Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle was a British writer and physician. He created the character Sherlock Holmes in 1887 for A Study in Scarlet, the first of four novels and fifty-six short stories about Holmes and Dr. Watson. The Sherlock Holmes stories are milestones in the field of crime fiction.

Doyle was a prolific writer; other than Holmes stories, his works include fantasy and science fiction stories about Professor Challenger, and humorous stories about the Napoleonic soldier Brigadier Gerard, as well as plays, romances, poetry, non-fiction, and historical novels. One of Doyle's early short stories, "J. Habakuk Jephson's Statement" (1884), helped to popularise the mystery of the Mary Celeste.

Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle was born in Edinburgh to Mary Foley, an Irish mother, and Charles Altamont Doyle, a talented English illustrator of Irish descent. Although commonly referred to as "Conan Doyle", his baptism record in the registry of the cathedral of Saint Mary in Edinburgh lists "Arthur Ignatius Conan" as his Christian name and simply "Doyle" as his surname, with Michael Conan named as his godfather. At the age of nine, Doyle was sent to Hodder Place.