"In Andrew Lycett’s hugely enjoyable new biography, the sheer breathtaking dynamism of [Conan Doyle] shines through [An] impeccably researched book."--The Sunday Telegraph (London)

"It is the precise and intelligent appreciation of the differences by which Conan Doyle was composed that makes Lycett’s diagnosis of his subject so thoroughly satisfying. Using previously unseen archives, Lycett gives us Conan Doyle as a late Victorian and definitive Edwardian, battling with the uncertainties of his own age, weary of the uncertainties of the next one."--The New Statesman (London)

Though Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s nameis recognized the world over, for decades the man himself has been overshadowed by his better understood creation, Sherlock Holmes, who has become one of literature’s most enduring characters. Based on thousands of previously unavailable documents, Andrew Lycett, author of the critically acclaimed biography Dylan Thomas, offers the first definitive biography of the baffling Conan Doyle, finally making sense of a long-standing mystery: how the scientifically minded creator of the world’s most rational detective himself succumbed to an avid belief in spiritualism, including communication with the dead.

Conan Doyle was a man of many contradictions. Always romantic, energetic, idealistic and upstanding, he could also be selfish and foolhardy. Lycett assembles the many threads of Conan Doyle’s life, including the lasting impact of his domineering mother and his wayward, alcoholic father; his affair with a younger woman while his wife lay dying; and his nearly fanatical pursuit of scientific data to prove and explain various supernatural phenomena. Lycett reveals the evolution of Conan Doyle’s nature and ideas against the backdrop of his intense personal life, wider society and the intellectual ferment of his age...

 List of Illustrations

 Family tree

 PART ONE

 Taking In

1 Two Irish Families

2 EarlyYears in Edinburgh 1859-1868

3 Stonyhurst and Feldkirch 1868-1876

4 Edinburgh University 1876--1881

5 On the Road--Ireland, West Africa and Plymouth 1881--1882

6 Bush Villas, Portsmouth 1882-1883

7 Marriage and A Study in Scarlet 1884-1886

8 Discovery of Spiritualism 1887-1888

9 Birth of a Daughter 1889-1890

  PART TWO

  Cargo Stored

10 Vienna and London 1891-1892

11 Tennison Road, South Norwood 1892

12 Swiss Interlude 1893-1894

13 America, Egypt and Undershaw 1894-1897

14 Jean Leckie 1897

15 Boer War and Aftermath 1899-1901

16 The Hound of the Baskervilles to Louise’s Death 1901-1906

  PART THREE

  Giving Out

17 Edalji, Second Marriage and Windlesham 1907-1908

18 Pre-war: From Cornwall to Canada 1909-1914

19 First World War 1914-1918

20 Spiritualist Mission 1919-1924

21 Bignell Wood and Death 1925-1930

  After-word

  Acknowledgments

  Notes

  Select Bibliography

  Index