Physician and novelist Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930) was born on this day in Edinburgh, Scotland. He wrote his first book at age six and is best known for the creation of master detective Sherlock Holmes.

"Where there is no imagination," Doyle said, "there is no horror."

Inspired by the works of Edgar Allan Poe, Doyle based Holmes on his brilliant professor from medical school. "There is nothing as deceptive as an obvious fact," Doyle once observed.

Holmes, along with his friend Dr. John H. Watson (the good-natured narrator), first appeared in A Study in Scarlet (1887) and was what Doyle called "a scientific detective, who solved cases on his own merits and not through the folly of the criminal."

"Elementary, my dear Watson," Holmes would say. In his Baker Street bachelor pad, he played the violin, smoked a pipe, and solved the unsolvable.

With four novels and 60 short stories featuring the deductive-reasoning Holmes, Doyle successfully gave up his medical career to write full-time. At one point, he even tried (unsuccessfully) to kill off Holmes and focus on historical and romance writing.

"It has long been an axiom of mine," he said, "that the little things are infinitely the more important."

Later in life, the celebrated writer became an outspoken advocate of spiritualism, which he called "a natural extension of science."

"Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself, but talent instantly recognizes genius," Doyle observed with characteristic wit.

✨ Arthur Conan Doyle wrote with imagination, precision, and style. He is honored among the Top 100 Writers of the 20th Century. Click to discover the rest.