10 Intereresting Facts about Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

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Interesting Fact No. 1: In 1922, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle created a special Sherlock Holmes story, titled “How Watson Learned the Trick.” The 503-word, short story was handwritten by Doyle himself and bound together in a miniature form – just 38.5 X 30mm, as a contribution to the library of Queen Mary’s Dollhouse. The Dollhouse was a gift from the nation to Queen Mary, and the library contains a huge collection of original, miniature works by a number of famous authors, including Thomas Hardy, Rudyard Kipling, and JM Barrie.




Interesting Fact No. 2: When the very first Holmes story, 'A Study in Scarlet', was first published in 'Beeton's Christmas Annual' in 1887, it was illustrated by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's father, Charles Altamont Doyle.



Interesting Fact No. 3: In 1927, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle listed 'The Adventure of the Speckled Band' as his favourite Sherlock Holmes story.



Interesting Fact No. 4: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle nearly refused his knighthood for "services to the Crown," as he believed he had only done his duty, and thus, did not deserve such high recognition. When his mother discovered this, she wrote to him and convinced him to accept, claiming that to refuse a knighthood would be an insult to the King.
Sir Arthur was born on the 22nd May, 1859 in Edinburgh, Scotland. His full name was Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle, and he received his knighthood in 1902, for his pamphlet, "The War in South Africa: Its Causes and Conduct."  The publication was a defence of the British military, who stood accused of committing war crimes throughout the Boer War. Doyle, who had served as a military doctor in the Boer War, felt it was his duty to defend the army with whom he had served, and was thus knighted for "services to the Crown" by King Edward VII.


Interesting Fact No.5: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle once said, "If in 100 years, I am only known as the man who invented Sherlock Holmes, then I will have considered my life a failure. So here is  a list of complete works:
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Interesting Fact No. 6: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle found the inspiration for his Holmes story, ‘The Adventure of the Dancing Men’ while staying at the Happisburgh Hill House Hotel, in 1903. During his stay, Doyle discovered a code, written by Gilbert Cubitt – the seven-year-old son of the hotel’s landlady – scrawled inside an autograph book. The code was written in the form of little dancing men, and immediately struck a chord in Doyle’s imagination – so much so, in fact, that Doyle wrote the story while still staying at the Hill House. 




Interesting Fact No. 6: The character of Sherlock Holmes was partly based on Dr. Joseph Bell – one of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s lecturers at the University of Edinburgh. 
Bell was a diagnostician and pioneer in forensic pathology, with a remarkable faculty for observation and deduction. Doyle became a student of Bell’s in 1877, and also served as his clerk for a time



Interesting Fact No. 7: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is said to have initially complained that Paget's illustrations of Holmes made the character more handsome than he had intended.



Fun Fact No. 9: The famous Sherlock Holmes quote, “The game is afoot,” is not truly a Holmes quote at all. The phrase, which appears in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s ‘The Adventure of the Abbey Grange,’ is actually a quote taken from William Shakespeare’s historical play, ‘Henry V.’ 



Fun Fact No. 10: In his early drafts, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was considering the names Sheridan Hope and Ormond Sacker for his crime solving duo. 
The title of his first Holmes story was also drafted as "A Tangled Skein," before ultimately becoming "A Study in Scarlet."



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