The Who2 Blog

Happy 150th, Sir Arthur!

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, author of the Sherlock Holmes mystery stories, was born on this day in 1859.

Given how charmingly ancient those stories seem now, it’s surprising to realize that it’s only 150 years since Doyle was born. He died in 1930 — the same year that Neil Armstrong and Clint Eastwood were born.

Doyle was only 28 when his first Holmes story, A Study in Scarlet, was published in 1887. He was a prodigy and he could write. Raymond Chandler once said that Holmes was “mostly an attitude and a few dozen lines of unforgettable dialogue.” But what an attitude!

Doyle was into spiritualism, so we feel free to say: Happy birthday, Sir Arthur, wherever you are. Thanks for all the great tales.

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