Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle is born in Edinburgh on May 22, 1859, the eldest of ten children born to Irish parents, Charles Doyle and Mary Foley. A trained physician, he would go on to achieve global fame as the creator of Sherlock Holmes, one of literature’s most enduring and iconic detectives. Doyle’s Irish heritage and upbringing in a creative, if financially troubled, household influenced both his worldview and his prolific literary output, which spanned detective fiction, historical novels, science fiction, and spiritualist writings.