Conan Doyle was born in Edinburgh in 1859, into a respectable middle-class Catholic family. Still, it was far from an easy life. There was never enough money; they moved frequently in search of lower rents; and his father, a civil servant and illustrator, was an alcoholic who had to be institutionalized, Yet the early letters are surprisingly upbeat, concerned mainly with food, clothes, allowances and schoolwork. At 14 came his first unforgettable visit to London, including Madame Tussaud s, where he was delighted with the room of Horrors, and the images of the murderers .
A superb student, Conan Doyle went on to medical school, where he was entranced by Dr. Joseph Bell, a charismatic professor with an uncanny ability to diagnose patients even before they opened their mouths. For a time he worked as Bell s outpatient clerk and would watch , amazed ,at how the location of a callus could reveal a man s profession, or how a quick look at a skin rash told Bell that the patient had once lived in Bermuda. In 1886, Conan Doyle-by now an eye doctor-outlined his first novel, A Study in scarlet, which he described as a simple tale of mystery to make a little extra money. Its main character , initially called Sherringford Hope and later rechristened Sherlock Holmes, was based largely on bell. But Holmes debut went almost unnoticed, and the struggling doctor devoted nearly all of his spare time to writing long historical novels in the vein of Sir Walter Scott-novels that he was convinced would make his reputation. It wasn t to be. In 1888, Holmes reappeared in A Scandal in Bobemia, a short story in Strand Magazine. An immediate hit, its hero took the foggy, crime-ridden London of gas street lights and Jack the Ripper by storm--and Conan Doyle s life would never be the same.
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