Arthur Conan Doyle is best known for his short stories and novels about Sherlock Holmes, whom Jon L. Lellenberg describes in The Quest for Sir Arthur Conan Doyle: Thirteen Biographies in Search of a Life (1987) as "the most universally recognized fictional character of English literature." Even though Doyle wrote a large amount of historical fiction, science fiction, and stories of romance, war, sports, horror, and the supernatural, it is the phenomenal popularity of Holmes that has shaped the questions, problems, and projects of the people who have written about Doyle. His life may provide answers to these questions.

One can learn about Doyle's life from his autobiography, Memories and Adventures (1924; revised, 1930), which he wrote late in life and revised in the year of his death. He was born 22 May 1859 in Edinburgh, Scotland, the eldest son of Mary Foley Doyle and Charles Altamont Doyle. His paternal grandfather came from...