--- title: Sherlock Holmes Creator Arthur Conan Doyle Used Deduction Too description: May 22, 1859: Arthur Conan Doyle, the author and physician best known for creating the character of Sherlock Holmes, is born in Edinburgh canonical: https://time.com/3856098/arthur-conan-doyle-history/ author: Jennifer Latson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-05-22T14:00:11.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:05:15.047Z article:section: History og:title: Sherlock Holmes Creator Arthur Conan Doyle Used Deduction Too og:description: May 22, 1859: Arthur Conan Doyle is born in Edinburgh og:url: https://time.com/3856098/arthur-conan-doyle-history/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbe1e865ecb07353d/6987ef785f570f3ab5b19951/acde.jpeg?branch=production&width=589&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 589 og:image:height: 331 og:image:alt: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Artist: Anonymous og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Sherlock Holmes Creator Arthur Conan Doyle Used Deduction Too twitter:description: May 22, 1859: Arthur Conan Doyle is born in Edinburgh twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbe1e865ecb07353d/6987ef785f570f3ab5b19951/acde.jpeg?branch=production&width=589&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Sherlock Holmes' Creator Fought Injustice with Deduction, Too > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME Subscription: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition TIME is a general-interest news organization founded in 1923, reporting on the people, ideas and issues shaping the world. A TIME subscription provides full access to that journalism in print and digital, from $20 a year, and can be cancelled at any time. 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Subscriptions are at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### What is included in a TIME print and digital subscription? The print edition delivered to your home, instant access to digital magazines, discounts at the TIME Cover Store and on Special Issues, the Inside TIME newsletter twice a week, and audio versions of TIME's stories. It is from $29 for one year or $49 for two years at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### What is the difference between TIME's digital and print plans? Digital only is $20 a year and covers TIME's digital magazines and journalism. Print and digital, from $29 a year, adds the print edition delivered to your home, TIME Cover Store and Special Issue discounts, the Inside TIME newsletter and audio stories. #### Is TIME a reliable news source? TIME is a general-interest news organization founded in 1923. Its journalism is reported and edited by a professional newsroom led by Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs, with named correspondents on politics, climate, health, technology and culture. It reaches 1 million US print subscribers and 1.15 million globally, plus more than 1.1 million newsletter readers. #### How do I subscribe to TIME magazine? Subscriptions are at time.com/subscribe-agent. Choose digital only at $20 a year, or print and digital from $29 a year or $49 for two years. TIME also publishes seven free email newsletters at time.com/newsletters, which do not require a subscription. #### Can I cancel a TIME subscription? Yes. TIME states that subscriptions can be cancelled at any time. #### Does TIME have free newsletters? Yes. TIME publishes seven free email newsletters reaching more than 1.1 million readers, covering daily news, Washington politics, health, AI, climate and energy, culture, and the newsroom itself. They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: 150 Years of Sherlock Holmes [Watch (HLS stream): 150 Years of Sherlock Holmes](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/vEFURlZN.m3u8) (3:41)  _Published 2009-05-28. In celebration of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's 150th anniversary, TIME.com hears from a man who knows more than most about the writer's most famous creation._ by [Jennifer Latson](https://time.com/author/jennifer-latson/) ## Jennifer Latson May 22, 2015 2:00 PM UTC  Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Sir Arthur Conan DoyleLibrary of Congress / Heritage Images / Getty Images by [Jennifer Latson](https://time.com/author/jennifer-latson/) ## Jennifer Latson May 22, 2015 2:00 PM UTC To fans of Sherlock Holmes, the setup feels familiar: A wealthy spinster is bludgeoned to death in her Glasgow dining room one foggy night while her maid is out buying the evening newspaper. The murderer is apparently someone she knows, since there is no sign of forced entry. And burglary is insufficient as a motive, since only one piece from the victim’s massive jewelry collection is missing: [a unique, crescent-shaped diamond brooch](http://www.nas.gov.uk/about/081214.asp). The police bumble the case from the beginning, latching onto the least likable suspect, a gambling-den operator with a checkered past, and sticking with him even after the key piece of evidence — a receipt showing that he’d recently pawned a diamond brooch — turns out to be a red herring. A savvy investigator intervenes to set things straight. But the investigator is not Sherlock Holmes: It’s his real-life creator, Arthur Conan Doyle. And the tale of murder and miscarriage of justice is true. Doyle, born on this day, May 22, in 1859, might have had more in common with Dr. Watson, at least on the surface. He had been a practicing physician, like Watson, before he took up writing. It was while studying medicine at Edinburgh University, in fact, that Doyle met the man who inspired the character of Holmes: the surgeon Joseph Bell, “whose specialty was diagnosis through observation and deduction,” [per TIME’s 1924 account](http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,769084,00.html). But Doyle was Holmes at heart — an enemy of injustice and a stickler for solid deductive reasoning. Like Holmes, Doyle sometimes meddled in murder cases when he believed the police had veered from the right track. One of the most famous of these was [the 1908 murder of 82-year-old Marion Gilchrist](http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/history/the%5Fcurious%5Fcase%5Fof%5Foscar%5Fslater.shtml), the wealthy spinster, and the wrongful arrest of Oscar Slater, the gambling-den operator. After reading news accounts of the flimsy evidence against Slater, Doyle decided to conduct his own investigation, according to Janet Pascal, the author of [_Arthur Conan Doyle: Beyond Baker Street._](http://www.amazon.com/Arthur-Conan-Doyle-Beyond-Portraits/dp/0195122623/ref=tmm%5Fhrd%5Ftitle%5F0?ie=UTF8&qid=1431389454&sr=8-1) He dug up contradictory clues and discovered that an eyewitness — the maid, who had seen a man running from the crime scene as she returned with the paper — had been coerced by police into fingering Slater. Ultimately, Slater was exonerated and released from prison. “Sir Conan Doyle, you breaker of my shackels, you lover of truth for justice sake, I thank you from the bottom of my heart,” Slater wrote to him, according to Pascal. While Doyle might have had the heart of Holmes, however, he didn’t quite match the fictional detective’s success rate. In his autobiography, Doyle candidly reported that his powers of deduction didn’t always trump ordinary police work. On one case he’d hoped to crack, he said, the police quickly identified the culprit “while I had got no farther than that he was a left-handed man with nails in his boots,” per Pascal. **_Read more about Doyle from 1924, here in the TIME archives_**: [An Author Tells of War, Murder, Spooks, Disease](http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,769084,00.html) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3856098/arthur-conan-doyle-history/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3856098/arthur-conan-doyle-history/"},"headline":"Sherlock Holmes' Creator Fought Injustice with Deduction, Too","datePublished":"2015-05-22T14:00:11.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T08:05:15.047Z","description":"May 22, 1859: Arthur Conan Doyle, the author and physician best known for creating the character of Sherlock Holmes, is born in Edinburgh","url":"https://time.com/3856098/arthur-conan-doyle-history/","keywords":["Books","Crime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbe1e865ecb07353d/6987ef785f570f3ab5b19951/acde.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jennifer Latson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/jennifer-latson/"}],"articleSection":"History","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbe1e865ecb07353d/6987ef785f570f3ab5b19951/acde.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. 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