Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930) was a British novelist best known for the creation of fictional detective hero Sherlock Holmes, who alongside his companion Dr Watson enjoyed numerous adventures recounted across multiple books and serialisations. 

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was however also the author of numerous other, mostly lesser known literary works, which can often be rare and highly sought after in first edition. 

Born in Edinburgh, his mother Mary was a master storyteller being able to “sink her voice to a horror-stricken whisper when she reached the culminating point of a vivid story”, something that he managed to convey beautifully in print, perhaps aided by his own interest in occult and spiritualism. 

Conan Doyle created Holmes to supplement his income from his unsuccessful medical practice. He based the character upon his old Professor at medical school, who was able to observe in minute detail a patient’s condition; translated to Holmes this became a forensic proficiency in observation, scientific process, logical & empirical reasoning that bordered on the preternatural.  Holmes quickly made Sir Arthur Conan Doyle famous and he penned 56 short stories and 4 novels about the private detective that gained in popularity after originally appearing in the Strand Magazine 

Highly Collectable Sherlock Holmes Books by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle 

• A Study in Scarlet (1887) 
• The Sign of the Four (1890) 
• The Adventures/Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (1892-94, 2 volumes) 
• The Hound of the Baskervilles (1902) 
• The Valley of Fear (1914–1915) 

Conan Doyle’s attempt to exterminate Holmes once and for all in the The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes proved unsuccessful due to the character’s growing popularity, and the author was forced to resurrect him for several more volumes. 

Collecting Works by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle 

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s historical novels can also be highly collectable.  The White Company (1891, originally published in three volumes) tells the story of a company of Saxon Bowmen in the 14th century French/English wars.  The 18 short stories and one novel written by Doyle recounting the adventures , a French hussar named Brigadier Gerard of Napoleon’s army, written between 1894-1910.  Conan Doyle is also remembered fondly by many for the character Professor Challenger, a bushy-bearded adventurer who featured in 3 novels, most famously the Vernian Sci-Fi classic The Lost World (1912), recounting an expedition to a plateau in the Amazon basin where prehistoric animals and other extinct creatures still roamed. 

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