The Quest for Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Many engage in the quest, but no biographer yet has captured the enigmatic Doyle. Conan Doyle deliberately obscured his life, and his heirs remain keen to guard his papers. Yet the contributors--Conan Doyle scholars and collectors, English literature professors, research librarians, editors, and critics--concur that better biographical material is needed and that now--100 years after the birth of Sherlock Holmes--is an appropriate time to examine the biographical problems. They concentrate on the ways Conan Doyle himself and his biographers have handled these problems--or failed to handle them. In the process of evaluating and criticizing earlier biographical efforts, the contributors present an effective portrait of Conan Doyle. All agree, however, that much more remains to be done, and they suggest fruitful areas for further research.