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Arthur Conan Doyle was a British writer of Irish descent, considered a major figure in crime fiction. His most famous series of works consisted of the "Sherlock Holmes" stories (1887-1927), consisting of four novels and 56 short stories. His other notable series were the "Professor Challenger" stories (1912-1929) about a scientist and explorer, and the "Brigadier Gerard" stories (1894-1910) about a French soldier in the Napoleonic Wars. Doyle's literary works have frequently been adapted into film and television.
In 1859, Doyle was born in Edinburgh, Scotland to an Irish Catholic family. His father was Charles Altamont Doyle (1832 - 1893), a professional illustrator and water-colorist who is primarily remembered for fantasy-style paintings. Doyle's mother was Mary Foley (1837-1920). Through his father, Doyle was a nephew of the antiquarian James William Edmund Doyle (1822 - 1892), the illustrator Richard Doyle (1824-1883), and the gallery director Henry Edward Doyle (1827 -1893). Doyle's paternal grandfather was the political cartoonist and caricaturist John Doyle (1797-1868).
During his early years, Doyle's family had financial problems due to his father's struggles with depression and alcoholism. They received financial support from affluent uncles, who also financed Doyle's education. From 1868 to 1870, Doyle was educated at Hodder Place, a Jesuit preparatory school located at Stonyhurst, Lancashire. From 1870 to 1875, Doyle attended Stonyhurst College, a Roman Catholic boarding school. He disliked the school due to its rather limited curriculum, and the constant threats of corporal punishment and ritual humiliation used to discipline students.
From 1875 to 1876, Doyle received further education at Stella Matutina, a Jesuit school located at Feldkirch, Austria. His family wanted him to perfect his use of the German language, but this school offered a wider range of study subjects. Stella Matutina attracted student from many countries, and was more cosmopolitan in nature than Doyle's previous schools.
Doyle decided to follow a medical career. From 1876 to 1881, Doyle studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh Medical School. He also took botany lessons at the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh. During his university years, Doyle started writing short stories. He had trouble finding a publisher, and "Blackwood's Magazine" (1817-1980) rejected his submitted work. Doyle's first published short story was "The Mystery of Sasassa Valley" (1879), featuring a demon in South Africa. That same year, Doyle published his first academic article in a science journal. The article examined the uses of the flowering plant Gelsemium as a poison. As an experiment, Doyle self-administrated doses of the poison and recorded the symptoms.
In 1880, Doyle worked for a while as a doctor in the whaling ship "Hope". In 1881, following his graduation from medical school, Doyle served as a ship's surgeon on the SS Mayumba. In 1882, Doyle and a former classmate established a medical practice in Plymouth, Devon. Their partnership failed, and Doyle soon started his own practice in Southsea, Hampshire. He did not have many patients, so he decided to resume writing fiction to supplement his income.
In 1886, Doyle created the character of Sherlock Holmes. He loosely based his creation on his former college teacher Joseph Bell (1837 - 1911), inspired by Bell's emphasis on the importance of "deduction and inference and observation". Doyle completed the first Holmes novel, "A Study in Scarlet" (1887), and sold the rights to the publishing house "Ward, Lock & Co." (1854-1964). The novel's publication was delayed until November, 1887, but it was well-received by professional critics.
Doyle next completed the sequel novel "The Sign of the Four" (1890), commissioned from the American literary magazine Lippincott's Monthly Magazine (1868-1915). He started writing short stories about Holmes for the British literary magazine "The Strand Magazine" (1891-1950).
Besides Holmes stories, Doyle wrote seven historical novels between 1888 and 1906. He wrote "Micah Clarke" (1889), as a fictionalized account of the Monmouth Rebellion (1685) and its consequences. The novel also voices Doyle's arguments against religious extremism. He wrote "The White Company" (1891) to examine the role of mercenaries in 14th-century warfare, depicting the campaigns of Edward the Black Prince (1330-1376) in the Kingdom of Castile. He wrote "The Great Shadow" (1892) to feature the experiences of soldiers in the Battle of Waterloo (1815). He wrote "The Refugees" (1893) to examine the fates of Huguenot refugees who were fleeing 17th-century France to escape religious persecution by Louis XIV (1638-1715, reigned 1643-1715). He wrote "Sir Nigel" (1906) to examine the early phases of the Hundred Years' War (1337 - 1453). He regarded these novels to be his best literary work, though they were never as popular as his crime novels.
In 1900, Doyle served as a volunteer doctor in the Second Boer War in South Africa (1899-1902), though he had no previous military experience. He was stationed at a field hospital at Bloemfontein. At about this time, Doyle wrote the non-fiction book "The Great Boer War" (1900), which covered in detail the early phases of the war. He also wrote the companion work "The War in South Africa: Its Cause and Conduct" in order to defend the British Empire from accusations of misconduct in its military efforts. These works were translated in multiple languages, and were appreciated by the British government. For his services to the British Empire, Doyle was knighted in 1902. In 1903, Doyle became a knight of the Order of Saint John, a British royal order of chivalry that was based on the original Knights Hospitaller.
In 1906, Doyle was involved in efforts to exonerate the lawyer George Edalji, a mild-mannered man who had been convicted of animal mutilations on insufficient evidence. Doyle helped publicize other instances of miscarriages of justice, and convinced the public that there was need of reforms in the legal system. In 1907, British authorities reacted to this campaign by establishing the Court of Criminal Appeal.
In 1909, Doyle wrote the non-fiction work "The Crime of the Congo" (1909). In the book, Doyle denounced the human rights abuses in the Congo Free State, and claimed that the Belgian colonial forces had enslaved the local population. He quoted testimonies from many witnesses and tried to convince the public of a need to intervene in the area.
World War I (1914-1918) was a difficult time for Doyle , as several of his relatives and friends died due to the war. Doyle's son Kingsley was seriously wounded in the Battle of the Somme (1916), and never fully recovered. Kingsley died of pneumonia in 1918, while still hospitalized. Doyle's brother, Brigadier-general Innes Doyle, died of pneumonia in 1919. Doyle's brother-in-law, the famous author E. W. Hornung, died of pneumonia in 1921. The series of deaths led Doyle to further embrace Spiritualism, and that faith's claims about existence beyond the grave. He spend much of the 1920s as a missionary of Spiritualism, and investigated supposed supernatural phenomena. He also wrote many non-fiction spiritualist works. In 1926, Doyle financed the construction of a Spiritualist Temple in Camden, London.
In July 1930, Doyle suffered a heart attack while staying in his then-residence, Windlesham Manor, in Crowborough, Sussex. He spend his last moments in reassuring his wife Jean Leckie that she was wonderful. He was 71-years-old at the time of his death. He was survived by two sons and two daughters. His daughter Jean Conan Doyle (1912 - 1997) was the copyright holder of much of her father's works until her own death.
Since Doyle was no longer a Christian at the time of his death, his family declined giving him a Christian burial place. Doyle was buried in Windlesham Manor's rose garden. His remains were later re-interred in Minstead churchyard, New Forest, Hampshire. His wife's remains were buried beside him. His gravestone epitaph described him as "Steel true/Blade straight/Arthur Conan Doyle/Knight/Patriot, Physician and man of letters".
Doyle is long gone, but his works have remained popular into the 21st century. Doyle has been cited as an influence on later crime writers, and Agatha Christie's earliest novels were strongly influenced by Sherlock Holmes' stories. His life's events have inspired several biographies, and a number of fictionalized accounts.- Kaiser William II was born on January 27, 1859 to a Prince and Princess of Prussia. His mother was the daughter of Queen Victoria. He grew up like any Prussian Prince, except for an arm that was deformed from birth. He admired his grandparents who became Kaiser and Empress when he was small. He also admired his English Grandmother Queen Victoria as well as Otto von Bismarck. During his formative years he had to deal with having brothers and sisters. His brother Henry even got married to their cousin Irene (their Aunt Alice's daughter). Because of the attention his parents gave to his arm he grew to detest them.
When William was in his late teens he fell in love with his cousin (the daughter of his Aunt Alice) but she did not love him and got married to Grand Duke Serge of Russia. A few years later he got married to a granddaughter of his grandmother's half-sister. They had several children. In 1888 when his father died he raided his desk to find anything that may have incriminated his father in something, but all that was found was papers about how bad he had been in his life. He was with his grandmother Queen Victoria when she died in 1901. Later that year he lost his mother as well. He did the same thing to his mother that he did with his father with the same results. Vickie had given all her papers to the British ambassador to Berlin a few days before she died.
After his mother died he continued to rule Germany in a back handed manner, and did not like the fact that his Uncle Edward was more powerful than he was. He did not like the fact that he was part of starting World War One because it pitted him against cousins, aunts, and uncles all over Europe and the Americas. His response to his cousin changing their last name to Windsor was that he would like to see the Merry Wives of Saxe-Coburg & Gotha. After the war he had to give up his throne and he went to the Netherlands, where after the death of his first wife he married a second. He stayed married to his second wife till he died at the age of 82 in 1941. - Soundtrack
Mildred J. Hill was born on 27 June 1859 in Louisville, Kentucky, USA. Mildred J. died on 5 June 1916 in Chicago, Illinois, USA.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Gus Leonard was born on 4 February 1859 in Marseille, Bouches-du-Rhône, France. He was an actor, known for Wurra-Wurra (1916), Her Reputation (1923) and The Girl I Loved (1923). He died on 27 March 1939 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Josephine Crowell was a Canadian-born character actress. She appeared in vaudeville as early as 1879. On screen, she is best remembered for her dramatic portrayal of the mother in D.W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation (1915), her comedic performances in Harold Lloyd's Speedy (1928) and Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy's Wrong Again (1929). She also played a succession of queens and princesses in such films as Main Street (1923), Mantrap (1926), The King of Kings (1927) and The Man Who Laughs (1928).
- American character actor of silent films, Edward Connelly, a native New Yorker, was a newspaperman before he became an actor, being a reporter for the New York Sunl. At 25 he joined a theatrical stock company in Kansas City and appeared subsequently on Broadway in such plays as "Shore Acres," "The Belle of New York," "Babbitt," "The Wild Duck," and his own production of "Marse Covington," which he later filmed (Marse Covington (1915)). Moving to Hollywood, he became a contract player at MGM, where he remained until his death from influenza in 1928.
- Norwegian novelist Knut Hamsun was born to a poor family and sent to live with an uncle, a commercial fisherman. He grew up without any formal schooling. Hamsun left Norway for the U.S. twice: once in 1882, and again in 1886. Each time he stayed in the U.S. for two years, holding various jobs including farmhand and Chicago streetcar conductor. He was often poverty-stricken. His first novel "Hunger" is autobiographical and about poverty, alienation, and desperation, and, innovatively: consciousness and intense inner states. He returned to Norway and wrote several more novels, all well-received, original, and successful. He won the Nobel Prize in 1920 for "Growth of the Soil," but gradually became reclusive due to his need to write combined with and his cranky temperament. Norwegians were dismayed when in the 1930's he expressed his support for Hitler. Although he claimed his sentiments were more anti-British than pro-German, he spoke in favor of National Socialism and was vilified in Norway. His rocky relations with his children and second wife are the subject of Hamsun (1996). In 1948, he was briefly imprisoned, and his assets were seized by the state. He died penniless in 1952. Hamsun was rehabilitated posthumously, and is again considered one of the great modern Scandinavian novelists.
- Director
- Writer
- Actor
Colin Campbell was born on 11 October 1859 in Scotland, UK. He was a director and writer, known for The World's a Stage (1922), A Hoosier Romance (1918) and The Corsican Brothers (1920). He died on 26 August 1928 in Hollywood, California, USA.- Robert Bolder was born on 20 July 1859 in London, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Fools for Luck (1917), Grumpy (1930) and On Trial (1917). He died on 10 December 1937 in Beverly Hills, California, USA.
- Billy the Kid was born on 23 November 1859 in New York City, New York, USA. He died on 14 July 1881 in Fort Sumner, New Mexico Territory.
- Elias Disney was born on 6 February 1859 in Bluevale, Ontario, Canada. He was married to Flora Disney. He died on 13 September 1941 in Hollywood, California, USA.
- Kenneth Grahame was born on 8 March 1859 and was orphaned by the time he was five years old. He went to live with his grandmother in Cookham Dene, Berkshire. He attended St. Edward's School there, and at the age of 17 began working as a clerk for the Bank of England. He stayed on, was promoted several times, eventually holding the position of Permanent Secretary. He married Elspeth Thomson in 1899. Grahame wrote essays which were published in the 'National Observer,' and many well-received sketches of childhood - some about orphaned siblings - for various publications. He was nostalgic, appreciative of nature, and sensitive to the lives of children; some of the stories which comprise The Wind in the Willows were originally written as letters, others were invented as bedtime stories - all in order to amuse his young son, who died in an accident in 1920. Grahame died in 1932.
- Actor
Sam Marx was born on 23 October 1859 in Alsace, France. He was an actor. He was married to Miene Schönberg. He died on 10 May 1933 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Walt Whitman was born on 25 April 1859 in Lyon, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for The Three Musketeers (1921), The Mark of Zorro (1920) and The Three Musketeers (1916). He was married to Miriam Shelby. He died on 27 March 1928 in Santa Monica, California, USA.
- Sholom Aleichem (translated from Hebrew as a greeting "Peace be with you") was the pseudonym of Sholom Yakov Rabinovitz. He was born on February 18, 1859, in Pereyaslav near Kiev, Ukraine, in the Russian Empire. His father was a religious scholar and the family was trilingual. After his mother died of cholera, when he was only 12 years of age, his father encouraged his writing, even through the hard times. Young Sholom Aleichem attended a Russian secular high school, but never attended university. He was drafted into the Russian Army and upon being discharged became a rabineer for 3 years. Throughout his entire lifetime, he was not wealthy. He had a humble, modest disposition, a quiet voice, and was described by many as a man of great wisdom and wit. It was the humbling experience of his life in Russia under the Czars that led to his special style of "laughing through tears" humor.
Sholom Aleichem began serious writing in the 1880's. He was instrumental in the foundation of "di Yidishe folks bibliotek" (the popular Yiddish library) in 1888. At the same time during the 1880's Jews in Russia came under attack (known as "pogrom"); they suffered loss of property and of lives. In 1905 Sholom Aleichem fled from Russia. He lived in several countries of Europe until WWI. Large numbers of Jews were dislocated because their communities, known as "shetls, were destroyed. With the suffering came an increased cultural awakening of Jews, expressed in literature written in Yiddish. Yiddish was the every day language of European Jews, derived from Hogh German with enrichment from Hebrew, Russian, Polish, and English (among other languages). Sholom Aleichem wrote in Yiddish, Hebrew, and Russian; he was also fluent in Polish, Ukrainian and other languages.
From 1883 to 1916, Sholom Aleichem wrote about 40 volumes of stories, novels, and plays ; he became the leading writer in Yiddish, and one of the most prolific writers ever. He also wrote scholarly works in Hebrew and secular works in Russian, the only acceptable language of official publishers in the Russian Empire. His works about the life of Jews in traditional communities were based on real life stories and were published throughout Europe and in the United States. His best known work is "Tevye the Milkman" ("Tevye der milkhiker" in Yiddish). It describes the Russian Jewish milkman, who deals with the complex world with humor, pain, optimism, and wisdom. It was adapted for stage production as the play 'Fiddler on the Roof' which became a Broadway success. The eponymous film, starring 'Haim Topol', won three Oscars. A successful staging of the 'Fiddler on the Roof' was done at the Moscow Lenkom Theatre by director Mark Zakharov, starring Evgeniy Leonov and later Vladimir Steklov in the title role.
The dangers of WWI forced Sholom Aleichem to emigrate to America. He settled in the Bronx. The tragedy of separation from his son Misha, who suffered from tuberculosis, was unbearable. After Misha's death in 1915, Sholom Aleichem followed him on May 13, 1916 in Bronx. His funeral was attended by tens of thousands.
The great value of his works is in the meticulous literary preservation of the traditional life of a shtetl, before it disappeared in the tragic abyss of history. "You can take a Jew out of a shtetl, but you cannot take a shtetl out of a Jew", wrote Sholom Aleichem. - Born in Walsall, Staffordshire, in 1859, son of an unsuccessful ironmonger. Raised in London, and educated at Marylebone Grammar School. Started work as railway clerk at fourteen, and later worked as schoolmaster, actor and journalist. Two volumes of humorous essays preceded "Three Men In A Boat" (1889), which saw immediate and enormous success. This enabled him to become one of the founders of the humorous magazine "The Idler", which featured work by Bret Harte and Mark Twain, amongst others. Wrote a number of plays in a similar style to his friend J.M. Barrie. The most memorable of these is probably "The Passing Of The Third Floor Back".
- Alfred Dreyfus is known, and earned his place in history, for being unwillingly at the center of a scandal that rocked France from 1894 until 1906. Dreyfus, a captain on the General Staff, had been accused of passing sensitive artillery information to Germany (it was soon discovered that another officer had actually been the spy, but the information was ignored). After a secret court-martial, Dreyfus was stripped of his rank and sentenced to life imprisonment at the Devil's Island prison in French Guiana. However, his conviction had sharply divided the French populace, with many rallying to his defense. Among them was Emile Zola, whose incendiary article "J'Accuse" and the resulting trial for libel brought the facts of the case for the first time into the public domain. By the early 1900s, it was obvious that Dreyfus had been a victim of anti-Semitism (Dreyfus was Jewish) and that the trial was fatally flawed. On July 12, 1906, Dreyfus was fully and publicly exonerated and returned to his old rank before almost immediately being promoted. Dreyfus served in the inactive reserves until World War One where as a 55-year-old man, he served with distinction at Verdun and other battlefronts, earning the Croix de Guerre and the title of Officer of the Legion of Honor. Dreyfus died on June 12, 1935, exactly 29 years to the day after his exoneration.
- Belle Gunness was born on 11 November 1859 in Selbu, Norway. She was married to Peter Gunness and Mads Albert Sorenson. She died in 1908 in Indiana, USA.
- Dion Boucicault Jr. was born on 23 May 1859 in New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for Masks and Faces (1917). He was married to Irene Vanbrugh. He died on 25 June 1929 in Hurley, Buckinghamshire, England, UK.
- John Sturgeon was born on 1 May 1859 in Elderton, Pennsylvania, USA. He was an actor, known for Vanity Fair (1915), Martin Chuzzlewit (1912) and It Is Never Too Late to Mend (1913). He died on 20 December 1938 in Plumcreek, Pennsylvania, USA.
- Director
- Actor
- Writer
A longtime and respected stage actor, Van Dyke Brooke went into the film business in 1909. A prolific actor, writer and director for Vitagraph, he stayed with the company until 1916, when the studio cleaned house and fired many of its "old-timers". He stayed in the business as an actor until his death in 1921.- Henri Bergson was born on 18 October 1859 in Paris, France. He was a writer, known for Film socialisme (2010), Snow (2020) and Origins of the 21st Century (2000). He was married to Louise Neuburger. He died on 3 January 1941 in Paris, France.
- Music Department
Composer, organist, pianist, conductor. publisher who arrived in the USA in 1889. He studied music with Niels Gade and Cornelius Gurlitt; in the Royal Conservatory in Leipzig with Franz Liszt and Richard Wagner. He founded a publishing firm in Hamburg. He was a conductor and organist in New York churches, and conducted band concerts in the old Madison Square Garden. He organized a 75-woman orchestra for the Atlantic Garden in New York. He joined ASCAP n 1936, and composed the following works: "Maximillan Overture"; "Royal Overture"; "La Rose Intermezzo"; "Our Heroes March"; "Pilgrims Love Song"; "Our Students March"; "Pilgrims Love Song"; "Our Heroes March"; and "Olympia Overture".- Edward Kimball was born on 26 June 1859 in Keokuk, Iowa, USA. He was an actor, known for The Christian (1914), Boys Will Be Boys (1921) and The Yellow Passport (1916). He was married to Mrs. E.M. Kimball. He died on 4 January 1938 in Hollywood, California, USA.
- Jules Hanft was born on 16 September 1859 in Jersey City, New Jersey, USA. He was an actor, known for The Dramatic Life of Abraham Lincoln (1924), Taxi Spooks (1929) and One-Thing-at-a-Time O'Day (1919). He was married to Mary G. Stull. He died on 6 August 1936 in Los Angeles, California, USA.