Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930) was a British writer and doctor known for creating the iconic fictional detective, Sherlock Holmes, and his sidekick, Dr. Watson. Before his success in writing, Doyle studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh. While attending class, he began to write short stories and submitted his work to various magazines. After numerous attempts at publication, his first story featuring Sherlock Holmes was finally published in a local journal. Soon after its release, readers began writing into the magazine begging for more stories, sparking a literary franchise that would live on to this day. The stories of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson have been championed as some of the greatest mystery stories of all time, paving the way for writers of the true-crime genre for generations to come.