Arthur and Sherlock
Page 31
Arthur with his father, Charles Doyle. Charles’s chaotic drinking lost him his career with Scotland’s public Office of Works, his career as an artist, and his role in the Doyle family. Many of Arthur’s later stories and novels would feature uncontrollable drunks and men suffering from similar demons. GETTY IMAGES
In 1876, upon completing boarding school in England and Austria, Arthur Doyle returned to his hometown and enrolled in medical school at the University of Edinburgh. Some of the classes were held in other venues, such as the Royal Infirmary, where Arthur studied with Joseph Bell. CITY OF EDINBURGH COUNCIL – EDINBURGH LIBRARIES
Joseph Bell, M.D., turned forty in 1877, the year that young Arthur Doyle met him and became his devoted acolyte. Later Bell recalled that Arthur paid close attention to his professor’s demonstrations of deduction from small clues, often staying afterward to ask for details and writing them in his notebook.
Arthur Conan Doyle as a young doctor, turning from medical school at the University of Edinburgh toward his own medical practice in England. With his father in institutions for the intemperate and later for the mentally unstable, Arthur keenly felt the family’s expectations about his financial prospects. CONAN DOYLE ESTATE LTD.
Arthur standing before his flat at number 1, Bush Villas in Southsea, a residential suburb of Portsmouth, England, on the Channel coast. Here he began his medical practice in 1882 and here he began his serious career as a writer, culminating in his writing of A Study in Scarlet in early 1886.
A surviving page of Doyle’s early notes, in the planning stage of A Study in Scarlet. At this point, he had not yet hit upon the names Sherlock Holmes and John Watson. His characters were Sherrinford Holmes and Ormond Sacker. GETTY IMAGES
D. H. Friston’s dramatic illustration for the cover of the December 1887 issue of Beeton’s Christmas Annual, which included the debut of Sherlock Holmes, who strode confidently through A Study in Scarlet. BEETON’S CHRISTMAS ANNUAL, MAGAZINE (DECEMBER 1887)
From this first published image of Sherlock Holmes, by D. H. Friston, the “unofficial consulting detective” appears with magnifying glass in hand, scientifically evaluating clues invisible even to police detectives. Four years later, Sidney Paget made Holmes’s figure familiar in households across England—and soon throughout the rest of the world—often featuring the now iconic deerstalker. BEETON’S CHRISTMAS ANNUAL, MAGAZINE (DECEMBER 1887)
One of Charles Doyle’s awkward, even amateurish, drawings for the first independent book publication of his son’s novel A Study in Scarlet. Arthur failed in his attempt to secure respectable payment for his father’s contribution, which probably he himself requested.
The Strand paid professional illustrators well, and in doing so produced an immediately recognizable—and soon hugely influential—magazine. This is Sidney Paget’s first published portrayal of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, at 221B Baker Street, in “A Scandal in Bohemia,” the first in The Strand’s series of Sherlock Holmes stories, published in the July 1891 issue. STRAND MAGAZINE, VOL. II (AUGUST 1891)
Capitalizing upon the extraordinary popularity of their suddenly famous author, The Strand ran a profile of Arthur Conan Doyle in the August 1892 issue, showing him in the first flush of fame. STRAND MAGAZINE, VOL. IV. (AUGUST 1892)
The same issue of The Strand featured a photo of Arthur and Touie enjoying the hot new trend of tandem tricycles. Throughout his life, Arthur was restless and energetic, indulging in vigorous outdoor sports, including cross-country biking and skiing. STRAND MAGAZINE, VOL. IV. (AUGUST 1892)
The legacy of Arthur Conan Doyle’s study with Dr. Joseph Bell influenced his creation of Sherlock Holmes in many ways. Some of them are reflected in Sidney Paget’s now iconic illustrations for The Strand, as in this scene from “A Scandal in Bohemia,” the first story and the beginning of global fame for the character and his creator. GETTY IMAGES
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First published 2017
This electronic edition published in December 2016
© Michael Sims, 2017
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