Show A. A Conan Doyle WE fear that our paper has been behind the times Up to this issue there has not been a word said about Conan Doyle while nearly all the other college papers as well as periodicals and magazines have been full of sketches of his life and comments on his works It is not often that as young a man as Conan Doyle that Doyle that is young in authorship has authorship has so much written about his life and works Perhaps Perhaps Perhaps Per Per- haps it is because his books are odd and the public mind is ever on the qui vive vive for something out of the ordinary ordinary ordinary nary but whatever it is for there is no longer any accounting for popularity in the literary world the truth remains that this Englishman has suddenly shot into prominence and as the creator of Sherlock Holmes is widely known wn He comes conies of a distinguished family but at the early age of t thirty six bids fair to outstrip any of its members His father Charles Doyle held an appointment in the civil service but in inthe inthe inthe the leisure it left him he made a name for himself in the literary and artistic world of London His grandfather was the leading caricaturist of his day several of his uncles were skilled writers and artists artists' one of them being the original designer of the cover cover cove which Punch wears today Conan Doyle was born in Edinburgh in 1859 His education was begun at College and after a season of study in Germany he graduated from Edinburgh University with the degree of M. M D. D He had always had a astron stron strong g penchant for l literature since ch childhood childhood child child- ild- ild hood and while at college often wrote short stories for the magazines which by the way were not always accepted After leaving college he served as surgeon surgeon surgeon sur sur- geon on several lines of vessels thereby gaining gaming much interesting experience which he has made good use of in his books He afterwards settled at Southsea where he he had a fairly good practice and not until 1890 when his White Company was published and met with such great success did he abandon medicine for literature II A A Study in Scarlet was really his first novel It attracted little attention until II Micah Clark appeared and people began to talk about Dr Doyle It is probable that of all his books the Adventures of Sherlock Holmes is most widely read and liked In these stories Dr Doyle has woven woven in all the startling crimes and exciting features of the modern detective story without any of the intense coloring and bombast of the dime and andin andin andin in Sherlock Holmes he has shown up the talent that makes a brilliant detective the talent for observing seemingly seemingly seemingly seem seem- small things and their relationship to each other the faculty in every day parlance of putting two and two together It is said that like other distinguished distinguished distinguished distin distin- novelists Conan Doyle longs for the celebrity of the stage Jane Annie which he wrote in conjunction with J. J M. M Barrie was not a very favorable favorable favorable favor favor- able beginning but A A Straggler o of 15 may have better success success as Mr Irving has accepted it The production of a successful play should complete Dr Doyles Doyle's happiness if his life is not already full to overflowing with good health and good fortune |