Arthur Conan Doyle (May 22, 1859) - Happy Birthday!

One might expect,  on the birthday of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle,  that the bulk of an article celebrating the occasion would be packed with nods to his most famous creation, the consulting detective, Sherlock Holmes.  Well,  not this time.  True,  Doyle buttered his bread with his Holmes earnings,  and also true is the fact that that character is known to the bulk of the human race,  but the man,  Doyle,  was much more than merely the lens through which the world received those stories.

Arthur Conan Doyle was one of the fireball humans of his day.  Besides being a writer,  he was also an avid sportsman and advocate of healthy living,  he was a qualified physician, he fought for righteous social and political causes,  and, later in life, he became a mystic of sorts...pursuing the possibilities of the supernatural.

So, this being a book page,  I'll set aside that Doyle was a Cricket man, and that he nabbed a wicket from the Sherlock Holmes of Batsmen, the legendary W. G. Grace.  Yes,  although I'm a Cricket buff of sorts,  I'll dodge by that fab fact,  and I'll mention the another best thing about him;  he was one of the best scribblers of historical fiction that the world has ever known.  I'm always amazed when readers of the Holmes stories are unaware of his great novels of action and adventure.  Particularly his most famous historical novel, The White Company,  but also Sir Nigel,  Micah Clarke,  and even the fantastic Gothic mystery/boxing novel, Rodney Stone.

Honestly,  being eternally associated with an eternal, mythological figure like Sherlock Holmes would be enough to satisfy even the most ambitious of people,  but when I consider all of the things that Arthur Conan Doyle was in addition to this (in true Victorian style), I feel simultaneously intimidated and inspired.  It makes me want to work harder at my own valued endeavours.

                                    Sir Arthur died on July 7th, 1930; his gravestone reads:

Steel True
Blade Straight
Arthur Conan Doyle
Knight
Patriot, Physician & Man of Letters

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