Arthur Conan Doyle

Rosemary Jann (George Mason University)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.3: Scottish Writing and Culture, 400-present.
Vol. editors: Kate Ash-Irisarri (University of Edinburgh), Daniel Cook (University of Dundee), Gina Lyle (University of York), J. Derrick McClure (University of Aberdeen), Andrew Radford (University of Glasgow)

Dates

Born 22 May 1859
Died 12 Jul 1930
Activity 1879-1930

Places

Born in Scotland
Active in England

Genres and Modes

Crime and Detective

Activities

Primary

Novelist
Story-writer

Resources

Doyle's Works

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The creator of Sherlock Holmes, one of the few internationally recognizable fictional characters, was by descent Irish, by birth Scottish, and by conduct a model British gentleman. Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle was born in Edinburgh on 22 May 1859 into a Roman Catholic family whose cultural distinction was offset by its relative poverty. His father, Charles Altamont Doyle, was the youngest surviving son of the famous political caricaturist John Doyle and brother to

Punch

cartoonist Richard (Dicky) Doyle. An artist of some ability himself, Charles Doyle was sent instead to earn his living as a civil servant in Edinburgh, where he met and married Mary Foley, the well-educated daughter of an Irish doctor whose early death had forced his widow to take in lodgers. Arthur inherited pride in his…

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3840 words

Citation: Jann, Rosemary. "Arthur Conan Doyle". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 02 January 2008; last revised 17 June 2019. [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=1308, accessed 23 November 2024.]

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