Holmes creator believed in ghosts
We like to brave the unknown. That is why many mystery, suspense and crime stories are best-sellers. During this Lunar New Year holiday, English Corner will try to unveil the true faces of the men and women behind the suspense. Their stories will help to brighten up your holiday.
We begin with the life of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who created Sherlock Holmes.
The character later inspired other well-known fictional sleuths around the world.
Doyle was born on May 22, 1859, in Edinburgh, Scotland. Before becoming a writer, Doyle attended the Medical School of the University of Edinburgh.
At the age of 21, Doyle took up the post of surgeon on the whaling ship Hope. He had just completed the third year of his medical studies.
In the medical school, he met Dr Joseph Bell, the person who inspired Doyle to create arguably the world's most famous detective.
Dr Bell was said to have a jerky walk that communicated great energy. He could quickly deduce a great deal about a patient. The doctor liked to guess a person's occupation by examining their hands. Calluses or other marks provided the hints. He also looked for tattoos, a sign of where his patients had travelled.
The first Sherlock Holmes story, A Study in Scarlet, was published in 1887.
Doyle gave up his medical practice in favour of writing in 1891.
Holmes was a legend and the stories were hugely successful. Doyle started to fear that his readers were increasingly identifying him with his character rather than his novels.
'I am weary of his name,' he reportedly told his mother. Holmes must die.
In 1893, Doyle's father died. He took his first wife to Switzerland because of her poor health. Reichenbach Falls in the northern Swiss Alps became the best choice to rest Sherlock Holmes in The Adventure of the Final Problem. In 1916, readers were amazed when Doyle, a man with a scientific background who created the ever-logical Holmes, told them he believed in ghosts.
Story had it that Doyle went to a friend's home to investigate some 'fearsome uproar'. Although the preliminary results were inconclusive, the body of a child was later discovered in the garden. Doyle was convinced he had witnessed a psychic phenomenon.
Doyle died in 1930. His belief in the supernatural may have damaged his reputation, but the writer went away with no regrets.
