DOYLE, Sir ARTHUR CONAN (1859-1. A British novelist. born in Edinburgh, the grand son of John Doyle. the caricaturist. He studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh. and wa: a practicing physician from 1882 until 1890. lle early tried his hand at fiction; and. after writing a number of deservedly unsuccessful book., he produced in 1S'S7 -I Study in Scarlet. in which he created the famous detective, Sher lock Holmes, Other books of his in which Holmes appears are: The Sign of the Four (1-'49) ; 'lire Adventuees of 8her/ork Haim ( 1891 ) ; 7'he Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (IS93); and The Hound of the Baskervilles (1902). In these stories the author displays great ingenuity, in sight into character. humor, and a power of im buing his narrative with an atmosphere of fasci nating mystery, and, at times, of horror: so that the best of the stories may fairly he ranked with the similar productions of Edgar Allan Poe. Doyle also won much snecess by several historical novel.: Micah Clarke (1SSS) ; The White Com pany ( 1890) : The Refugees (1591); The Great Shadow ( 1892 ) : and Rodney Stone ( 1896 ) . An
exceedingly clever book is The Exploits of Briga dier Gerard 11896), of which the hero is a typi cal rieu.r moustache of Napoleon's Grand Army. Volumes of short stories which have been popular are Round the Red Lamp (1894); The Stark Munro Letters (1895); and The Green Flag (1900). in 1898 appeared a volume of poems entitled Soags of Action: and in 1899 a play called Halves. During the Boer War Dr. Doyle visited South Africa and acted as medical regis trar of the Longman Field Hospital. Returning to England, he published a military history. en titled Tire Great Boer War, which appeared in 1900, and of which an enlarged edition was is sued in 1902. Dr. Doyle also wrote a spirited defense of the British policy in South Africa, and this was widely circulated and translated into several languages. As a recognition of his services to the Government. the author was knighted in 1902.