Happy Birthday, Artie!

Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle -- the good doctor who brought us Sherlock Holmes -- was born on this day in 1859 in Edinburgh, Scotland. He died of a heart attack on July 7, 1930, having lived a full and rich and interesting life that included bouts of the kind of silliness one would expect from the writer who gave us such memorable tales, arguably changing the face of popular fiction in the process.

Not as well known as the Sherlock Holmes adventures are Doyle's Professor Challenger science fiction stories. Those that love Doyle or vintage science fiction or both should make a point of checking this stuff out, especially The Lost World from 1912, which is said to be filled with all sorts of real world secrets concerning Doyle's life, for readers with a mind to decode them.

The art included at left ran in January Magazine several years ago to illustrate a piece by J. Kingston Pierce on Holmes pastiches.