| Show I f C t f SHERLOCK HOLMES gOL CREATION OF MOST WONDERFUL AND PUZZLING OF DETECT DETECTIVE VL CHARACTERS Sketch of DIscouragements of Conan Doyle to t to Break Into the Field of Literature Literature Manuscript Manuscript Re Regularly Returned The author anthor of ot The White Com Com- pany pant Sir Nigel Study in Scarlet and other Sherlock Holmes stories stories- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was Doyle was born bornn In n Edinburgh Scotland on Mar MaT 22 1859 1851 He comes of ot an artistic family and Is the grandson of John Doyle the tho famous political caricaturist IW h s e pic pictorial tor I a 1 sketches appeared for more mor than thirty years under the initials of ot H uK B. B B. WIthout of the artists artist's a Sir SIn A A. A CONAN DOYLE Identity Many of these were so famous famous- In their day ay that they were frequently purchased at large prices by the British Museum John Doyle had four sons who also became artists His eldest son Charles Doyle was the father tather of ot the novelist an and d another son was Richard Doyle who wh o came by his nickname of or Dicky Doyle through his bis signature of a D with a n little bird perched upon i it t which may yet be seen on the cover cove L CM LULl R y U aC Conan Doyles a education du tI n be began ao In n England where already In his tenth tent h year he be exhibited a wonderful precocitY precocity pre pre- for tor telling stories But nut eyen even a athe at atthe atthe t the early age of sir six the future novelist t and creator of Sherlock Holmes was wa s anticipated in a story of terrible adventure adventure ad ad- venture written in a bold hand o on n foolscap paper four words to the line and accompanied with original pen pen- ink and-ink illustrations There was ra a man and a tiger i in n it he says of this Infantile I forget which was the hero but i it t didn't matt matter r much for they became t ij Z S tC Y l a ti r. r c f. f X f l Si 1 2 w v Jr a iy t Y 3 f fj 1 ti t- t f I 1 I il i I t L' L t iJ i 1 blended I Into to one 31 about the time when the tiger met the tho man I was a a realist In the he of or th the age romanticists jj Ki I described at some length both verbally verb verb- rrt t t f 1 l lally ally and pIctorIally the untimely end t A F of ot that wayfaring man ut when the j i Jj tiger had absorbed him I 1 found my my- ITS self slightly embarrassed as to how t vr j 3 my story was to go on It fIt Is very easy to get people Into scrapes and 1 i 1 very hard bard to get them out again was t t. j my sage comment on the difficulty tr g and ind I have often otten had cause to repeat this precocious aphorism of my child- child hood Upon this occasion the situa f tion was beyond me and my bo book k f like my man man was engulfed In Diy my i tiger Iger 4 At and also at Fold Fold- Feld- Feld i I kirch In Germany Doyles Doyle's literary 4 jf fi inclination was shown In the editorship editorship editor editor- 4 ship of ot school magazines In 1876 he be returned to Edinburgh and took up the study of medicine at the university f ity there where he remained until he obtained his diploma five fi years later In 1880 Dr Doyle left lett the university 1 to o make a seven months trip to the i I Arctic seas sens as unqualified surgeon on board a whaler There was very little demand for surgery aboard the Hope and he has described his chief occupation occupation occupation pation during the voyage as being employed employed em em- In keeping the captain In cut tobacco working In the boats after atter fish and teaching the crew to box boa lIe He utilized his experience later In his story The Captain of ot the Two years later In 1882 after atter a months' months voyage to the west coast of Africa be he settled down as a medIcal med med- ical practitioner at Southsea in Eng Eng- England land Jand where he remained until 1890 1800 Those were were arduous and trying years In which he came to regard the tho calls of ot the profession he had bad adopted as as' as Interruptions In the real work of or his life lite and found that the writing of ot stories was a very slender prop upon which to lean for a livelihood Fifty little cylinders of ot manuscript he says did I send out during eight years which described a regular orbit among publishers and usually came back like paper boomerangs to the place that they bad had started from All this time he was writing anonymously and during the ten years of his literary apprenticeship he states that in spite of ot unceasIng and untiring ing literary effort he never in any anyone one year earned fifty pounds by his pen v I Then in to 1887 1837 appeared In Beeton's Deeton T- T Christmas Annual n a story tr from m his pen called A Study to in Scarlet Scarle It isa Is Q r significant point In the authors author's career r V for tor In this story Sherlock Holmes made his bis first Brat appearance It was waR wan published later Inter In to n. n x V book form anal ana anaro n ro n mediately began to attract attention Under Under- these favoring circumstances be he undertook the writing of ot Micah Clarke It was completed after atter a n ayears years year's readIng and five flue months' months writ writ- ing and represented the most ambitious ambitious am am- r and hopeful work the author had yet accomplished But it came back to him from one publishing house after atter another until he began to despair despair des des- pair of ot Its acceptance I remember he be says smoking ov over r my eared dog-eared manuscript when It returned for a whiff of country air and wondering Continued on second ond prise pt e column two ti r |
