Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, most famed for his four novels and fifty-six short stories about the "consulting detective" Sherlock Holmes, was born on May 22, 1859, in Edinburgh to a Catholic family of ten. His father, Charles Altamont Doyle, was an architect and an artist. Unfortunately, Charles' talents were overshadowed by alcoholism and epilepsy. He eventually died in an asylum where he had been institutionalized. As a result, the family suffered financially, though Arthur Conan Doyle's mother, Mary, was able to pay for his schooling at a Jesuit institution.
Doyle decided to pursue medical studies at Edinburgh University, and he had to take a job as a doctor's assistant to pay for his...
