the Baskervilles in 1900, Arthur Conan Doyle was the highest paid author in world literature.
1900-1910
In 1900, Conan Doyle returned to medical practice: as a surgeon in a military field hospital, he went to the Boer War. The book The Anglo-Boer War, published by him in 1902, met with warm approval from conservative circles, brought the writer closer to government spheres, after which the somewhat ironic nickname “Patriot” was established behind him, which he himself, however, was proud of. At the beginning of the century, the writer received a noble and knighthood and twice in Edinburgh took part in local elections (both times he was defeated).
On July 4, 1906, Louise Doyle died of tuberculosis, from whom the writer had two children. In 1907 he married Jean Lecky, with whom he had been secretly in love since they met in 1897.
At the end of the post-war debate, Conan Doyle launched a broad journalistic and (as they would now say) human rights activities. His attention was drawn to the so-called "Edalji case", in the center of which was a young Parsi who was convicted on a trumped-up charge (injuring horses). Conan Doyle, taking on the “role” of a consulting detective, thoroughly understood the intricacies of the case and - with just a long series of publications in the London Daily Telegraph newspaper (but with the involvement of forensic experts) proved the innocence of his ward. Beginning in June 1907, hearings on the Edalji case began to take place in the House of Commons, during which the imperfection of the legal system, devoid of such an important tool as the court of appeal, was exposed. The latter was created in Britain - largely due to the activity of Conan Doyle.
In 1909, events in Africa again fell into the sphere of public and political interests of Conan Doyle. This time he exposed the cruel colonial policy of Belgium in the Congo and criticized the British position on this issue. Conan Doyle's letters The Times on this topic produced the effect of an exploding bomb. The book Crimes in the Congo (1909) had an equally powerful resonance: it was thanks to her that many politicians were forced to become interested in the problem. Conan Doyle was supported by Joseph Conrad and Mark Twain. But a recent like-minded Rudyard Kipling met the book with restraint, noting that, by criticizing Belgium, it indirectly undermines the British position in the colonies. In 1909, Conan Doyle also took up the defense of the Jew Oscar Slater, who was unjustly convicted of murder, and secured his release, albeit after 18 years.
Relationships with fellow writers
There were several undoubted authorities in literature for Conan Doyle: first of all, Walter Scott, on whose books he grew up, as well as George Meredith, Mine Reed, R. M. Ballantyne and R. L. Stevenson. The meeting with the already aged Meredith in Box Hill made a depressing impression on the novice writer: he noted for himself that the master spoke disparagingly of his contemporaries and was delighted with himself. Conan Doyle only corresponded with Stevenson, but he took his death hard, as a personal loss.
In the early 1890s, Conan Doyle developed friendly relations with the leaders and staff of the magazine. The Idler Story by: Jerome K. Jerome , Robert Barr and James M. Barry . The latter, having awakened in the writer a passion for the theater, attracted him to (not very fruitful in the end) cooperation in the dramatic field.
In 1893, Doyle's sister Constance married Ernst William Hornung. Having become relatives, the writers maintained friendly relations, although they did not always see eye to eye. Hornung's protagonist, the "noble burglar" Raffles, was very reminiscent of a parody of the "noble detective" Holmes.
A. Conan Doyle also highly appreciated the works of Kipling, in which, moreover, he saw a political ally (both were fierce patriots). In 1895, he supported Kipling in disputes with American opponents and was invited to Vermont, where he lived with his American wife. Later, after Doyle's critical publications on England's African policy, relations between the two writers became cooler.
Doyle's relationship with Bernard Shaw was strained, who once referred to Sherlock Holmes as "a drug addict who has not a single pleasant quality." There is reason to believe that the attacks of the first against the now little-known author Hall Kane, who abused self-promotion, Irish playwright accepted at your own expense. In 1912, Conan Doyle and Shaw entered into a public altercation in the newspapers: the first defended the crew of the Titanic, the second condemned the behavior of the officers of the sunken liner.
1910-1913
In 1912, Conan Doyle published The Lost World, a science fiction story (subsequently filmed many times), followed by The Poisoned Belt (1913). The main character of both works was Professor Challenger, a fanatic scientist endowed with grotesque qualities, but at the same time human and charming in his own way. Then the last detective story "The Valley of Terror" appeared. This work, which many critics tend to underestimate, is considered by Doyle's biographer J. D. Carr to be one of his strongest.
1914-1918
Doyle becomes even more embittered when he becomes aware of the torture that English prisoners of war were subjected to in Germany.
... It is difficult to work out a line of conduct in relation to the red-skinned Indians of European origin who torture prisoners of war. It is clear that we ourselves cannot similarly torture the Germans at our disposal. On the other hand, appeals to good-heartedness are also meaningless, because the average German has the same concept of nobility that a cow has of mathematics ... He is sincerely incapable of understanding, for example, what makes us speak warmly of von Müller of Weddingen and our other enemies who are trying to at least to some extent retain a human face ...
Soon Doyle calls for the organization of "retribution raids" from the territory of eastern France and enters into a discussion with the Bishop of Winchester (the essence of whose position is that "it is not the sinner who is condemned, but his sin"): "Let the sin fall on those who force sin us. If we wage this war, guided by Christ's commandments, there will be no sense. Were we, following the well-known recommendation taken out of context, to turn the “second cheek”, the Hohenzollern empire would have already spread across Europe, and instead of the teachings of Christ, Nietzscheanism would be preached here, ”he wrote in The Times December 31, 1917.
In 1916, Conan Doyle traveled through British battlefield positions and visited the Allied armies. The trip resulted in the book On Three Fronts (1916). Realizing that official reports greatly embellish the real state of affairs, he nevertheless refrained from any criticism, considering it his duty to maintain the morale of the soldiers. In 1916, his work "History of the actions of the British troops in France and Flanders" began to appear. By 1920, all 6 of its volumes were published.
Brother, son and two nephews of Doyle went to the front and died there. This was a great shock for the writer and left a heavy seal on all his subsequent literary, journalistic and social activities.
1918-1930
At the end of the war, as is commonly believed, under the influence of upheavals associated with the death of loved ones, Conan Doyle became an active preacher of spiritualism, which he had been interested in since the 1880s. Among the books that shaped his new worldview was The Human Personality and Its Later Life After Bodily Death by F. W. G. Myers. The main works of Conan Doyle on this topic are considered "New Revelation" (1918), where he told about the history of the evolution of his views on the question of the posthumous existence of the individual, and the novel "The Land of Mists" (eng. The Land of Mist, 1926). The result of his many years of research on the "mental" phenomenon was the fundamental work "History of Spiritualism" (Eng. The History of Spiritualism, 1926).
Conan Doyle refuted claims that his interest in spiritualism arose only at the end of the war:
Many people did not encounter or even hear about Spiritualism until 1914, when the angel of death knocked on many houses. Opponents of Spiritualism believe that it was the social cataclysms that shook our world that caused such an increased interest in psychic research. These unprincipled opponents claimed that the author's defense of Spiritualism and his friend Sir Oliver Lodge's defense of the Teaching were explained by the fact that both of them lost sons who died in the war of 1914. From this followed the conclusion: grief clouded their minds, and they believed in what they would never have believed in. Peaceful time. The author refuted this shameless lie many times and emphasized the fact that his research began in 1886, long before the start of the war.
Arthur Conan Doyle. History of spiritualism. Chapter 23
Among the most controversial works Conan Doyle of the early 1920s includes the book The Coming of the Fairies, 1921, in which he tried to prove the authenticity of photographs of " fairies from Cottingley" and put forward his own theories regarding the nature of this phenomenon. In addition, in 1923 the writer spoke in favor of the existence of the "curse" of the pharaohs.
In 1924, Conan Doyle's autobiographical book Memoirs and Adventures was published. The last major work of the writer was the science fiction novel The Maracot's Abyss (1929).
Last years
The writer spent the entire second half of the 1920s traveling, having visited all continents, without stopping his active journalistic activity. Arriving in England only briefly in 1929 to celebrate his 70th birthday, Doyle went to Scandinavia with the same goal - to preach "... the revival of religion and that direct, practical spiritualism, which is the only antidote to scientific materialism" . This last trip undermined his health: he spent the next spring in bed surrounded by loved ones.
At some point, there was an improvement: the writer immediately went to London in order to demand the repeal of the laws that persecuted New Forest mediums in a conversation with the Minister of the Interior.
Family
In 1885, Conan Doyle married Louise "Tue" Hawkins; she suffered from tuberculosis for many years and died in 1906.
In 1907, Doyle married Jean Lecky, with whom he had been secretly in love since they met in 1897. His wife shared his passion for spiritualism and was even considered a fairly strong medium.
Doyle had five children: two by his first wife, Mary and Kingsley, and three by his second, Jean Lena Anette, Denis Percy Stuart (March 17, 1909 - March 9, 1955; in 1936 he became the husband of the Georgian princess Nina Mdivani) and Adrian ( later also a writer, author of a biography of his father and a number of works that supplement the canonical cycle of stories and novels about Sherlock Holmes).
) Doyle helps to a mysterious stranger Jack Sparks in the fight against the forces of evil, trying to seize power over the world.
Arthur Conan Doyle was born on May 22, 1859, in Edinburgh, into an intelligent family. Love for art and literature, in particular, was instilled in young Arthur by his parents. The whole family of the future writer was related to literature. Mother, moreover, was a great storyteller.
At the age of nine, Arthur went to study at the Jesuit closed college Stonyhurst. The teaching methods there corresponded to the name of the institution. Coming out of there, the future classic of English literature forever retained an aversion to religious fanaticism and physical punishment. The talent of the storyteller was awakened precisely during the training. Young Doyle often entertained his classmates on gloomy evenings with his stories, which he often made up on the go.
In 1876 he graduated from college. Contrary to family tradition, he preferred the career of a doctor to art. Doyle received further education at the University of Edinburgh. There he studied with D. Barry and R. L. Stevenson.
The beginning of the creative path
Doyle searched for himself in literature for a long time. While still a student, he became interested in E. Poe, and he wrote several mystical stories. But they did not have much success, due to their secondary nature.
In 1881, Doyle received a medical degree and a bachelor's degree. For some time he was engaged in medical activities, but he did not feel much love for his chosen profession.
In 1886, the writer created his first story about Sherlock Holmes. A Study in Scarlet was published in 1887.
Doyle often fell under the influence of his venerable colleagues in the pen. A few of it early stories and stories were written under the influence of the work of C. Dickens.
creative flourishing
Detective stories about Sherlock Holmes made Conan Doyle not only famous outside of England, but also one of the highest paid writers.
Despite this, Doyle always got angry when he was introduced as "Sherlock Holmes' dad." The writer himself did not give of great importance stories about a detective. He devoted more time and effort to writing such historical works like "Micah Clark", "Exiles", "White Company" and "Sir Nigel".
Of the entire historical cycle, readers and critics liked the novel The White Squad the most. According to the publisher, D. Penn, he is the best historical canvas after "Ivanhoe" by W. Scott.
In 1912, the first novel about Professor Challenger, The Lost World, was published. A total of five novels were created in this series.
studying short biography Arthur Conan Doyle, you should know that he was not only a novelist, but also a publicist. From his pen came a cycle of works dedicated to the Anglo-Boer War.
last years of life
throughout the second half of the 1920s. The writer spent the 20th century on a journey. Without stopping his journalistic activities, Doyle traveled to all continents.
Arthur Conan Doyle died on July 7, 1930, in Sussex. The cause of death was heart attack. The writer was buried in Minstead, in the New Forest National Park.
Other biography options
- There were many interesting facts in the life of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. By profession, the writer was an ophthalmologist. In 1902, for his service as a military doctor during the Boer War, he was knighted.
- Conan Doyle was fond of spiritualism. This, rather specific interest, he retained until the end of his life.
- The writer highly appreciated creativity
