Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle KStJ DL (22 May 1859 - 7 July 1930) was a British writer best known for his detective fiction featuring the character Sherlock Holmes. Originally a physician, in 1887 he published A Study in Scarlet, the first of four novels and more than fifty short stories about Holmes and Dr. Watson. The Sherlock Holmes stories are generally considered milestones in the field of crime fiction. Doyle was a prolific writer; his non-Sherlockian 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, helped to popularise the mystery of the Mary Celeste. Doyle is often referred to as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle or simply Conan Doyle (implying that Conan is part of a compound surname as opposed to his given middle name). His baptism entry in the register of St Mary's Cathedral, Edinburgh, gives Arthur Ignatius Conan as his given names and Doyle as his surname. It also names Michael Conan as his godfather.[1] The cataloguers of the British Libraryand the Library of Congress treat Doyle alone as his surname. Steven Doyle, editor of The Baker Street Journal, wrote, Conan was Arthur's middle name. Shortly after he graduated from high school he began using Conan as a sort of surname. But technically his last name is simply 'Doyle'.[3] When knighted, he was gazetted as Doyle, not under the compound Conan Doyle
