Discover the Mysteries: 12 Fascinating and Fun Facts about Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

1. A Whale of a Time in Medical School

Before he was diagnosing the world's criminals with severe cases of "elementary, my dear Watson-itis," a young Arthur Conan Doyle stashed his stethoscope for a whale of a time at the Arctic seas: As a surgeon aboard the Greenland whaler, Hope of Peterhead, Doyle not only completed his medical education at the University of Edinburgh but marked his 21st birthday amidst the Arctic ice while working as the ship's physician.
Source => softcomputer.com

2. The Cricketer of Baker Street

Well, you might say the game was afoot: Beloved Sherlock Holmes creator Arthur Conan Doyle wasn't just a master of mystery but also a dexterous cricketer, delighting crowds when he played a first-class cricket match against the legendary W.G. Grace in August 1900, where he scored four runs and even took the mighty Grace's wicket while the latter had amassed an astounding 110 runs.
Source => arthur-conan-doyle.com

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3. Paranormal Partners: Doyle & Houdini

If Sherlock Holmes investigated the case of the ghost-whisperer magician, he might be surprised to find his creator implicated: Arthur Conan Doyle was a passionate spiritualist and card-carrying member of the Society for Psychical Research, fascinated by psychic phenomena and joining forces with the great skeptic, magician Harry Houdini himself, all while believing his friend held mysterious psychic powers.
Source => mcgill.ca

4. Life Imitates Art: Doyle as Holmes

Ever wondered if the game was truly afoot for Sir Arthur Conan Doyle? Well, the author wasn't just elementary, dear Watson, in his love for Sherlock Holmes: Doyle himself donned the iconic deerstalker cap and cloak to bring the detective to life in a stage adaptation, humorously replied to fan mail addressed to Sherlock Holmes, but no official record indicates a 221B Baker Street replica in his home.
Source => smithsonianmag.com

5. When Doyle Met Jurassic Park

Did you hear about the time Arthur Conan Doyle went "Jurassic Park" style, way before Spielberg even dreamt of reviving dinosaurs? He called in a favor from a friend: The character Professor Challenger, featured in "The Lost World," was actually inspired by Doyle's real-life acquaintance, a professor of physiology named William Rutherford.
Source => en.wikipedia.org

6. A Medium-Sized Rift: Doyle & Houdini's Fallout

When the great Sherlock Holmes meets Harry Houdini, one might expect a magical partnership to ensue, but in reality, it was more like a supernaturally botched crime scene: Arthur Conan Doyle and Harry Houdini's friendship eventually fizzled due to opposing views on spiritualism, which reached its peak when Doyle's medium wife held a seance that failed to cast a spell on the unimpressed magician.
Source => blog.hmns.org

7. Our Spiritualist Sherlock Creator

Elementary, my dear necromancer: Arthur Conan Doyle, the mind behind the ever-logical Sherlock Holmes, was actually deeply invested in spiritualism and contacting the dead, even helping to establish The Society for Psychical Research and attending countless séances in his quest for unearthly connections.
Source => historyextra.com

8. Anesthesia to Author: Doyle's Career Switch

It's elementary, my dear Watson! Sir Arthur Conan Doyle channeled his inner Sherlock Holmes and deduced that his medical career needed a little "anesthesia": With several failed attempts at medical practice under his belt, the creator of literature's most famous detective swapped his stethoscope for a pen and turned to writing full-time, never leaving his medical knowledge to gather dust but instead, weaving it intricately into his iconic fictional works.
Source => hekint.org

9. Doyle: War Doctor & Correspondent

Before Sherlock Holmes could deduce that the Boers were behind the stolen penicillin, his creator, Arthur Conan Doyle, donned his gory doctor attire and scribbled his way into the hearts of battle-weary soldiers: A medical practitioner during the Great Boer War, Doyle penned The Great Boer War in 1900, repeatedly updating and republishing following editions with new insights from his front-line experiences, thus earning him esteemed recognition as one of the foremost war correspondents of his era.
Source => arthur-conan-doyle.com

10. The (Attempted) Demise of Sherlock Holmes

Sherlock Holmes may have had a knack for puzzles, but Sir Arthur Conan Doyle found himself in a real-life conundrum when he realized that his detective creation was hogging all the spotlight from his other works. Much like a Victorian-era Benjamin Linus from Lost, he made the shocking decision to pull the plug on his protagonist – quite literally: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle attempted to kill off Sherlock Holmes in his story to focus on his serious work, only to face a massive public uproar with over 20,000 readers cancelling their magazine subscriptions and some even wearing mourning crêpes. The overwhelming demand from fans eventually led to the infamous detective's resurrection.
Source => bbc.com

11. The Deerstalker's Fashionable Faux Pas

Much like a hat out of its element, Sherlock Holmes was sporting the deerstalker long before it was cool, thanks to an eager artist who didn't care about fashion faux-pas: Sidney Paget, the illustrator of Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes series, introduced the now-iconic deerstalker hat and Inverness cape in his illustrations for "The Boscombe Valley Mystery" in The Strand Magazine in 1891, despite the hat being intended for country wear and not city life.
Source => smithsonianmag.com

12. Doyle's Parliamentary Plot Twist

In a twist worthy of his own detective mysteries, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle once moonlighted as a parliamentary hopeful, delivering speeches that took audiences on plot twists and turns rivalling his own stories: Despite running twice for the Liberal Unionist Party in the early 1900s and skillfully captivating crowds with engaging stories, the future Sherlock Holmes creator fell short of winning a seat in Parliament, coming second both times - but thankfully went on to be celebrated as one of history's most beloved authors instead.
Source => arthurcdoyle.wordpress.com