Conan Doyle years of life. Biography

Arthur Conan Doyle - Out of town

Name

Young years

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was born into an Irish Catholic family known for his achievements in art and literature. Father Charles Altamont Doyle, an architect and artist, at the age of 22, married 17-year-old Mary Foley, who was passionate about books and had a great talent for storytelling.

From her, Arthur inherited his interest in knightly traditions, exploits and adventures. "A real love of literature, a penchant for writing comes from me, I believe, from my mother," - wrote Conan Doyle in his autobiography. - "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 in those years."

The family of the future writer experienced serious financial difficulties - solely because of the strange 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, wealthy relatives offered to pay for his education and sent him for the next seven years to the Jesuit College of Stonyhurst (Lancashire), from where the future writer brought out 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: with the habit of describing in detail to her the current events of his life, he did not part for the rest of his life. In addition, at the boarding school, Doyle enjoyed playing sports, mainly cricket, and also discovered the talent of a storyteller, gathering around him peers who listened to stories on the go for hours.

As a third-year student, Doyle decided to try his hand at the literary field. His first story "The Mystery of the Sesass Valley" ( The Mystery of Sasassa Valley), influenced by Edgar Alan Poe and Bret Garth (his favorite authors at the time), was published by the university magazine Chamber's Journal, where the first works of Thomas Hardy appeared. In the same year, Doyle's second short story, American History ( The american tale) appeared in the magazine London Society.

In 1884, Conan Doyle began work on The Girdleston Trading House, a social and everyday novel with a crime / detective story (influenced by Dickens) about cynical and cruel money-grubbing merchants. It was published in 1890.

A year later, Doyle's third (and perhaps strangest) novel, The Clumbert Mystery ( The Mystery of Cloomber)... The story of the "afterlife" of three vengeful Buddhist monks is the first literary evidence of the author's interest in the paranormal, which later made him a staunch follower of spiritualism.

Historical cycle

In February 1888, A. Conan Doyle completed work on the novel "Micah Clark", which narrated about the Monmouth Rebellion in 1685, the purpose of which was to overthrow King James II. The novel was released in November and was warmly received by critics. From that moment on, a conflict arose in Conan Doyle's creative life: 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 Detachment". In it, the author turned to a critical stage in the history of feudal England, taking as a basis a 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 the claimants for the Spanish throne. Conan Doyle used this episode for his artistic purpose: he revived the life and customs of that time, and most importantly, he 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 considered it one of his best works.

With some admission, the novel "Rodney Stone" (1896) can be attributed to the category of historical ones: the action here takes place at the beginning of the 19th century, Napoleon and Nelson, the playwright Sheridan are mentioned. Initially, this work was conceived as a play with the tentative title "House of Temperley" and was written under the famous British actor Henry Irving at the time. While working on the novel, the writer studied a lot of scientific and historical literature ("History of the Fleet", "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 (who acquired all the rights from the author) played the main role.

Sherlock Holmes

1900-1910

In 1900, Conan Doyle returned to medical practice: as a surgeon in a military field hospital, he went to the Boer War. His 1902 book "The War in South Africa" ​​met with warm approval from conservative circles, brought the writer closer to government spheres, after which he was given the somewhat ironic nickname "Patriot", which he himself, however, was proud of. At the beginning of the century, the writer received the title of nobility and knighthood and twice in Edinburgh took part in local elections (losing both times).

Relationship with fellow Peru

There were several undoubted authorities in the 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 elderly Meredith in Box Hill made a depressing impression on the aspiring writer: he noted for himself that the master speaks scornfully of his contemporaries and is delighted with himself. Conan Doyle only corresponded with Stevenson, but he took his death hard as a personal loss.

In the early 1990s, Conan Doyle developed friendly relations with the leaders and staff of Idler magazine: Jerome K. Jerome, Robert Barr and James M. Barry. The latter, having awakened a passion for the theater in the writer, drew him to (not very fruitful in the end) collaboration 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 agree. Hornung's protagonist, "noble burglar" Raffles, was very reminiscent of a parody of "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 policy in Africa), relations between the two writers became cooler.

Doyle's relationship with Bernard Shaw was strained. There is reason to believe that the Irish playwright took at his own expense the attacks of the first (now little-known author) Hall Kane, who abused self-promotion. In 1911, Conan Doyle and Shaw entered into a public squabble on the pages of the newspapers: the first defended the Titanic crew, the second strongly condemned the behavior of the officers of the sunken liner.

Conan Doyle in his article calls on the people to express their protest in a democratic way, during the elections, noting that difficulties are experienced not only by the proletariat, but also by the intelligentsia and the middle class, to which Wells has no sympathy. Agreeing with Wells on the need for land reform (and even supporting the creation of farms in the places of abandoned parks), Doyle rejects his hatred of the ruling class and concludes:

Our worker knows: he, like any other citizen, lives in accordance with certain social laws, and it is not in his interests to undermine the welfare of his state by sawing the branch on which he himself sits.. .

1910-1913

In 1912, Conan Doyle published the science fiction novel The Lost World (subsequently filmed more than once), which was followed by The Poisoned Belt (1913). The protagonist of both works is Professor Challenger, a fanatic scientist endowed with grotesque qualities, but at the same time humane and charming in his own way. At the same time, the last detective story "Valley of Horror" appeared. This work, which many critics tend to underestimate, is considered by Doyle's biographer J. D. Carr to be one of his strongest.

The main topics of journalism by Conan Doyle in 1911-1913 were: Britain's failure at the 1912 Olympics, Prince Henry's motor rally in Germany, the construction of sports facilities and preparation for the 1916 Olympic Games in Berlin (which never took place). In addition, sensing the approach of war, Conan Doyle, in his newspaper speeches, called for the revival of the Yeoman settlements, which could become the main force of the new motorcycle troops (Daily Express 1910: The Yeomen of the Future). He was also occupied with the problem of urgent retraining of the British cavalry. In 1911-1913, the writer actively spoke out in favor of the introduction of Home Rule in Ireland, during the discussion more than once formulating his "imperialist" credo. ...

1914-1918

Doyle becomes even more bitter when he becomes aware of the torture that British prisoners of war were subjected to in Germany.

... It is difficult to develop a line of behavior in relation to the Red Indians of European descent, who torture prisoners of war. It is clear that we ourselves cannot torture the Germans at our disposal in the same way. On the other hand, appeals to kindheartedness are also meaningless, for the average German has the same notion of nobility as a cow does about mathematics ... at least to some extent preserve a human face ...... The Times, April 13, 1915.

Soon Doyle calls for the organization of "raids of revenge" 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 that is to be condemned, but his sin"):

Let sin fall on those who force us to sin. 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, “the second cheek”, the Hohenzollern empire would have already spread across Europe, and instead of Christ's teachings, Nietzscheanism would be preached here... - The Times, December 31, 1917, On the Benefits of Hatred.

1918-1930

At the end of the war, as is commonly believed, under the influence of the shocks associated with the death of loved ones, Conan Doyle became an active preacher of spiritualism, whom he had been interested in since the 1880s. Among the books that shaped his new worldview was The Human Personality and Her Further Life after Physical Death by G. F. Myers. The main works of K. 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 personality, and the novel "The Land of Mist" ("The Land of Mist", 1926). The result of his many years of research on the "mental" phenomenon was the fundamental work "The History of Spiritualism" ().

Conan Doyle denied claims that his interest in spiritualism arose only at the end of the war:

Many people did not encounter Spiritism and did not even hear anything about it 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 the position of Spiritualism and the defense of the Teaching by his friend Sir Oliver Lodge were due to the fact that both of them had lost their sons who died in the 1914 war. From this the conclusion followed: grief darkened 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 book "The Phenomenon of Fairies" ( The coming of the fairies 1921), in which he tried to prove the truth of photographs of fairies from Cottingley and put forward his own theories regarding the nature of this phenomenon.

Family life

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

Last years

The writer spent the entire second half of the 1920s traveling, having visited all continents, without stopping his active journalistic activity. Having stopped in England only briefly in 1929 to celebrate his 70th birthday, Doyle went to Scandinavia with the same purpose - 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: the next spring he spent in bed, surrounded by loved ones. At some point, there was an improvement: the writer immediately went to London to, in a conversation with the Minister of the Interior, demand the abolition of laws that persecuted mediums. This effort was his 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. On the tombstone, at the request of the widow, only the writer's name, date of birth and four words were engraved: Steel True, Blade Straight("Faithful as steel, just like a blade").

Some works

Sherlock Holmes

The cycle about Professor Challenger

• The Poison Belt ()
• The Land of Mists ()
• The Disintegration Machine ()
• When the World Screamed ()

Historical novels

• Micah Clarke ( Micah clarke) (), a novel about the Monmouth (Monmouth) uprising in 17th century England.
• Large shadow ( The great shadow) ()
• Exiles ( The refugees) (published, written), a novel about the Huguenots in France in the 17th century, the development of Canada by the French, the Indian wars.
• Rodney Stone ( Rodney stone) ()
• Uncle Bernack ( Uncle bernac) (), a story about a French emigrant during the Great French Revolution.

Poetry

• Action songs ( Songs of Action) ()
• Songs of the road ( Songs of the Road) ()
• (The Guards Came Through and Other Poems) ()

Dramaturgy

• Jane Annie, or Good Behavior Prize ( Jane Annie, or the Good Conduct Prize) ()
• Duet ( A Duet. A duologue) ()
• (A pot of caviare) ()
• (The speckled band) ()
• Waterloo ( Waterloo. (A drama in one act)) ()

Works in the style of Arthur Conan Doyle

Screen adaptations of works

• "The Lost World" (silent film by Harry Hoyt,

Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle

The best known are his detective stories about Sherlock Holmes, adventure and sci-fi about Professor Challenger, humorous stories about Brigadier Gerard, as well as historical novels ("The White Detachment"). In addition, he wrote plays ("Waterloo", "Angels of Darkness", "Lights of Destiny", "Colorful Ribbon") and poems (collections of ballads "Songs of Action" (1898) and "Songs of the Road"), autobiographical sketches ("Letters Stark Munroe ", also known as" The Mystery of Stark Monroe "), everyday novels (" Duet, with choir entry "), was the co-librettist of the operetta" Jane Annie "(1893).

ru.wikipedia.org

Biography

Doyle(English Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle)

Autograph. Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle(English Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle)

The real name of the writer is Doyle. After the death of his beloved uncle by the name of Conan (who actually raised him), he took his uncle's surname as his middle name (in England, this is possible, compare: Jerome Klapka Jerome, etc.). Thus, Conan is his "middle name", but in adulthood he began to use this name as a writing pseudonym - Conan Doyle. In Russian texts, there are also spelling variants of Conan Doyle (which is more consistent with the rules for transferring proper names during translation - the transcriptive method), as well as Conan Doyle and Conan Doyle. It is a mistake to write with a hyphen (cf. Alexander-Pushkin). However, the correct spelling is Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Arthur is his birth name (given name), Conan is taken in memory of his uncle, Doyle (or Doyle) is a surname.

Young years

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was born into an Irish Catholic family known for his achievements in art and literature. Father Charles Altamont Doyle, an architect and artist, at the age of 22, married 17-year-old Mary Foley, who was passionate about books and had a great talent for storytelling.

From her, Arthur inherited his interest in knightly traditions, exploits and adventures. "A real love of literature, a penchant for writing comes from me, I believe, from my mother," - wrote Conan Doyle in his autobiography. - "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 in those years."

The family of the future writer experienced serious financial difficulties - solely because of the strange 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, wealthy relatives offered to pay for his education and sent him for the next seven years to the Jesuit College of Stonyhurst (Lancashire), from where the future writer brought out 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: with the habit of describing in detail to her the current events of his life, he did not part for the rest of his life. In addition, at the boarding school, Doyle enjoyed playing sports, mainly cricket, and also discovered the talent of a storyteller, gathering around him peers who listened to stories on the go for hours.

In 1876, Arthur graduated from college and returned home: the first thing he had to do was rewrite his father's papers in his name, who by that time had almost completely lost his mind. The writer later described the dramatic circumstances of Doyle Sr.'s imprisonment in a psychiatric hospital in the story The Surgeon of Gaster Fell (1880). Doyle chose the arts (to which his family tradition predisposed) a career as a medical doctor, largely influenced by 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, where Arthur Doyle went to pursue 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 the literary field. His first short 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. That same year, Doyle's second short story, The American Tale, appeared in the London Society.

In February 1880, Doyle spent seven months in Arctic waters as a ship's doctor aboard the whaling ship Hope, earning a total of £ 50 for his work. “I boarded this ship as a big, clumsy youth, and came down the ladder as a strong adult man,” he later wrote in his autobiography. Impressions from the Arctic voyage formed the basis of the story "Captain of the Pole-Star". Two years later, he made a similar voyage to the West Coast of Africa aboard the steamer Mayumba, cruising between Liverpool and the West Coast of Africa.

After receiving a university degree and a bachelor of medicine in 1881, Conan Doyle took up medical practice, first jointly (with an extremely unscrupulous partner - this experience was described in the "Stark Munroe Notes"), then individual, in Plymouth. Finally, in 1891, Doyle decided to make literature his main profession. In January 1884, Cornhill magazine published the story "The Message of Hebeccook Jephson." In those days he met his future wife Louise "Tui" Hawkins; the wedding took place on August 6, 1885.

Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle(English Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle)

In 1884, Conan Doyle began work on The Girdleston Trading House, a social and everyday novel with a crime / detective story (influenced by Dickens) about cynical and cruel money-grubbing merchants. It was published in 1890.

In March 1886, Conan Doyle began, and in April he basically completed work on Etude in Crimson (originally supposed to be the title A Tangled Skein, and the two main characters were Sheridan Hope and Ormond Saker). Ward, Locke & Co bought the rights to the novel for £ 25 and printed it in the Beeton's Christmas Annual of 1887, inviting the writer's father, Charles Doyle, to illustrate the novel.

A year later, Doyle's third (and perhaps strangest) novel, The Mystery of Cloomber, was released. The story of the "afterlife" of three vengeful Buddhist monks is the first literary evidence of the author's interest in the paranormal, which later made him a staunch follower of spiritualism.

Historical cycle

In February 1888 A. Conan Doyle completed work on the novel "The Adventures of Micah Clarke", which narrated about the Monmouth rebellion (1685), the purpose of which was to overthrow King James II. The novel was released in November and was warmly received by critics. From that moment on, a conflict arose in Conan Doyle's creative life: 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 Detachment". In it, the author turned to a critical stage in the history of feudal England, taking as a basis a 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 the claimants for the Spanish throne. Conan Doyle used this episode for his artistic purpose: he revived the life and customs of that time, and most importantly, he 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 considered it one of his best works.

With some admission, the novel "Rodney Stone" (1896) can be attributed to the category of historical ones: the action here takes place at the beginning of the 19th century, Napoleon and Nelson, the playwright Sheridan are mentioned. Initially, this work was conceived as a play with the tentative title "House of Temperley" and was written under the famous British actor Henry Irving at the time. While working on the novel, the writer studied a lot of scientific and historical literature ("History of the Fleet", "History of Boxing", etc.).

To the Napoleonic Wars, from Trafalgar to Waterloo, Conan Doyle dedicated Brigadier Gerard's Exploits and Adventures. The birth of this character apparently dates back to 1892, when George Meredith presented Conan Doyle with the three-volume Memoirs of Marbeau: the latter became the prototype of Gerard. The first story of the new series, "The Brigadier Gerard's Medal," was first read by the writer from the stage in 1894 during a trip to the United States. In December of the same year, the story was published by The Strand Magazine, after which the author continued to work on the sequel in Davos. From April to September 1895, The Exploits of Brigadier Gerard were published in The Strand. The Adventures were also published here for the first time (August 1902 - May 1903). Despite the fact that the plots of the stories about Gerard are fantastic, the historical era is written out with great reliability. “The spirit and flow of these stories is remarkable, the accuracy in keeping the names and titles in itself demonstrates the scale of your work. Few could find any errors here. And I, having a special nose for all sorts of blunders, have not found anything with minor exceptions, ”the famous British historian Archibald Forbes wrote to Doyle.

In 1892, the "French-Canadian" adventure novel "The Exiles" and the historical play "Waterloo" were completed, in which the famous actor Henry Irving (who acquired all the rights from the author) played the main role.

Sherlock Holmes

Scandal in Bohemia, the first story in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes series, was published in The Strand magazine in 1891. The prototype of the protagonist, who soon became a legendary detective-consultant, was Joseph Bell, a professor at the University of Edinburgh, famous for his ability to guess the character and past of a person in the smallest detail. Over the course of two years, Doyle created story after story, and eventually began to feel weary about his own character. His attempt to "end" Holmes in a fight with Professor Moriarty ("Holmes' Last Case", 1893) was unsuccessful: the hero, beloved by the reading public, had to be "resurrected". Holmes's epic culminated in the novel The Dog of the Baskervilles (1900), which is classified as a classic of the detective genre.

Four novels are dedicated to the adventures of Sherlock Holmes: A Study in Crimson Tones (1887), The Sign of Four (1890), The Dog of the Baskervilles, The Valley of Horror - and five collections of stories, the most famous of which are The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1892), Notes on Sherlock Holmes (1894) and The Return of Sherlock Holmes (1905). The writer's contemporaries tended to downplay Holmes' greatness, seeing in him a kind of hybrid of Dupin (Edgar Allan Poe), Lecoq (Emile Gaboriau) and Cuff (Wilkie Collins). In retrospect, it became clear how Holmes differs from his predecessors: the combination of unusual qualities raised him above time, made him relevant at all times. The extraordinary popularity of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson gradually developed into a branch of new mythology, the center of which remains to this day an apartment in London at 221-b Baker Street.

1900-1910

Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle(English Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle)

In 1900, Conan Doyle returned to medical practice: as a surgeon in a military field hospital, he went to the Boer War. His 1902 book "The War in South Africa" ​​met with warm approval from conservative circles, brought the writer closer to government spheres, after which he was given the somewhat ironic nickname "Patriot", which he himself, however, was proud of. At the beginning of the century, the writer received the title of nobility and knighthood and twice in Edinburgh took part in local elections (losing both times).

On July 4, 1906, Louise Doyle (from whom the writer had two children) died of tuberculosis. 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 wide publicistic and (as they would say now) human rights activity. His attention was attracted by the so-called "Edalji case", in the center of which was a young Parsi, who was convicted on a trumped-up charge (of injuring horses). Conan Doyle, taking on the "role" of a consultant detective, thoroughly understood the intricacies of the case and - with just a long series of publications in the London newspaper Daily Telegraph (but with the involvement of forensic experts), he proved the innocence of his ward. Beginning in June 1907, hearings in 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 instrument as the court of appeal, was exposed. The latter was created in Britain - largely thanks to the activities of Conan Doyle.

In 1909, events in Africa again fell into the sphere of public and political interests of Conan Doyle. This time he came out with an exposure of the brutal colonial policy of Belgium in the Congo and criticized the British position on this issue. Conan Doyle's letters to The Times on this subject had the effect of a 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 person, Rudyard Kipling, greeted the book with restraint, noting that by criticizing Belgium, it indirectly undermines British positions in the colonies. In 1909, Conan Doyle also took up the defense of Oscar Slater, a Jew, wrongfully convicted of murder, and secured his release, albeit 18 years later.

Relationship with fellow Peru

There were several undoubted authorities in the 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 elderly Meredith in Box Hill made a depressing impression on the aspiring writer: he noted for himself that the master speaks scornfully of his contemporaries and is delighted with himself. Conan Doyle only corresponded with Stevenson, but he took his death hard as a personal loss.

In the early 1990s, Conan Doyle developed friendly relations with the leaders and staff of Idler magazine: Jerome K. Jerome, Robert Barr and James M. Barry. The latter, having awakened a passion for the theater in the writer, drew him to (not very fruitful in the end) collaboration 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 agree. Hornung's protagonist, "noble burglar" Raffles, was very reminiscent of a parody of "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 policy in Africa), relations between the two writers became cooler.

Doyle's relationship with Bernard Shaw, who once described Sherlock Holmes as "a drug addict without a single pleasant quality," was strained. There is reason to believe that the Irish playwright took at his own expense the attacks of the first (now little-known author) Hall Kane, who abused self-promotion. In 1912, Conan Doyle and Shaw entered into a public squabble on the pages of the newspapers: the first defended the crew of the Titanic, the second condemned the behavior of the officers of the sunken liner.

Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle(English Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle)

Conan Doyle was acquainted with H.G. Wells and outwardly maintained good relations with him, but inwardly considered him an antipode. The conflict was aggravated by the fact that if Wells was part of the elite of "serious" British literature, then Conan Doyle was considered, albeit talented, as a producer of entertaining reading for teenagers, with which he strongly disagreed. The confrontation took on open forms in the public discussion on the pages of the Daily Mail. In response to Wells 'long article on labor unrest on June 20, 1912, Conan Doyle made a well-reasoned attack ("Workers' Trouble. Answer to Mr. Wells"), showing the destructiveness of any revolutionary activity for Britain.

Mr. Wells comes across as someone who, as he walks through the garden, can say, “I don’t like this fruit tree. It does not bear fruit in the best way, does not shine with perfection of forms. Let's cut it down and try to grow another better tree in this place. " Is this what the British people expect from their genius? It would be much more natural to hear from him: “I don't like this tree. Let's try to improve its vitality without damaging the trunk. Maybe we can make it grow and bear fruit the way we would like it to. But we will not destroy it, because then all past works will be wasted, and it is not yet known what we will receive in the future. "

Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle(English Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle)

Conan Doyle in his article calls on the people to express their protest in a democratic way, during the elections, noting that difficulties are experienced not only by the proletariat, but also by the intelligentsia and the middle class, to which Wells has no sympathy. Agreeing with Wells on the need for land reform (and even supporting the creation of farms in the places of abandoned parks), Doyle rejects his hatred of the 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 interests to undermine the welfare of his state by sawing off the branch on which he himself sits.

1910-1913

In 1912, Conan Doyle published the science fiction novel The Lost World (subsequently filmed more than once), which was followed by The Poisoned Belt (1913). The protagonist of both works is Professor Challenger, a fanatic scientist endowed with grotesque qualities, but at the same time humane and charming in his own way. At the same time, the last detective story "Valley of Horror" appeared. This work, which many critics tend to underestimate, is considered by Doyle's biographer J. D. Carr to be one of his strongest.

The Lost World, although it was a resounding success, was not perceived by contemporaries as a serious science fiction work, despite the fact that the author described a real place: the Ricardo Franco Hills mountains located on the border of Bolivia and Brazil. Colonel Fossett's expedition made a visit here: after meeting with him at Conan Doyle's, the idea of ​​the story was born. The story told in the story "The Poisoned Belt" seemed to everyone even less "scientific". It is based on the hypothesis that the universal cosmic environment is a certain ether that permeates space. The hypothesis was initially debunked, but later underwent a rebirth - both in science fiction (A. Azimov, "Space Currents") and in science ("echo of the Big Bang").

The main themes of Conan Doyle's journalism in 1911-1913 were: Britain's failure at the 1912 Olympics, Prince Henry's motor rally in Germany, the construction of sports facilities and preparations for the 1916 Olympic Games in Berlin (which never took place). In addition, sensing the approach of war, Conan Doyle, in his newspaper speeches, called for the revival of the Yeoman settlements, which could become the main force of the new motorcycle troops (Daily Express 1910: The Yeomen of the Future). He was also occupied with the problem of urgent retraining of the British cavalry. In 1911-1913, the writer actively spoke out in favor of the introduction of Home Rule in Ireland, during the discussion more than once formulating his "imperialist" credo.

1914-1918

The outbreak of World War I completely turned Conan Doyle's life upside down. At first, he volunteered for the front, confident that his mission was to set a personal example of heroism and service to the motherland. After this proposal was rejected, he devoted himself to journalistic activities.

Beginning on 8 August 1914, Doyle's letters on the war topic appeared in the London Times. First of all, he proposed to create a massive combat reserve and the creation of civilian detachments to carry out "the service of guarding railway stations and vital facilities, to help in the construction of fortifications and to carry out many other combat missions." Back in Crowborough (Sussex), Doyle personally set about organizing such units and on the very first day put 200 men under arms. Then he expanded the scope of his practice to Eastbourne, Rotherford, Baksted. The writer contacted the Association for the Training of Volunteer Units (chaired by Lord Densborough), promising to create a giant combined army of half a million volunteers. Among the nests he proposed were the installation of mine action tridents on board the ships (The Times, September 8, 1914), the creation of individual rescue belts for sailors (The Daily Mail, September 29, 1914), the use of individual armored protective equipment (“ Times, July 27, 1915). In a series of articles entitled “German Politics: A Bet on Murder,” published in the Daily Chronicle, Doyle, with his characteristic passion and persuasiveness, described the atrocities of the German army in the air, at sea and in the occupied territories of France and Belgium. Replying to an American opponent (a certain Mr. Bennett) Doyle writes:

Yes, our pilots bombed Dusseldorf (as well as Friedrichshafen), but each time they attacked predetermined strategic targets (aircraft hangars), which inflicted, as was recognized, significant damage. Even the enemy in his reports did not try to accuse us of indiscriminate bombing. Meanwhile, having adopted German tactics, we would have easily bombarded the crowded streets of Cologne and Frankfurt, which are also open to air strikes. - New York Times, February 6, 1915.

Doyle becomes even more bitter when he becomes aware of the torture that British prisoners of war were subjected to in Germany.

Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle(English Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle)

... It is difficult to develop a line of behavior in relation to the Red Indians of European descent, who torture prisoners of war. It is clear that we ourselves cannot torture the Germans at our disposal in the same way. On the other hand, appeals to kindheartedness are also meaningless, for the average German has the same notion of nobility as a cow does about mathematics ... at least to some extent preserve a human face…. The Times, April 13, 1915.

Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle(English Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle)

Soon Doyle calls for the organization of "raids of revenge" 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 that is to be condemned, but his sin"):

Let sin fall on those who force us to sin. 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, “the second cheek”, the Hohenzollern empire would have already spread across Europe, and instead of Christ's teachings, Nietzscheanism would be preached here. - The Times, December 31, 1917, On the Benefits of Hatred.

Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle(English Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle)

In 1916, Conan Doyle rode through the combat positions of the British forces 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 all criticism, considering it his duty to maintain the fighting spirit 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.

Doyle's brother, son and two nephews went to the front and died there. This was a tremendous shock for the writer and left a heavy stamp on all his further literary, journalistic and social activities.

1918-1930

At the end of the war, as is commonly believed, under the influence of the shocks associated with the death of loved ones, Conan Doyle became an active preacher of spiritualism, whom he had been interested in since the 1880s. Among the books that shaped his new worldview was The Human Person and Her Further Life after Physical Death by FWG Myers. The main works of K. 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 personality, and the novel "The Land of Mist" ("The Land of Mist", 1926). The result of his many years of research on the "mental" phenomenon was the fundamental work "History of Spiritualism" ("The History of Spiritualism", 1926).

Conan Doyle denied claims that his interest in spiritualism arose only at the end of the war:

Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle(English Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle)

Many people did not encounter Spiritism and did not even hear anything about it 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 the position of Spiritualism and the defense of the Teaching by his friend Sir Oliver Lodge were due to the fact that both of them had lost their sons who died in the 1914 war. From this the conclusion followed: grief darkened 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 outbreak 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 Coming of the Fairies (1921), in which he tried to prove the truth of photographs of fairies from Cottingley and put forward his own theories about the nature of this phenomenon.

In 1924, Conan Doyle's autobiographical book Memories and Adventures was published. The last major work of the writer was the science fiction story "Marakotova Abyss" (1929).

Family life

In 1885, Conan Doyle married Louise "Thuillet" 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 rather strong medium.

Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle(English Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle)

Doyle had five children: two - from his first wife - Mary and Kingsley, and three - from the second - Jean Lena Anette, Denis Percy Stewart (March 17, 1909 - March 9, 1955; in 1936 he became the husband of the Georgian princess Nina Mdivani) and Adrian.

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

Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle(English Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle)

Adrian Conan Doyle, the author of the biography of his father, The True Conan Doyle, wrote: “The very atmosphere of the house breathed a chivalrous spirit. Conan Doyle learned to understand the coats of arms much earlier than he got acquainted with the Latin conjugation. "

Last years

The writer spent the entire second half of the 1920s traveling, having visited all continents, without stopping his active journalistic activity. Having stopped in England only briefly in 1929 to celebrate his 70th birthday, Doyle went to Scandinavia with the same purpose - 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: the next spring he spent in bed, surrounded by loved ones. At some point, there was an improvement: the writer immediately went to London to, in a conversation with the Minister of the Interior, demand the abolition of laws that persecuted mediums. This effort was his 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. On the tombstone, at the request of the widow, only the writer's name, date of birth and four words were engraved: Steel True, Blade Straight ("Faithful as steel, just like a blade").

Some works

Sherlock Holmes

Sherlock Holmes bibliography

The Lost World (1912)
- The Poison Belt (1913)
- The Land of Mists (1926)
- The Disintegration Machine (1927)
- When the World Screamed (1928)

Historical novels

Micah Clarke (1888), a novel about the Monmouth (Monmouth) uprising in 17th century England.
- The White Company (1891)
- The Great Shadow (1892)
- The Refugees (published 1893, written 1892), a novel about the Huguenots in France in the 17th century, the development of Canada by the French, the Indian wars.
- Rodney Stone (1896)
- Uncle Bernac (1897), a story about a French émigré during the French Revolution.
- Sir Nigel (1906)

Poetry

Songs of Action (1898)
- Songs of the Road (1911)
- (The Guards Came Through and Other Poems) (1919)

Dramaturgy

Jane Annie, or the Good Conduct Prize (1893)
- Duet (A Duet. A duologue) (1899)
- (A Pot of Caviare) (1912)
- (The Speckled Band) (1912)
- Waterloo (A drama in one act) (1919) This section is incomplete.
- You will help the project by correcting and supplementing it.

Other works

Works in the style of Arthur Conan Doyle

Arthur Conan Doyle's son Adrian wrote a series of short stories with Sherlock Holmes.

Screen adaptations of works

- "The Lost World" (silent film by Harry Hoyt, 1925)
- The Lost World (1998 film).
- etc. see The Lost World.

In the series "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" with the participation of Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce, filmed in 1939-1946, 14 films were released, the first of which was "The Hound of the Baskervilles".

The following films were released in the series "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson" with Vasily Livanov and Vitaly Solomin:
- "Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson"
- "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson"
- "The Hound of the Baskervilles"
- "Treasures of Agra"
- "The Twentieth Century Begins"

Museums

Sherlock Holmes House

Found in 2004

On March 16, 2004, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's personal papers were discovered in London. More than three thousand pages were found in the office of one law firm. Among the papers recovered are personal letters, including from Winston Churchill, Oscar Wilde, Bernard Shaw and President Roosevelt, diary entries, drafts and manuscripts of unpublished works by author Sherlock Holmes. The preliminary cost of the find is two million pounds.

Arthur Conan Doyle in fiction

The life and work of Arthur Conan Doyle became an integral feature of the Victorian era, which naturally led to the appearance of works of art in which the writer acted as a character, and sometimes in a very far from reality. For example, in the cycle of novels by Christopher Golden and Thomas E. Snigoski "The Menagerie", Conan Doyle appears as "the second most powerful magician of our world."

In the mystical novel The List of Seven by Mark Frost, Doyle assists the mysterious stranger Jack Sparks in the fight against the forces of evil trying to take over the world.

Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle(English Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle)

In a much more traditional vein, the facts of the life of the writer are used in the British television series Death Rooms. Murder Rooms: The Dark Beginnings of Sherlock Holmes (2000), where a young medical student Arthur Conan Doyle becomes an assistant to Professor Joseph Bell (the prototype of Sherlock Holmes) and helps him investigate crimes.

Literature

Carr J. D., Pearson H. Arthur Conan Doyle. M .: Kniga, 1989.
- Conan Doyle, Arthur. Collected Works in eight volumes. M .: Pravda, Ogonyok Library, 1966.
- A. Conan Doyle. The Crowborough Edition of the Works. Garden City, New York, Doubleday, Doran and Company, Inc., 1906.
- Arthur Conan Doyle. Life lessons. Cycle "Symbols of Time" Translation from English. V. Polyakov, P. Geleva. M .: Agraf, 2003.

Biography

Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle(English Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle)

Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle was born on May 22, 1859 in the Scottish capital of Edinburgh on Picardy Place in the family of an artist and an architect. His father Charles Altamont Doyle married at the age of twenty-two to Mary Foley, a young woman of seventeen, in 1855. Mary Doyle had a passion for books and was the main storyteller in the family, which is probably why, later, Arthur remembered her very touchingly. Unfortunately, Arthur's father was a chronic alcoholic, and therefore the family was sometimes poor, although he was, according to his son, a very talented artist. As a child, Arthur read a lot, having completely versatile interests. His favorite author was Mine Reed, 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 tuition. For seven years he was 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, from Hodder Arthur, he moved to Stonehurst. Seven subjects were taught there: alphabet, counting, basic rules, grammar, syntax, poetry, rhetoric. The food there was rather meager and did not have a great variety, which, nevertheless, did not affect health. The corporal punishment was harsh. Arthur was often exposed to them at the time. The instrument of punishment was a piece of rubber, the size and shape of a thick overshoe, which they beat on the hands.

It was during these difficult years at boarding school that Arthur realized he had a talent for storytelling, so he was often surrounded by a congregation of delighted young students listening to the amazing stories he composed to entertain them. On one of the Christmas holidays, in 1874, he went to London for three weeks, at the invitation of his relatives. There he visits: theater, zoo, circus, Madame Tussaud's wax museum. He remains very pleased with this trip and speaks warmly of his aunt Annette, his father's sister, as well as uncle Dick, with whom, to put it mildly, not on friendly terms with him, due to the difference in views on his, Arthur's, place in medicine, in particular, whether he should become a Catholic doctor ... But this is still a distant future, he still has to graduate from the university ...

In his final 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 learn German, where he continues to play sports with enthusiasm: football, soccer on stilts, sledding. In the summer of 1876, Doyle drives home, but on the way stops by in Paris, where he lives for several weeks with his uncle. Thus, in 1876, he received his education and was ready to face the world, and also wanted to make up for some of the shortcomings of his father, who by that time had become insane.

The tradition of the Doyle family dictated to pursue an artistic career, but still Arthur decided to take up medicine. This decision was influenced by Dr. Brian Charles, the sedate, young lodger that Arthur's mother had taken on to make ends meet. Dr. Waller was educated at the University of Edinburgh, and so Arthur decided to study there. In October 1876, Arthur became a student at the medical university, before that he faced another problem - not receiving the scholarship he deserved, which he and his family needed so much. 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, which consisted of seven children: Annette, Constance, Caroline, Ida, Innes and Arthur, who earned money in his free time, which he carved out through accelerated study of disciplines. He worked as a pharmacist and an assistant to various doctors ... In particular, in the early summer of 1878, Arthur was hired as an apprentice and pharmacist to a doctor from the poorest quarter of Sheffield. But after three weeks, Dr. Richadson, that was his name, broke up with him. Arthur does not give up trying to earn extra money as long as there is an opportunity, there is a summer vacation, and after a while he gets to Dr. Elliot Hoare from the village of Rayton from Shronshire. This attempt was more successful, this time he worked for 4 months until October 1878, when it was necessary to start studying. This doctor treated Arthur well, and so he spent the next summer with him again, working as an assistant.

Doyle reads a lot and, two years after starting his education, decides 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 the Chamber’s Journal in September 1879. The story comes out heavily cut, which upsets Arthur, but the 3 guineas received for him inspire him to write further. He sends out a few more stories. But only "The American's Tale" can be published in the London Society magazine. And yet he understands that this is how he, too, can make money. His father's health deteriorates and he is admitted to a psychiatric hospital. Thus, Doyle becomes the sole breadwinner for his family.

Twenty years old, studying in the third year of the university, in 1880, Arthur's friend Claude Augustus Currier offered him to accept the post of surgeon, which he himself applied for, but could not for personal reasons, for the whaler "Hope" under the command of John Gray in the North Polar region Circle. First, the Nadezhda stopped near the shores of Greenland, where the brigade moved on to hunting seals. The young medical student was shocked at the brutality of this. But at the same time, he enjoyed the camaraderie on board the ship and the ensuing whale hunt fascinated him. This adventure found its place in his first story about the sea, the chilling tale "The Captain of the Pole-star". Without much enthusiasm, Conan Doyle returned to his studies in the fall of 1880, sailing for a total of 7 months, earning about 50 pounds.

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, again spending the summer working with Dr. Hoare. The result of these searches was the position of a ship's doctor on the ship "Mayuba", which sailed between Liverpool and the west coast of Africa and on October 22, 1881, his next voyage began.

While swimming, he found Africa as disgusting as the Arctic seductive.

Therefore, he leaves the ship in mid-January 1882, and moves to England in Plymouth, where he works together with a certain Callingworth, whom he met in the last courses of study in Edinburgh, namely from late spring to early summer 1882, for 6 weeks ... (These early years of practice are well described in his book "The Stark Munro Letters." building a united Europe, as well as uniting English-speaking countries around the US The first forecast came true not so long ago, but the second is unlikely to come true. Also, this book talks about the possible victory over diseases by preventing them. Unfortunately, the only country, in my opinion opinion, which went to this has changed its internal structure (meaning Russia).)

Over time, disagreements arose between former classmates, after which Doyle left for Portsmouth (July 1882), where he opened his first practice, settling in a house for 40 pounds per annum, which began to generate 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", "Blumensdike Ravine", "My friend is a murderer", which he published in the magazine "London Society" in the same 1882. While living in Portsmouth, he meets Elma Welden, whom he promised to marry if he earns £ 2 a week. But in 1882, after multiple quarrels, he parted ways with her, and she left for Switzerland.

To somehow help his mother, Arthur invites his brother Innes to live with him, who brightens up the gray days of a novice doctor from August 1882 to 1885 (Innes leaves to study at a closed school in Yorkshire). During these years, our hero is torn between literature and medicine.

One day in March 1885, Dr. Pike, his friend and neighbor, invited Doyle to consult on the illness of Jack Hawkins, the son of the widow Emily Hawkins of Gloucestershire. He had meningitis and was hopeless. Arthur offered to place him in his home for constant care, but Jack died a few days later. This death allowed him to meet his sister Louise (or Tui) Hawkins, 27 years old, with whom they became engaged in April, and on August 6, 1885, they married. His income at that time was approximately 300, and her 100 pounds per year.

After his marriage, Doyle is actively involved in literature and wants to make it his profession. It is published in Cornhill magazine. One by one his stories are published: “J. Habakuk Jephson's Statement, John Huxford's Hiatus, 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 so in 1884 he wrote the book "The Firm of Girdlestone: a romance of the unromantic" ("Girdlestones Trading House"). But to his great regret, the book did not interest the publishers. In March 1886, Conan Doyle began writing a novel that propelled him to popularity. At first it was called A Tangled Skein. In April he finished it and sent it to Cornhill to James Payne, who in May of the same year spoke of it very warmly, but refused to publish it, since, in his opinion, it deserves a separate publication. This is how the ordeal of the author began, trying to build his brainchild. Doyle sends the manuscript to Bristol Arrowsmith, and while waiting for an answer to it, participates in political events, where for the first time he successfully speaks to an audience of thousands. Political passions fade away, and in July a negative response to the novel comes. Arthur does not despair and sends the manuscript to Fred Warne and Co. But their romance was not interested either. This is followed by Messrs. Ward, Locke and Co. Those reluctantly agree, but set a number of conditions: the novel will be released no earlier than next year, the fee for it will be 25 pounds, and the author will transfer all rights to the work to the publisher. Doyle reluctantly agrees, as he wants his first novel to be submitted to the readers' judgment. And so, two years later, this novel was published in Beeton's Christmas Annual for 1887 under the title A Study in Scarlet, which introduced readers to Sherlock Holmes (prototypes: Professor Joseph Bell, writer Oliver Holmes) and Dr. Watson (prototype Major Wood), who soon became famous. The novel was published in a separate edition in early 1888 and was supplied with drawings by Doyle's father, Charles Doyle.

The beginning of 1887 marked the beginning of the study and research of such a concept as "life after death". Together with his friend Ball from Portsmouth, he conducts a seance, which, however, did not allow them to fully deal with this issue, which he continued to study throughout his subsequent life.

As soon as Doyle sent out Etude in Scarlet, he began a new book, and at the end of February 1888 he finished Micah Clarke, which did not come out until late February 1889 by Longman. Arthur has always been attracted to historical novels. His favorite authors were: Meredith, Stevenson and, of course, Walter Scott. It was under their influence that Doyle wrote this and a number of other historical works. Working in 1889 on a wave of positive reviews for Mickey Clarke on The White Company, Doyle unexpectedly received an invitation to dinner from the American editor of the Lippincots Magazine to discuss writing another Sherlock Holmes story. Arthur meets with him, and also meets Oscar Wilde and eventually agrees to their proposal. And in 1890, The Sign of Four appears in the American and English issues of this magazine.

Despite his literary success and thriving medical practice, the harmonious life of the Conan Doyle family, extended by the birth of his daughter Mary (born January 1889), was hectic. The year 1890 was no less productive than the previous one, although it began with the death of his sister Annette. By the middle of this year, he has completed The White Company, which takes James Payne for publication in Cornhill and bills it as the best historical novel since Ivanhoe. By the end of the same year, under the influence of the German microbiologist Robert Koch and even more Malcolm Robert, he decides to leave his practice in Portsmouth and travels with his wife to Vienna, leaving his daughter Mary with his grandmother, where he wants to specialize in ophthalmology in order to find work in London. ... However, faced with specialized German and having studied for 4 months in Vienna, he realizes that the time is wasted. During his studies, he writes the book "The Doings of Raffles Haw", according to Doyle "... not a very significant thing ...". In the spring of the same year, Doyle visited Paris and hastily returned to London, where he opened an internship on Upper Wimpole. The practice was not successful (patients were absent), but during this time short stories about Sherlock Holmes were written for the magazine "The Strand". And with the help of Sidney Paget, the image of Holmes is created.

In May 1891, Doyle fell ill with the flu and was dying for several days. When he recovered, he decided to leave medical practice and devote himself to literature. This takes place in August 1891. By the end of 1891, Doyle had become very popular with the appearance of the sixth Sherlock Holmes story, The Man with the Twisted Lip. But after these six stories were written, the editor of The Strand asked for six more in October 1891, agreeing to any terms from the author. And Doyle asked, as it seemed to him, such an amount, 50 pounds, upon hearing about which the deal should not have taken place, since he no longer wanted to deal with this character. But to his great surprise, it turned out that the editors agreed. And the stories were written. Doyle begins work for The Exiles (graduated in early 1892) and unexpectedly receives an invitation to dinner from the Idler magazine (the lazy one), where he meets Jerome K. Jerome, Robert Barr, with whom he later befriended. Doyle continues his friendly relationship with Barry and from March to April 1892 rests with him in Scotland. Having visited Edinburgh, Kirrimuir, Alford on the way. Upon returning to Norwood, he begins work on The Great Shadow (Napoleon's era), which he finishes by the middle of the same year.

In November of the same 1892, while living in Norwood, Louise gave birth to a son, whom they named Alleyn Kingely. Doyle writes the short story "Survivor of the 15th Year", which, under the influence of Robert Barr, remakes it into a one-act play "Waterloo", which is successfully staged in many theaters (Bram Stoker bought the rights to this play.) In 1892, The Strand magazine again suggested writing another series of stories about Sherlock Holmes. Doyle, hoping that the magazine will refuse, sets a condition - 1000 pounds and ... the magazine agrees. Doyle was already tired of his hero. After all, every time you need to come up with a new plot. So when Doyle and his wife go on vacation to Switzerland in early 1893 and visit the Reichenbach Falls, he decides to put an end to this annoying hero. (Between 1889 and 1890, Doyle wrote a play in three acts "Angels of Darkness" (based on the plot "A Study in Crimson"). The main character in it is Dr. Watson. Holmes is not even mentioned in it. The action takes place in USA in San Francisco. We learn many details about his life there, as well as the fact that at the time of his marriage to Mary Morstan he was already married! This work was not published during the life of the author. However, then it was still published, but in Russian language has not yet been translated!) As a result, twenty thousand subscribers have unsubscribed from The Strand magazine. Now freed from a medical career and a fictional character (The only parody of Holmes, The Field Bazaar, was written for the University of Edinburgh magazine Student to raise funds for the reconstruction of a croquet field.) what he considered more important, Conan Doyle absorbed himself into more intense activity. This frantic life may explain why the former doctor was oblivious to the serious deterioration in his wife's health. In May 1893, the operetta Jane Annie: or, the Good Conduct prize (with J. M. Barrie) was staged at the Savoy Theater. But she failed. Doyle is very worried and begins to wonder if he is capable of writing for the theater? In the summer of the same year, Arthur's sister Constance marries Ernest William Horningom. And in August, he and Tui went to Switzerland to give a lecture on the topic "Fiction as part of literature." He liked this occupation and he did it more than once before, and even after that. Therefore, when, upon his return from Switzerland, he was offered a lecture tour in England, he enthusiastically took it up.

But unexpectedly, although everyone was waiting for this, Arthur's father, Charles Doyle, dies. And over time, he finally learns that Louise has tuberculosis (consumption) and again goes to Switzerland. (There he writes "The Stark Munro Letters", which Jerome K. Jerome publishes in "Lazy Man.") Although she was only given a few months, Doyle begins a belated departure and manages to delay her passing more than 10 years, from 1893 to 1906. He and his wife move to Davos, located in the Alps. In Davos, Doyle is actively involved in sports, starting to write stories about Brigadier Gerard, based mainly on the book "Memoirs of General Marbeau".

While being treated in the Alps, Tui gets better (this happens in April 1894) and she decides to go to England for a few days at their Norwood home. And Doyle, at Major Pond's suggestion, go on a tour of the United States, reading excerpts from his writings. And so at the end of September 1894, together with his brother Innes, who by that time was finishing a closed school in Richmond, the Royal Military Academy in Woolwich, became an officer, went on the liner "Elba" of the Norddeuilcher-Lloyd company from Soutchampton to America. There he visited more than 30 cities in the United States. His lectures were successful, but Doyle himself was very tired of them, although he received great satisfaction from this journey. By the way, it was to the American public that he first read his first story about Brigadier Gerard - "Brigadier Gerard's Medal." In early 1895, he returned to Davos to his wife, who by that time was doing well. At the same time, The Strand magazine began publishing the first stories from “The Exploits of Brigadier Gerard” and immediately the number of subscribers increased.

Due to the illness of his wife, Doyle is very burdened by constant travel, and also by the fact that he cannot live in England for this reason. And then, unexpectedly, he meets Grant Allen, who, sick like Tue, continued to live in England. Therefore, he decides to sell the house in Norwood and build a luxury mansion in Hindhead, Surrey. In the fall of 1895, Arthur Conan Doyle travels to Egypt with Louise and his sister Lottie, and during the winter of 1896 is where he hopes for a warm climate that will be beneficial to her. Before this trip, he is completing the book "Rodney Stone" ("Rodney Stone"). In Egypt, he lives near Cairo, having fun with golf, tennis, billiards, horse riding. But once, during one of the horse rides, the horse throws it off, and even hits it in the head with a hoof. In memory of this trip, five stitches are applied over his right eye. Also, together with his family, he takes part in a boat trip to the upper Nile.

In May 1896, he returns to England to find that his new home has not yet been completed. Therefore, he rents another house in "Graywood Beach" and all further construction is under his vigilant control. Doyle continues to work on "Uncle Bernac: A Memory of the Empire", which was started in Egypt, but the book is hard to come by. At the end of 1896, he began writing The Tragedy Of The Korosko, which was based on impressions received in Egypt. And by the summer of 1897, he settled in his own house in Surrey, in Undershaw, where Doyle had his own office for a long time, in which he could work quietly, and it was there that he came to the idea of ​​resurrecting his sworn enemy Sherlock Holmes, due to the amendment of his financial situation, which worsened somewhat due to the high costs of building a house. At the end of 1897, he wrote the play "Sherlock Holmes" and sent it to Beerboom Three. But he wished to significantly alter it for himself, and as a result, the author sends it to New York to Charles Frohman, who, in turn, handed it over to William Gillett, who wished to remake it to his liking. This time the long-suffering author gave up on everything and gave his consent. As a result, Holmes was married, and a new manuscript was sent to the author for approval. And in November 1899, Hiller's Sherlock Holmes was well received in Buffalo.

In the spring of 1898, before traveling to Italy, he finished three stories: "The Beetle Hunter", "The Man with the Watch", "The Disappeared Emergency Train." In the last of them, Sherlock Holmes was invisibly present.

The year 1897 was significant in that the diamond anniversary (70 years) of Queen Victoria of England was celebrated. In honor of this event, an all-imperial festival is held. In connection with this event, about two thousand soldiers of all colors from all over the empire gathered in London, who marched across London on June 25 to the jubilation of the inhabitants. And on June 26, the Prince of Wales hosted a fleet parade at Spinghead: in the roadstead, in four lines, warships stretched for 30 miles. This event caused an explosion of wild enthusiasm, but the approach of war was already felt, although the victories of the army were not at all a novelty. On the evening of June 25, the Lyceum Theater hosted a screening of Conan Doyle's Waterloo, received in the ecstasy of loyal feelings.

It is believed that Conan Doyle was a man of the highest moral standards, who did not change during his life together Louise. However, this did not prevent him from falling, he fell in love with Jean Lecky the first time he saw her on March 15, 1897. At the age of twenty-four, she was a strikingly beautiful woman, with blond hair and bright green eyes. Her many achievements were quite unusual at that time: she was an intellectual, a good athlete. They fell in love with each other. The only obstacle that kept Doyle from a love affair was the state of health of his wife Tui. Surprisingly, Jean turned out to be an intelligent woman and did not demand what was contrary to his chivalrous upbringing, but nevertheless, Doyle meets the parents of his chosen one, and, in turn, introduces her to his mother, who invites Jean to stay with her. She agrees and lives for several days with her brother at Arthur's mother. A warm relationship develops between them - Jean was adopted by Doyle's mother, and became his wife only 10 years after Tui's death. Arthur and Jean meet often. Having learned that his beloved is fond of hunting and sings well, Conan Doyle also begins to take a great interest in hunting and learns to play the banjo. From October to December 1898, Doyle wrote the book "Duet with Choir Entry", which tells the story of the life of an ordinary married couple. The publication of this book was perceived ambiguously by the public, which was expecting something completely different from the famous writer, intrigue, adventure, and not a description of the life of Frank Cross and Maud Selby. But the author had a special affection for this particular book, which simply describes love.

When the Boer War broke out in December 1899, Conan Doyle announces to his fearful family that he is volunteering. Having written relatively many battles, without the opportunity to test his skills as a soldier, he felt that this would be his last chance to believe them. Not surprisingly, he was considered unfit for military service due to his somewhat overweight and forty years of age. So he goes there as a medical doctor and sailed for Africa on February 28, 1900. On April 2, 1900, he arrives at the site and splits a field hospital with 50 beds. But the number of the wounded is many times greater. Drinking water interruptions began, leading to an epidemic of intestinal disease, and therefore, instead of struggling markers, Conan Doyle had to fight a brutal battle against germs. Up to a hundred patients died a day. And this went on for 4 weeks. This was followed by fighting, which allowed them to gain the upper hand over the Boers, and on July 11, Doyle sailed back to England. For several months he was in Africa, where he saw more soldiers who died of fever, typhoid, than war wounds. The book he wrote, which underwent changes until 1902, "The Great Boer War" html - five hundred pages of chronicle, published in October 1900, was a masterpiece of military scholarship. This was not only a report of the war, but also a highly intelligent and knowledgeable commentary on some of the organizational shortcomings of the British forces at the time. After that, he threw himself headlong into politics, running for a seat in Central Edinburgh. But he was unlawfully accused of being a Catholic fanatic, remembering his Jesuit training in a boarding school. Therefore, he was defeated, but he was more happy about it than if he had won.

In 1902, Doyle finished work on another major work about the adventures of Sherlock Holmes - "The Hound of the Baskervilles" ("The Hound of the Baskervilles"). And almost immediately there is talk that the author of this sensational novel stole his idea from his friend journalist Fletcher Robinson. These conversations continue to this day.

In 1902, King Edward VII conferred the knighthood on Conan Doyle for his services to the Crown during the Boer War. Doyle continues to be weighed down by stories about Sherlock Holmes and Brigadier Gerard, so he writes "Sir Nigel" ("Sir Nigel Loring"), which, in his opinion, "... is a great literary achievement ..." As carefully as possible, playing golf, driving fast cars, flying into the skies in hot air balloons and on early, archaic airplanes, wasting time developing muscles did not bring Conan Doyle satisfaction. He again went into politics in 1906, but this time too, he was defeated.

After Louise died in his arms on July 4th, 1906, Conan Doyle was depressed for many months. He is trying to help someone worse off than he is. Continuing with the stories of Sherlock Holmes, he contacts Scotland Yard to point out the faults of justice. This justifies a young man named George Edalji, who was convicted of slaughtering many horses and cows. Conan Doyle proved that Edalji's eyesight was so poor that he could not physically perform this terrible act. The result was the release of an innocent person who managed to serve part of the term assigned to him.

After nine years of secret courtship, Conan Doyle and Jean Lecky marry publicly in front of 250 guests on September 18, 1907. With their two daughters, they move to a new home called Windlesham, in Sussex. Doyle happily lives with his new wife and starts working actively, which brings him a lot of money.

Immediately after his marriage, Doyle tries to help another convict - Oscar Slater, but is defeated. And only many years later, in the fall of 1928 (he was released in 1927), he ends this case with success, thanks to the help of a witness who initially slandered the convict, but, unfortunately, he parted ways with Oscar himself on financial grounds. This was due to the fact that it was necessary to cover Doyle's financial costs and he assumed that Slater would pay them out of the compensation given to him in 6,000 pounds for the years spent in prison, to which he replied that let the Department of Justice pay, since it was to blame.

A few years after his marriage, Doyle puts on stage the following works: "Motley Ribbon", "Rodney Stone", published under the title "House of Terperly", "Points of Destiny", "Brigadier Gerard". Following the success of The Speckled Band, Conan Doyle wants to retire, but the birth of his two sons, Denis in 1909 and Adrian in 1910, prevents him from doing so. The last child, their daughter Jeanne, was born in 1912. In 1910, Doyle publishes The Crime of the Congo, about the atrocities committed by the Belgians in the Congo. His works on Professor Challenger ("The lost world", "The Poison Belt") were as successful as Sherlock Holmes.

In May 1914, Sir Arthur, along with Lady Conan Doyle and the children, is sent to inspect the National Wildlife Refuge at Jesier Park in the northern part of the Rocky Mountains (Canada). On the way, he stops in New York, where he visits two prisons: Toombs and Sing Sing, in which he examines cells, an electric chair, and talks with prisoners. The city was found by the author to be unfavorably altered, compared to his first visit twenty years earlier. Canada, where they had spent some time, was found charming, and Doyle regretted that its primordial greatness would soon be gone. While in Canada, Doyle gives a series of lectures.

They arrived home a month later, probably because, over time, Conan Doyle was convinced of an impending 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 Fortnite Review in the summer of 1913. He sends numerous articles to newspapers about the upcoming war and military readiness for it. But his warnings were judged to be fantasy. Realizing that England only provides itself for 1/6, Doyle proposes to build a tunnel under the English Channel in order to provide itself with food in case of blockade of England by submarines of Germany. In addition, he proposes to provide all sailors in the fleet with rubber circles (to keep their heads above the water), rubber vests. His proposal was not heeded a little, but after another tragedy at sea, the massive introduction of this idea began.

Before the outbreak of war (August 4, 1914), Doyle joined the volunteer squad, which was completely civilian and was created in case of an enemy invasion of England. During the war, Doyle also makes proposals for the protection of soldiers and 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 rose 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.

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 a surprisingly complete and constructive life, it is difficult to understand why such a person retreated into the imaginary world of science fiction and spiritualism. 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 all his endeavors when he was younger. As a result, the press laughed at him, the clergy did not approve of him. But nothing could hold him back. The wife is doing this with him.

After 1918, due to his deepening involvement in the occult, Conan Doyle wrote a 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. After spending up to a quarter of a million pounds in pursuit of his secret dreams, Conan Doyle was faced with a need for money. In 1926 he wrote When the World Screamed, The Land of Mist, The Disintegration Machine.

In the fall of 1929, he embarked on a final tour of Holland, Denmark, Sweden and Norway. He was already sick with Angina Pectoris.

In the same year, 1929, The Maracot Deep and Other Stories was published. In Russia, Doyle's works were translated earlier, but this time there was some inconsistency, judging by all for ideological reasons.

In 1930, already bedridden, he made his last journey. Arthur got up from his bed and went into the garden. When he was found, he was on the ground, one of his hand, squeezing it, the other was holding a white snowdrop.

Arthur Conan Doyle died on Monday 7 July 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.

The writer's grave is engraved with the words bequeathed to him personally:

“Do not remember me with reproach,
If carried away by the story even a little
And a husband who has seen enough of life,
And the boy, before whom else is the road ... "

Biography

English writer Arthur Conan Doyle was born in the Scottish capital Edinburgh on May 22, 1859. His father was an artist.

In 1881, Conan Doyle graduated from the University of Edinburgh School of Medicine and traveled to Africa as a ship's medic.

Returning to his homeland, he took up medical practice in one of the districts of London. He defended his thesis, became a doctor of medicine. But gradually he began to write stories and essays in local magazines.

Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle(English Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle)

Once he remembered an eccentric, a certain Joseph Bell, who was a teacher at the University of Edinburgh and periodically amazed his students with his excessive observation and ability to use the "deductive method" to understand the most complex and confusing problems. So Joseph Bell, under the assumed name of an amateur detective Sherlock Holmes, appeared in one of the author's stories. True, this story went unnoticed, but the next one - "The Sign of the Four" (1890) - brought him popularity. In the early 90s of the XIX century, one after another, collections of stories "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes", "Memories of Sherlock Holmes", "The Return of Sherlock Holmes" were published.
The "highlight" of the image of Sherlock Holmes is intellectuality, irony and spiritual aristocracy, which give a special brilliance to solving intricate crimes.

Readers demanded from the author more and more new works about his beloved hero, but Conan Doyle realized that his fantasy was gradually fading away and wrote several works with other main characters - Brigadier Gerard and Professor Challenger.

Throughout his long life, Doyle traveled extensively, sailed as a ship's doctor to the Arctic on a whaling ship, to South and West Africa, and served as a field surgeon during the Boer War.

In the last years of his life, Conan Doyle was engaged in spiritualism, and even published a two-volume work "History of Spiritualism" (1926) at his own expense. Also published three volumes of his poems.

For his literary and journalistic activities, the writer was awarded the title of peerage and now he should be called "Sir Doyle".

Conan Doyle died in 1930 at the age of 71. He wrote his own epitaph:
I have completed my simple task,
If you gave at least an hour of joy
To a boy who is already half man
Or a man - still half a boy.

Bibliography

The Canon of Sherlock Holmes bibliography includes 56 short stories and 4 novels written by the character's original creator Sir Arthur Conan Doyle:

1. Study in crimson tones (1887)

2. The sign of four (1890)

3. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (collection, 1891-1892)
- Scandal in Bohemia
- Union of redheads
- Identification
- The Boscombe Valley Mystery
- Five grains of orange
- The man with the split lip
- Blue Carbuncle
- Colorful ribbon
- Engineer's Finger
- Notable bachelor
- Beryl Diadem
- Copper beeches

4. Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (collection, 1892-1893)
- Silver
- Yellow face
- Adventure of a clerk
- Gloria Scott
- House of Mesgraves Rite
- Reiget Squires
- The hunchback
- Constant patient
- The case with the translator
- Sea contract
- The last Holmes case

5. The Hound of the Baskervilles (1901-1902)

6. Return of Sherlock Holmes (collection, 1903-1904)
- Empty house
- Contractor from Norwood
- Dancing men
- Lonely cyclist
- Incident in the boarding school
- Black Peter
- The End of Charles Augustter Milverton
- Six Napoleons
- Three students
- Gold-framed pince-nez
- The Lost Rugby Player
- Murder at Abbey Grange
- Second spot

7. Valley of Horror (1914-1915)

8. His farewell bow (1908-1913, 1917)
- In the Lilac Gateway / Incident at Wisteria Lodge
- Cardboard box
- Crimson Ring
- Bruce-Partington Drawings
- Sherlock Holmes dying
- The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax
- Devil's Leg
- His farewell bow

9. Sherlock Holmes Archive (1921-1927)
- Mazarin Stone
- The mystery of the Torsky bridge
- Man on all fours
- Vampire in Sussex
- Three Garridebs
- Noble client
- The incident at the Villa "Three Skates"
- A man with a whitened face
- Lion's Mane
- Moscatel man at rest
- The history of the veiled dwelling
- The Chaoscombe Mansion Mystery

Cycle about Professor Challenger:

1. The Lost World (1912)

2. Poisoned Belt (1913)

3. Land of Fogs (1926)

4. Disintegration machine (1927)

5. When the Earth Cried Out (1928)

Sherlock Holmes
*"Notes about Sherlock Holmes"

The cycle about Professor Challenger
* The Lost World (1912)
* The Poison Belt (1913)
* The Land of Mists (1926)
* The Disintegration Machine (1927)
* When the World Screamed (1928)

Historical novels
* Micah Clarke (1888), a novel about the Monmouth (Monmouth) uprising in 17th century England.
* White squad (The White Company) (1891)
* The Great Shadow (1892)
* The Refugees (published 1893, written 1892), a novel about the Huguenots in France in the 17th century, the development of Canada by the French, the Indian wars.
* Rodney Stone (1896)
* Uncle Bernac (1897), a story about a French émigré during the Great French Revolution.
* Sir Nigel (1906)

Poetry
* Songs of Action (1898)
* Songs of the Road (1911)
* The Guards Came Through and Other Poems (1919)

Dramaturgy
* Jane Annie, or the Good Conduct Prize (1893)
* Duet (A Duet. A duologue) (1899)
* A Pot of Caviare (1912)
* The Speckled Band (1912)
* Waterloo (A drama in one act) (1919)

The Lost World (silent film by Harry Hoyt, 1925)
The Lost World (1998 film).

In the series "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" with the participation of Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce, filmed in 1939-1946, 14 films were released, the first of which was "The Hound of the Baskervilles".

The following films were released in the series "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson" with Vasily Livanov and Vitaly Solomin:
"Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson"
"The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson"
"The Hound of the Baskervilles"
"Treasures of Agra"
"The twentieth century begins"
Interesting Facts

Arthur Conan Doyle was an ophthalmologist by profession.

Back in 1908, the newspapers of England got around the sensational news: during excavations at the estate of the lawyer Richard Deuson, near the city of Piltdown, a prehistoric human skull was found, which complements the chain of evolution passed by a rational creature from ape to a man.
The "Piltdown Skull", as this find was called, became a sensation in the scientific world. Numerous articles and weighty monographs appeared on it. Meanwhile, from the very beginning, there were scholars who doubted its authenticity.
The skull and everything connected with its discovery was studied in the most thorough way. There was even an attempt to organize an official investigation with the participation of members of parliament, but it was indignantly dismissed as "defamation of British science." Since then, for decades, most anthropologists in the world have considered the Piltdown Skull to be an outstanding scientific discovery. Only in 1953, after X-ray and chemical analyzes carried out in the laboratories of Scotland Yard, was the version of the skeptical scientists about falsification confirmed. According to experts, it was produced by a highly qualified specialist. ”He skillfully connected the upper part of the human skull to the jaw of an orangutan.
But the story of the find did not end there. American scientist John Hethway-Winalough, who is fond of studying historical falsifications, recently released the results of his research. According to his version, the hoax was conceived and carried out by none other than the world famous English writer Arthur Conan Doyle. At the time, the archeological lawyer Richard Deuson disapproved of the neighborhoods of Conan Doyle, whose country house was adjacent to his estate, according to evidence of the time. Stung Conan Doyle decided to play a trick on the offender.
According to evidence of the time, archeological lawyer Richard Deuson disapproved of the novels of Conan Doyle, whose country house was adjacent to his estate. Stung Conan Doyle decided to play a trick on the offender.
An acquaintance of the writer Jesse Fowless, who owned an antique store, gave him a skull found in an ancient Roman tomb. From another friend, a doctor and amateur zoologist from the island of Borneo, Conan Doyle bought the jaw of an orangutan. With the help of files and a drill, the writer sharpened the skull in order to attach the monkey's jaw to it.
Then he treated the resulting compound with chemicals to make the "prehuman" skull look quite "ancient".
Knowing about the habit of his neighbor Deuson to excavate in a not far away abandoned mine, the writer buried his surprise there. The lawyer fell for the bait. He presented the found skull to the scientific society of the British Museum. This is how the fame of the "Piltdown Man" arose. The general enthusiasm for this was so great that Doyle did not dare to openly declare his falsification. But in his diary he wrote: "Instead of dumping the ignorant into the pit of their ignorance, I buried science there myself." Until his death, he never learned that science would nevertheless reveal the truth.

... On July 13, 1930, in the London Albert Hall, in the presence of eight thousand people, a memorial service was held for Arthur Conan Doyle, who had died a few days ago. In the first row sat Sir Arthur's widow Lady Jean, and across a chair from her was their son Denis. The space between them remained free and intended ... Conan Doyle.

"Ladies and gentlemen! I ask everyone to stand up! - The low chest voice of the medium Estelle Roberts sounded under the arches of the hall. “I see Sir Arthur entering the hall at this very moment!” There was frantic applause. Roberts instantly stopped them with a warning motion of her hand: “Now Sir Arthur is sinking into a chair next to his wife Lady Jean. O! He asks me to give Lady Jean a message! " Estelle Roberts approached the woman and whispered something in her ear. She smiled with satisfaction, then rose from her seat and walked out onto the stage. The crowd stood up to greet her. Dark-haired, in a strict black suit and funeral hat, Conan Doyle's widow held herself very erect, and the whole figure of this fifty-eight-year-old woman showed dignity and confidence.

Ladies and gentlemen, Sir Arthur would like to bring you an experiment, ”she said slowly and solemnly. - Before leaving our world, he gave me this envelope, sealed by his personal seal. “Lady Jean showed it to the public so that everyone could make sure the red family seal was not broken. - And now, gentlemen, the spirit of Sir Arthur will dictate to Estelle the content of his message, and we will check if it is true.

Estelle Roberts stood in front of an empty chair and nodded her head. Then, standing next to Lady Jean, she declared, addressing the audience:

The text of the letter is as follows: “I have defeated you, unbelieving gentlemen! Death does not exist, as I warned. See you soon!"

Lady Jean opened the envelope to find exactly those words on the sheet of paper.

... Arthur Conan Doyle always acted contrary to what was expected of him. In addition, he was distinguished by a catastrophic inability to put up with the monotony of the so-called everyday life. Even his own name - Arthur Doyle - seemed too boring to him, and as he grew up, he began to use his middle name Conan as part of his surname. Perhaps, as a child, Arthur's mother “overfed” Arthur with romantic stories. Thanks to Mary Doyle's nightly stories about travelers, noble aristocrats and devoted knights, Arthur somehow forgot that neither he nor his sisters and brother had such beautiful toys as the neighbour's children, that he was wearing darned pants, and their dinner table leg is swinging. He did not delve into the meaning of the terrible word "loser", which his relatives called his stooped, sad father, who was vegetating in some tiny position in the state office of the capital of Scotland, Edinburgh. The boy did not understand all the humiliation of his father's comparison with siblings Charles and Richard Doyle, who made excellent careers in London (one is a brilliant scientist, the other is a fashion illustrator).

Coming out at the age of 17 from the closed educational institution of the Jesuit brothers, a harsh and merciless school, where the whip served as the main means of education, Arthur burned with impatience to quickly experience those incredible adventures about which his mother told so much and he himself read from his favorites, Maina Reed, Jules Verne and Walter Scott. But it turned out that the mother, completely exhausted by the household, lack of money and numerous children, had by no means romantic views on the future of her eldest son. She wanted Arthur to acquire a solid profession: her mother was afraid that he would suffer the fate of his father, a worthless, drunken bum, who quit his job and for no reason imagined himself an artist. Having suppressed a surge of irritation, Arthur entered the medical school of the University of Edinburgh.

But the obstinacy of the character of Mary Doyle's son had to be learned pretty soon - in the fall of 1880, without completing the course, Arthur signed up as a doctor on the whaling ship "Nadezhda", heading towards Greenland. The crew consisted of fifty sailors - Scottish and Irish: tall, bearded and extremely fierce in appearance. The newcomer, as usual, should have been "checked", but the "sucker" was clearly ready for this. No sooner had the ship put out to sea than Arthur had already grappled on deck with the ship's cook Jack Lamb, whose dexterity a panther would have envied. They fought selflessly and fiercely, uttering war cries from time to time. The crew watched the battle with interest, and when Arthur pressed Lamb to the boards, triumphantly squeezing his throat, the sailors cheered in approval: the rookie doctor was recognized as one of his own. Arthur later admitted to them that, preparing himself for the life of a traveler, he had the foresight of taking boxing lessons at a Jesuit school.

Soon Captain John Gray doubled the salary of the ship's doctor - he hunted seals and whales, in no way inferior in agility and dexterity to seasoned sailors. Doyle risked his life with astonishing fearlessness, and one day he did almost die, falling off an ice floe into the sea. Arthur was saved only by the fact that he managed to grab the fin of a dead seal and his comrades quickly lifted him onto the ship. Whale hunting was even more dangerous, brutal and exhausting. Even when it was finally possible to drag the whale onto the deck with great difficulty, the sea giant still fought desperately for life; one blow from his fin could cut a man in half, and once such a blow almost got to Conan Doyle, but at the last moment he managed to dodge with an incomprehensible, downright monkey's dexterity.

Under this clear sky, among the cold Arctic waters lit by the whitish sun, twenty-year-old Conan Doyle fully realized himself as a man who confirmed his right to that risky life, full of dangers and adventures, which, from his point of view, could only be considered life.

Returning from his first expedition and having passed the exam for a doctor's degree in half, he enlisted on the merchant ship Mayumba, sailing to the African continent, within a year. The impressions of this trip did not let Conan Doyle go until the end of his life, and many years later they will inspire him to create science fiction novels. Arthur finally saw with his own eyes what he had only read about in books before: centuries-old forests with their mighty trees and branches forming a continuous green tent; creeping vines of monstrous size, bright orchids, lichen, golden allamanda; in the woods lurked a whole world of iridescent snakes, monkeys, strange birds - blue, violet, purple; the crystal clear waters of the rivers and lakes were teeming with fish of all colors and sizes. Conan Doyle had a chance to hunt crocodiles, several times he almost became the prey of a shark, but contempt for death and some kind of special innate luck helped him to get out unharmed even from the threatening waters of the African coast.

These two exotic expeditions only strengthened in the young man a passion for everything unusual, and therefore, when, nevertheless, due to material considerations, he had to deal with the organization of his medical career, the feeling he experienced at the same time was very similar to disgust. Reluctantly, Conan Doyle began his practice in the small town of Portsmouth, where life was significantly cheaper than in Edinburgh. The savings were barely enough to buy a table and chair for the patient's office. In his so-called bedroom in the corner lay only a straw mattress, on which Arthur slept, wrapped in his coat. The aspiring doctor lived on a shilling a day, quit smoking out of economy, and bought food in the cheapest port shops.

However, luck did not change him this time either: contrary to all forecasts, his medical practice began to grow. And now comfortable chairs, carved tables, large oval mirrors, curtains on the windows and even a housekeeper appeared in the house. Somehow, just as he acquired new furniture, Arthur also acquired a wife, his patient's twenty-seven-year-old sister Louise Hawkins. He was not at all burning with an insane passion for Louise, it was just that the inhabitants of the provincial town had much more confidence in the married doctor. In the spring of 1886, when they were getting married, an old woman who happened to be in church, having examined the young couple, muttered to herself: “Well, I chose a wife! Such a buffalo - such a mouse. Will torment her at all! " They tried to politely take the old woman out, but her observations were to the point: Louise was tiny, with a kind round, weak-willed face and submissive eyes, and Arthur was almost two meters tall, muscular, with large facial features and a belligerently curled mustache.

How could Conan Doyle tell anyone that, when taking patients, he languishes like a tiger in a cage, that a small room with a low ceiling, where he has to spend ten hours a day, strangles him like a stranglehold around his neck, that the society of respectable doctors the middle hand acts on him as a sleeping pill. He desperately wanted to be free. And again, as in childhood, his freedom-loving nature found refuge in fantasies: this time Conan Doyle plunged headlong into reading detective stories, mostly weak imitations of Dickens and E. Poe. And once, for fun and for fun, Conan Doyle tried to write a detective story himself. The protagonist of this story was the detective Sherlock Holmes, whose name Conan Doyle borrowed from a doctor he knew. One of the Portsmouth magazines published a story and ordered a new one - with the same hero. Arthur wrote. Then again and again. When he had a decent amount of stories, he realized that writing gives him almost as much pleasure as traveling.

May 4, 1891 became the day of his new birth in the literal and figurative sense of the word. For several hours, Arthur, in a sweat-soaked linen shirt, rushed about the bed in excruciating fever. Louise quietly sat by his bed, cried and prayed: she knew that her husband was between life and death. Arthur had a severe form of influenza, and life-saving antibiotics had not yet been invented. Suddenly he became quiet, then the patient's face cleared up, and a mischievous smile lit up him. Arthur stretched out his hand, took the handkerchief lying next to his pillow and, with a weakened hand, threw it several times to the ceiling. "Resolved!" - in a weak voice, but somehow he spoke very confidently. Louise decided it was about her recovery. The patient threw the handkerchief several more times in a kind of childish delight. “Don't wear a tweed jacket. Do not accept anyone. Don't prescribe pills, ”he muttered. And he told his wife about the decision he had just made: he quits medicine and will write. Louise looked at him in mute amazement - she knew her husband very little. “Pack your things! - commanded Conan Doyle, who was dying an hour ago. "We are moving to the capital."

The publishers of The Strand Magazine, London, after reading stories about Sherlock Holmes, quickly appreciated what treasure was in their hands. A contract was immediately signed with the novice author, he was given an impressive advance. Conan Doyle was delighted: if he remained a doctor, he would not earn that kind of money in five years! In a comfortable apartment in the heart of London, he reveled in writing more and more stories about a cunning detective. He took some plots from the criminal chronicle, some friends suggested to him. Literary London reacted very favorably to the newly-minted fellow in the pen. Jerome K. Jerome and Peter Pan creator James Matthew Barry became close friends. Conan Doyle did not have to achieve fame, it was enough to quietly beckon her with a finger. The circulation of the magazine with his name on the cover has increased fivefold.

From now on, the nightly entertainment of Arthur's family - by that time he had already had a daughter and a son - was the reading of countless letters that readers addressed to Sherlock Holmes, considering him a real person. Often, along with the messages, gifts for the detective came: pipe cleaners, violin strings, tobacco. Once someone even thought of sending cocaine, which, as you know, the famous detective liked to sniff. Hundreds of women wondered if Mr. Holmes or Dr. Watson needed a housekeeper. Conan Doyle became seriously worried when checks for large sums of money began to be found in letters, people sent royalties to Holmes, persuading him to take up solving a case.

Be that as it may, but it was not in the plans of fate to give Arthur Conan Doyle time to revel in fame and prosperity for too long. Two dramatic events in one year almost completely changed the writer. First, his wife Louise was diagnosed with tuberculosis and in a very neglected form. If she had gone to the doctors earlier, there would have been hope for her recovery. The diagnosis threw Arthur into shame. How could he, the doctor, have missed such obvious, obvious symptoms ?! He dragged his wife behind him, like a comfortable chair, not paying attention to her cough, then to Switzerland, because he wanted to go ice skating, then to Norway - to go skiing ... Is now Louise doomed to death only because of his criminal frivolity ?

The second misfortune that befell Conan Doyle was even worse: in October of the same year, his father Charles Doyle died. He died not as befits a gentleman - in his own bed, surrounded by family and care, but shamefully and humiliatingly - in an insane asylum, where his wife Mary hid him, convinced that her husband had developed schizophrenia on the basis of alcoholism: he allegedly began to hear "voices." Arthur then approvingly reacted to this decision - he was always ashamed of his father and wanted him to disappear from their lives forever. Having become a more or less famous writer and caring about his reputation, he all the more preferred not to remember his parent. After his death, Arthur's mother asked Arthur to take Charles's personal belongings from the hospital. And then, quite by chance, Conan Doyle discovered a diary in his father's nightstand, which the unfortunate man kept, as it turned out, almost until his death.

None of the books he has read so far made such an impression on Conan Doyle as these records. A weak-willed, intoxicated by an addiction to alcohol, but at the same time absolutely sane, with a clear mind and keen observation, a person bitterly complained: what kind of humane society is this and what kind of experienced doctors are they who are unable or unwilling to distinguish alcoholism from schizophrenia? What kind of relatives are they seeking to get rid of a lost person as soon as possible? The diary also contained many talented drawings. On one of the pages, Doyle was surprised to find his father addressing him, Arthur. Appealing to his education and knowledge in the field of medicine, Charles wrote that he would like to reveal to his son one "great secret": from his own experience he learned that the soul continues to live after death - he allegedly managed to get in touch with his deceased parents, who and informed his son about it. The diary contained calls to “explore this reserved area of ​​human consciousness” so that mystically sensitive people would no longer be considered incurable schizophrenics. And this was written by his father ?! The father, whom Arthur imagined as a downsized, half-educated alcoholic, unable to connect two words? Reading this peculiar testament, Conan Doyle felt terrible excitement: after all, while still in Portsmouth, he was interested in spiritualism, but did not allow himself to get carried away, because he believed that, perhaps, hereditary schizophrenia simply speaks in him ...

The illness of his wife, the death of his father and the reading of this diary caused a violent storm of feelings in Arthur's soul. And he dared to consider himself a knight without fear and reproach! Of course, Louise was immediately sent to the best pulmonary sanatorium in Davos, and Arthur did not spare money to alleviate her fate (thanks to his cares she will live for another thirteen years.) But in order to make amends to her father, the case is the situation was more complicated. And Conan Doyle, with the passion with which he, however, took up any business, pounced on the study of spiritualistic literature.

The anger that raged in him towards himself resulted in a very natural impulse from the point of view of psychology - in the desire to deal with his "alter ego" - Sherlock Holmes and thus commit a symbolic suicide. Arthur no longer read the letters addressed to the detective. Now they infuriated him - without printing, he violently threw them wherever he needed: into the fireplace, out the window, into the garbage can. Glory suddenly appeared to him in a completely different light: he is just a popular hack of cheap detective tales! The world does not care that for several years now it has been working on serious historical novels!

In December 1893, The Strand Store published Holmes' Last Case, in which the famous detective was sent to the next world by the ruthless hand of his creator. In the same month, twenty thousand people canceled their subscription to the magazine. Every day huge crowds of people gathered around the editorial office with the slogans "Give us Holmes back!" In the house of Conan Doyle in Norwood, phone calls were heard every now and then with direct threats: if Sherlock Holmes was not raised from the dead, his heartless creator would soon follow him.

It is likely that Conan Doyle would not mind sharing the fate of his character: his life fell apart like a house of cards - the children were now brought up by relatives, and his wife, who turned from a plump, ruddy creature into a pale ghost with a tortured smile wandering on her lips, spent her days in armchair of the Davos sanatorium.

When he visited Louise, Conan Doyle avoided looking into her eyes and, holding her thinned hand in his, thought that he would rather die himself than watch this terrible painful extinction. It was during this period that he began to go on very dangerous mountaineering expeditions for a long time, then left for Egypt for many months. With a group of desperate daredevils, Doyle set out on a very risky search for an ancient Coptic monastery. They walked 80 kilometers through the scorched desert; at some point, even local guides abandoned them, and Conan Doyle personally led the expedition.

However, the main test awaited Conan Doyle not at all among the sheer mountain cliffs and waterless deserts. With a calm, graceful step, it approached Arthur in the guise of a twenty-four-year-old Scotchwoman Jean Leckie, and at the sight of this unexpected misfortune with lush dark hair and a swan neck, Conan Doyle froze in his chest, as if he was standing over an abyss on a dangerous pass, and was not in London, on boring dinner party at your publisher's.

Jean laughed at some joke of his, sincere, carefree. Arthur, who had almost forgotten how to smile, heard in her laughter something very, very warm, even dear, and for no reason laughed in response. Then, reaching out to hand her some dish, he tipped the contents onto the snow-white tablecloth. And, looking into Jin's cheerful eyes, he laughed again. The diagnosis was crystal clear: love at first sight. Moreover, it is mutual.

Realizing what had happened to him, Conan Doyle did not experience any elation, or simply joy or relief, as one might expect - only an endless, like an ocean, despair.

“You have to be very clear about it,” he said to Jean, minting every word, “that I will never leave Louise. And under no circumstances will I divorce her. As long as she lives, I cannot belong to you in any way. Not in any, do you understand me? " “Yes, but I will never marry anyone except you,” came an equally definite answer.

What, in fact, prevented them from simply becoming lovers? London literary bohemians would hardly have condemned their connection: many writers, including Dickens and Wells, had novels on the side. But Conan Doyle did not consider himself to be bohemian and still considered himself a gentleman. A man of honor, he said, is one who, choosing between feeling and duty, will not hesitate to give preference to the latter. And Conan Doyle chided himself too much anyway.

The outbreak of the Boer War was a real deliverance for the writer - both from frequent visits to the sanatorium, where Louise was quietly fading away in a room smelled of drugs, and from Jean's attentive, understanding eyes. Wasted no time, Conan Doyle signed up for the front as a volunteer. He was not at all a militarist and a colonist, like, say, Kipling; just Arthur considered himself a patriot, and the doctor's duty called him to be on the front line. As usual, he invariably found himself in the hottest spots and in the line of fire; for his participation in this war, Edward VII bestowed upon him the title of "sir".

After the war, Conan Doyle had to think again about making money - inflation and the greatly increased costs of Louise's treatment made themselves felt. Only one character brought him faithful money - Sherlock Holmes. Neither his historical, nor his social and everyday novels enjoyed particular success with the public. For the resurrection of Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur was promised an unprecedented sum for those times - £ 100 per 1000 words. Conan Doyle was confused: he had no idea how plausible it was to bring this son of a bitch Holmes back from the other world. Jean suggested a solution unexpectedly.

One day he invited her to take a car ride. Then there were few more cars, and his proposal seemed to the girl very exotic, promising a lot of thrills. In Birmingham they sat solemnly in the brand new Walsley. Conan Doyle, dressed as he was supposed to be in a long raincoat, cap and goggles, thought it unnecessary to inform his companion that he had never tried to drive a car. For a debutant, he coped with the task quite dashingly, although Jin screamed every time when the car bounced on the bumpy road. Trying to distract her, Arthur began to complain that he did not know how to resurrect Holmes. And then Jin said, “Stop! I think I came up with it! " Out of surprise, Conan Doyle pressed not on the brake - that would be half the trouble - but on the gas, and the car crashed into the wagon weaving ahead. A second later, Arthur and Jean had to hide from a hail of unexpected blows: turnips fell from the wagon. "Why don't you say what you came up with?" Conan Doyle asked impatiently, fighting off a turnip attack. “Baritsu,” Jin said solemnly and mysteriously. - Baritsu ... "

Conan Doyle really took Jean's advice: now everyone knows how Holmes, thanks to his mastery of baritsu, that is, the techniques of Japanese wrestling, managed to avoid death by only staging it.

And then the worst night in the life of Conan Doyle happened - the night of July 4, 1906, when Louise was dying. This took place in London, at their home in the suburb of Norwood. Louise was desperately, madly afraid of death. She lay on the sheets with a white waxy face, clutching her husband's arm, as if she wanted to take him with her. He watched her agony with horror and, while his wife was still conscious, hastily, fearing not to be in time and regretting that he had not guessed to do this earlier, told Louise what he had learned from his father's diary and the books he had read: that there is no death, how as soon as she leaves, he will definitely contact her, about how he needs her there. "Promise me ..." her blue lips whispered. But what exactly to promise, Louise did not have time to say.

A year after the death of his wife, Conan Doyle married Jean Leckie. In total, she had been waiting for him for ten whole years. From the outside, their family life might seem fabulously idyllic: three adorable children, a beautiful house in one of the most picturesque places in Sussex, wealth, fame. The family's income was now brought not only by the faithful Holmes - plays by Conan Doyle were staged in the theater, film companies were buying the rights to film adaptations of his works; some of his science fiction novels, especially The Lost World, were also successful. Conan Doyle was not just a famous writer - he became a national treasure in England.

However, this arranged, pastoral life began to somehow gradually collapse, like a sand embankment, which was washed away by water. To everyone who knew Sir Arthur, little by little it began to seem that the famous writer ... was simply going crazy. The first perplexity was caused by his public speech in 1917, in which Conan Doyle in sharp terms renounced Catholicism, announced his official conversion to the "spiritualist religion", stating that he had finally received "irrefutable proof" of his innocence.

... In the tightly curtained room of the Ambassador Hotel in Atlantic City, a strange company has gathered: Conan Doyle, his wife Jean and the famous illusionist Harry Houdini. The latter was extremely interested in spiritualism, especially since his outstanding abilities were often attributed to contact with an otherworldly force. Gene was supposed to be the medium. Recently, she has shown the ability to write automatically.

Jean, in a dull dark dress, was seated away from the men in an armchair. Suddenly her eyes closed and her body began to shudder in some strange convulsions - she fell into a trance. A little later, Jean said that she had managed to get in touch with the spirit of Kingsley, Conan Doyle's son from Louise, who had recently died on the front of the First World War. "Could he ask him something about my deceased mother?" - barely overpowering excitement, asked Houdini. “Ask questions,” Conan Doyle said dully. "First, ask why my mother left such a strange will?" The answer he received shocked Houdini so much that he knocked over the chair and rushed out of the room. Sir Arthur and Jean, as if nothing had happened, continued to communicate with Kingsley. It was this session, according to Conan Doyle, that provided him with the very "incontrovertible evidence" that he had been looking for for so many years. However, less than a month later, in the New York Sun, Houdini subjected spiritism to the most derogatory criticism, calling Jean a charlatan and Conan Doyle at least a gullible dupe.

It was this opinion about the writer that was increasingly spreading in society. By the mid-1920s, he became a universal laughing stock, and most of his friends gradually turned away from him. Jerome K. Jerome and James Barry no longer disdained to throw mud at both Sir Arthur and his convictions. But, as always, Conan Doyle went against everyone. Until 1927, he continues to write stories about Sherlock Holmes, but with one single purpose - to earn money for his endless propaganda trips. In countless cities in Europe and America, where he performs, thousands of people are going to gaze at him. Those who see him for the first time breathe a sigh of disappointment when this overweight, gray-haired man with an absurdly drooping mustache climbs the stage - he does not in the least resemble the Sherlock Holmes, whom ordinary people expected to see. There is neither aristocratic thinness nor sophistication in him, his voice is devoid of restrained ironic modulations. After listening a little to his excited hoarse speech, the audience begins to whistle, hoot and stamp their feet.

The only one who always and in everything supports Sir Arthur is his wife. In the spring of 1930, seventy-one-year-old Conan Doyle, calling Jean into his office and carefully closing the doors, solemnly announced that he was going to tell her the most important news in his life. “I learned that I will leave this world on July 7th. Please make all the necessary arrangements. " Jean, unlike poor Louise, knew her husband well and did not ask a single superfluous question.

At the end of June, Conan Doyle suffered his first heart attack. A day later, ignoring the pain in his heart, he gave a farewell lecture to a huge crowd in London's Queens Hall.

On the night of July 7, neither he nor Jin closed their eyes for a minute - they talked about something for a long time, then they just sat holding hands. Conan Doyle was very pale, but cheerful and absolutely calm. At seven o'clock in the morning, he asked Jean to open all the windows. At half past seven in the morning he had another heart attack. Having come to his senses a little, he asked his wife to help him sit in the chair in front of the window. “I don’t want to die in bed,” he calmly declared to Jin. “Maybe I’ll still have time to admire the landscape a little.” At about eight o'clock in the morning Sir Arthur Conan Doyle quietly and imperceptibly crossed the border, as he himself liked to express it, between manifested and unmanifested being, and his gaze was fixed on the lush green plains stretching beyond the horizon, which he had always loved so much ...

155 years ago, May 22, 1859, in the family of an Irish alcoholic, a descendant of kings Henry III and Edward III, there was an addition. The baby will be destined to become an ophthalmologist, whaler, organizer of ski resorts in Davos, an expert in occult sciences, a virtuoso in the banjo game and a knight. Baptized the newborn with the name Ignatius.

Subsequently, he will prefer to be called differently. Name Arthur was inherited by him. Middle name, archaic Conan, he took in honor of his father's uncle. Surname Doyle was considered one of the most ancient and venerable in Ireland and Scotland. Now she is also the most famous.

The author of the bulletproof vest

An incredible thing: the drunkard, drug addict, dubious businessman and inveterate smoker became almost the most important of the heroes of the books in the "Library for School and Youth" series. Who is this? Allow me! After all, this is exactly what “Mr. Cherlock Holmz” is, as the “leading British detective” was called in Russian pre-revolutionary translations. He doesn't let the pipes out of his mouth, he regularly evaporates with morphine and cocaine, and even whiskey, port wine and sherry brandy slip even in sterile Soviet film adaptations.

Does anyone remember Sir Nigel Loring? Or a character with the more than strange name Micah Clarke? Unlikely. But Sherlock Holmes is always with us. Even in pioneer camps. Andrey Makarevich In his memoirs he wrote: "Most often in the" scary stories "before going to bed they talked about the adventures of a man named Sherlohomts."

• © www.globallookpress.com
• © www.globallookpress.com / Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. 1892
• © www.globallookpress.com / Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. 1894 year.
• © Flickr.com / Arturo Espinosa
• © www.globallookpress.com / Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Harry Houdini. Work not later than 1930.
• © www.globallookpress.com / Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. 1911 year.
• © www.globallookpress.com / Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. 1921 year.

Meanwhile, if the "serious" critics are to be believed, we must remember exactly Nigel Loring. Because the work "The White Detachment", the main character of which is precisely this sir, was once called "the best historical novel in England, surpassing even" Ivanhoe " Walter Scott».

Micah Clarke is not remembered at all. And completely in vain. This character deserves a kind word, if only for the reason that Conan Doyle, in the novel about his adventures, in every possible way praised the "light bulletproof chest armor". During the First World War, the writer will remember this idea and will push it in the press. The result is a bulletproof vest that has saved many lives in our time.

- Yes, yes, of course, - answered our classic. “We remember Professor Challenger from The Lost World and Brigadier Gerard. But only Sherlock Holmes became a hero for our children!

And, as if in revenge for his rebuke, Chukovsky later nailed Doyle:

- He was not a great writer ...

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. 1922 year. Photo: flickr.com / Boston Public Library

School Moriarty

Maybe he wasn't. However, the name Sherlock remained indelible on the tablets of history. And recognizable. And in the biographies of the author Holmes, any little things are now carefully preserved. And the fact that in college little Arthur's least favorite subject was mathematics - eternal colas. And the fact that in this very college he was terribly annoyed by the Italian immigrants, the Moriarty brothers. An excellent lesson for those who arrange hard labor from their studies. And also to those who poison their comrades. Because this is how the "genius of the underworld, professor of mathematics Moriarty" was born. Before the emergence Hitler he was the model of the "most cruel villain" of all times and peoples.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in a field hospital during the Boer War. work not earlier than 1899. Photo: www.globallookpress.com

It is believed that the biography of the writer is his books. In the case of Sir Ignath, this is not entirely true. How many writers volunteered to go to the front? And Conan Doyle, at the very beginning of the Boer War, being already a forty-year-old world famous writer, asks to the front line. And not just anywhere, but to South Africa.

They refuse him. And then, at his own expense, he goes to the very hell. And on his own fees, including from the annoying, hated "Mr. Holmes", he organizes an exemplary field hospital. By the way, it is for these military labors, and not at all for literature, that Arthur Conan Doyle receives the knighthood and the Order of the British Empire.

Returning from the war, Sir Doyle remains the talk of the town. Is it a joke - having exchanged your fifties, to be the strongest amateur boxer in the British Empire? And while still mastering racing cars? And draw airplane diagrams? And put forward a proposal to build a tunnel under the English Channel?

Then his hobbies seemed fantastic. But let's remember. The Channel Tunnel has been built after all. Let it not be designed by Conan Doyle, but built. On airplanes with fantastic swept wings, we now easily fly on vacation. But even at the dawn of aviation, it was he who proposed such a wing shape.

And there is also a genius detective drug addict who never uttered the phrase "Well, it's elementary, Watson!" We owe this expression actor Vasily Livanov, which can also be called "sir".

By the way, quite officially - everyone who was awarded the Order of the British Empire should be called that way. And Russian Holmes and Russian Watson performed by Vitaly Solomina recognized as the best in Europe. True, not in all of Europe, but only on the continent. Well. The British traditionally do not recognize water faucets, right-hand traffic and other wisdom. They do not really recognize the real exploits of one of their most famous sons. We will at least remember.