The Return of Sherlock Holmes: A Collection of Holmes Adventures (Timeless Classic Books)

Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle was born in 1859 in Edinburgh, Scotland. Arthur's father was an alcoholic who accomplished little in his life. His mother Mary was an avid reader and an incredible storyteller. So much so that later in life, Conan Doyle wrote: "In my early childhood, as far as I can remember anything at all, the vivid stories she would tell me stand out so clearly that they obscure the real facts of my life." At the age of 9, he was sent off the England to a Jesuit boarding school which he thoroughly disliked. Boarding schools were harsh places back then with heavy corporal punishment. His only joys were writing to his mother and telling stories to his fellow students. When Arthur graduated at the age of 17, he was determined to make something of himself to make up for his father's failures. Although the Doyle family was wealthy and involved in the Arts and assumed Arthur would have a career in that field, he instead decided to pursue a medical career. He was heavily influenced by a young lodger that his mother had taken in named Dr. Joseph Bell who was a master in observation, logic, deduction and diagnosis. All of these qualities made up the persona of Arthur's character Sherlock Holmes. Arthur eventually married a young woman named Louisa Hawkins. He went on to write many books and at one point was actually more popular and well known in the United States than he was in Great Britain. He became seriously ill at one point and came very near death for many days. When he survived this, he decided to give up his medical career so that he could concentrate totally on his writing. His wife Louisa became ill with tuberculosis which she eventually died of. Conan Doyle met and fell in love with Jean Leckie who became his second wife. He referred to her as the most important woman in his life aside from his mother. Arthur had two children with Louisa and three with Jean. He died of heart problems in the summer of 1930 at the age of 71.