Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

If there was ever a writer who was overly connected to one of his creations, it was Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. I'm currently midway through 'The Uncollected Short Stories', and am already a veteran of most of his other short stories as well as 'Challenger' and 'Sherlock Holmes', and lack only his historical novels and 'Brigadier Gerard' to complete reading most of his work, and the scope is amazing. He wrote in practically every genre, without fail, and could unleash marvelous senses of humour and foreboding in equal measure. If you doubt the humour then check out 'Selecting A Ghost' or 'The Disintegration Machine', or for the foreboding the 'Tales of Terror & Mystery'. If only he could have done more outright wonder, of which the primary example would be 'The Lost World'. Long before Michael Crichton was hacking away at 'Jurassic Park', Conan Doyle was penning his own little epic about a prehistoric bubble, predating even 'King Kong'. Well, I think he beat 'King Kong', but perhaps someone beat him in turn? You could argue that Jules Verne's 'Journey To The Centre Of The Earth' does do that, by many decades, but it's not exactly a crime to be beaten to the punch by such a pioneer.

Having summoned the spirit of Verne, it would be rude to not point out that Doyle's follows much in the Jules Verne vein of literature, never falling into the doom-laden HG Wells style, except perhaps at the very end. Yes, there was speculative and regular fiction that didn't end in complete disaster, before the dreaded switch to horror and dystopia! In reality, Doyle didn't delve too much into the speculative side of things, but there were signs of his interest, predating that sad turn toward spiritualism in the wake of tragedy.

Doyle was a spectacularly good writer, a renaissance man if there were one, and for untold generations he has inspired people of all ages with the sheer range of his subject matter. It's not just about 'Sherlock Holmes', but ghosts, pirates, mysteries, comedies, ancient history and battles. There's satire as well as adventure, and more choice than you would find with any other author. For the record, his short stories cover a fifty-three year time period, an impressive feat which few will be able to replicate as he used up so many of the prime story ideas during his tenure! What a hog! Why is it harder to write wholly original stories now? Because so many have already been used up, but at least a large chunk were used up by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

O.