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Short biography of Arthur Conan Doyle

Arthur Conan Doyle- outstanding English writer(doctor by training), author of many works of detective, adventure and scientific genre. He is best known for his series of short stories and novellas about Sherlock Holmes, a fictional private detective from London. The writer was born on May 22, 1859 in Edinburgh in a family of Irish Catholics who had achievements in art and literature. His mother, Mary Foley, had a passion for books and had a talent for writing. From her he inherited a love of adventure and a gift for storytelling. The writer's father, Charles Oltemont Doyle, had a weakness for alcohol and was characterized by unbalanced behavior, which caused the family to experience serious financial difficulties. The boy's education was paid for by wealthy relatives. Upon reaching the age of 9, he was sent to a Jesuit closed college, where he hated any religious and class prejudice.

Returning home, he copied in his name all the papers of his father, who by that time had completely lost his mind. Later, Arthur wrote about the dramatic events associated with his father in the story "The Surgeon from the Gaster Marshes". Soon, he entered the University of Edinburgh in the medical department. His choice was influenced by a young doctor, B. C. Waller, who was a guest in their home. In the University future writer met R. L. Stevenson and J. Barry. Doyle's first story was called "The Secret of the Sassa Valley" and was written under the influence of the works of E. A. Poe and B. Hart. Soon his second story was published - " American history". In 1880, for some time he served as a ship's doctor on a whaling ship. He later described the impressions of this trip in "Captain of the North Star". A year later, he received a bachelor's degree in medicine and seriously engaged in medical practice. In 1885 Doyle married Louise Hawkins.

Beginning in 1890, he devoted himself entirely to literature. During this period, works appeared: “The Sign of the Four”, “ Trading house Girdlestone", "Study in crimson colors”, “White Squad”, “The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes”, etc. It was the stories about the observant London detective Sherlock Holmes and his friend Watson that brought the greatest popularity to the writer. Readers were attracted by the irony of the detective and his spiritual aristocracy. They demanded from the author more and more adventures of the beloved character. Doyle's medical knowledge came in handy again in 1900 when he fought in the Boer War. In 1906, his wife died of tuberculosis, and a year later he married Jean Lecky. With the outbreak of the First World War, Doyle wrote many articles on military topics. The writer died on July 7, 1930 as a result of a heart attack. A few years before that, he managed to publish an autobiographical book, Memories and Adventures.

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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. School life Arthur passed into 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. later 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. Conan Doyle's later memoirs of 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. On the dramatic circumstances of Doyle Sr.'s imprisonment in psychiatric hospital the writer subsequently told in the story "The surgeon from the Gaster swamps" (Eng. The Surgeon of Gaster Fell, 1880). 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. 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 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 west coast 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 days, he met future wife Louise "Tuey" 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. 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.

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. Starting from this moment in creative life Conan Doyle had a conflict: 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 always said he considered him one of his the best 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 detective genre. This story can be considered historical only conditionally - among secondary characters it contains 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. Starting 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 Court of Appeal. 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. Main character Hornunga, 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 on the now little-known author Hall Kane, who abused self-promotion, were taken personally by the Irish playwright. 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. If we, following the well-known recommendation taken out of context, turned the “second cheek”, the Hohenzollern empire would have already spread over 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 came out autobiographical book Conan Doyle Memories and Adventures. Last major work The writer was the science fiction novel Maracot's Abyss (1929).

Last years

The writer spent the entire second half of the 1920s traveling, visiting 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 long years suffered from tuberculosis 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.

Conan Doyle (Doyle) Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle ; May 22, Edinburgh - July 7, Crowborough, Sussex) - the world famous Scottish and English writer - the author of detective works about the detective Sherlock Holmes, adventure and science fiction - about Professor Challenger, humorous - about Brigadier Gerard,

Doyle also wrote historical novels (“The White Squad”, etc.), plays (“Waterloo”, “Angels of Darkness”, “Fires of Fate”, “ colorful ribbon”), poems (collections of ballads “Songs of Action” (1898) and “Songs of the Road”), autobiographical essays("The Notes of Stark Monroe" or "The Mystery of Stark Monroe") and "everyday" novels ("Duet accompanied by an occasional chorus"), libretto of the operetta "Jane Annie" (1893, co-authored).

Biography

Sir 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 father's uncle, artist and writer Michel Conan. Father - Charles Altamont Doyle, architect and artist, at the age of 23 married 17-year-old Mary Foley, who was passionately fond of books and had a great talent for storytelling. From her, Arthur inherited his interest in chivalric traditions, deeds and adventures. “The real love for literature, the penchant for writing comes from me, I think, from my mother,” wrote Conan Doyle in his autobiography. - "The vivid images of the stories that she told me in early childhood completely replaced in my memory the 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 9 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 hatred of religious and class prejudice, as well as physical punishment. The few happy moments of those years for him were associated with letters to his mother: he did not part with the habit of describing in detail to her the current events of his life 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.

A. Conan Doyle, 1893. Photograph by G. S. Burro

As a third-year student, Doyle decided to try his hand at the literary field. His first story "The Secret of the Sesas Valley" (eng. The Mystery of Sasassa Valley), influenced by Edgar Allan Poe and Bret Harth (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 short story "American History" (eng. The American Tale) appeared in a magazine London Society .

In 1884, Conan Doyle began work on The Girdlestone Trading House, a social and everyday novel with a crime-detective plot (written under the influence of Dickens) about cynical and cruel money-grubber merchants. It was published in 1890.

In 1889, Doyle's third (and perhaps most bizarre) novel, The Clumber Mystery, was published. The Mystery of Cloomber). 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 Monmouth Rebellion (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 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. The White Squad was published in Cornhill magazine (whose publisher James Penn declared it "the best historical novel since Ivanhoe"), and was published as a separate book in 1891. Conan Doyle has always said that he considers it one of his best works.

With some assumption, the novel Rodney Stone (1896) can also be classified as historical: the action takes place here at the beginning of the 19th century, Napoleon and Nelson, playwright Sheridan are mentioned. This work was originally conceived as a play with the working title The House of Temperley and was written under the well-known British actor Henry Irving at the time. 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, in which the famous actor Henry Irving played the main role in those years (who acquired all rights from the author).

Sherlock Holmes

1900-1910

In 1900, Conan Doyle returned to medical practice: as a military field hospital surgeon, 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).

In the early 90s, Conan Doyle developed friendly relations with the leaders and employees of the magazine "Idler": 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 highly appreciated the works of Kipling, in which, in addition, 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.

Strained was Doyle's relationship with Bernard Shaw, who once spoke of Sherlock Holmes as "a drug addict who has not a single pleasant quality." There is reason to believe that the attacks on the first (now little-known author) Hall Kane, who abused self-promotion, were taken personally by the Irish playwright. In 1912, Conan Doyle and Shaw entered into a public altercation in the pages of newspapers: the first defended the crew of the Titanic, the second condemned the behavior of the officers of the sunken liner.

Conan Doyle, in his article, called on the people to express their protest in a democratic way, during the elections, noting that not only the proletariat, but also the intelligentsia with the middle class, to whom Wells does not feel sympathy, are experiencing difficulties. Agreeing with Wells on the need land reform(and even supporting the creation of farms on the sites of abandoned parks), Doyle dismisses his hatred of ruling class and concludes: "Our worker knows that he, like any other citizen, lives in accordance with certain social laws, and it is not in his interest to undermine the well-being of his state by cutting down the branch on which he himself sits."

1910-1913

In 1912, Conan Doyle published The Lost World, a science fiction story (subsequently filmed more than once), followed by The Poisoned 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. At the same time, the last detective story "Valley of Terror" appeared. A work that many critics tend to underestimate, Doyle's biographer J. D. Carr considers it one of his strongest.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1913

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 ...

Doyle soon 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 a 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.

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 peacetime. 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.. - ("History of Spiritualism", chapter 23, "Spiritualism and War")

Among the most controversial works of Conan Doyle in the early 1920s is The Apparition of the Fairies ( The Coming of the Fairies, 1921), in which he tried to prove the truth of the photographs of the Cottingley fairies and put forward his own theories regarding the nature of this phenomenon.

Last years

Sir A. Conan Doyle's grave at Minstead

The writer spent the entire second half of the 1920s traveling, having visited all continents, without stopping his active journalistic activity. Having visited 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 mediums in a conversation with the Minister of the Interior. This effort proved to be the last: in the early morning of July 7, 1930, at his home in Crowborough, Sussex, Conan Doyle died of a heart attack. He was buried near his garden house. Engraved on the tombstone at the request of the widow knightly motto: Steel True, Blade Straight("True as steel, as straight as a blade").

Family

Doyle had five children: two from his first wife, Mary and Kingsley, and three from 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.

Conan Doyle became a relative in 1893 famous writer early 20th century Willy Hornung: he married his sister, Connie (Constance) Doyle.

Works (selected)

The Sherlock Holmes series

• The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (collection of short stories, 1891-1892)

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 teach 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 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 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 little 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 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. At this time he began to write 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 by King Edward VII Conan Doyle was awarded a knighthood for services rendered 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 the rank of 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 latest 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

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 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 was published - “ lost World". 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 national park New Forest.

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