Lost World

Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930) studied medicine in his native Edinburgh, graduated in 1881 and set up practice as an oculist. Patients turned out to be few and far between, and he turned to writing instead. Although he is chiefly remembered as the creator of Sherlock Holmes, he wrote a number of well-received novels in other genres too; at times he felt imprisoned by the success of Holmes, and in one short story tried to kill him off so that he could devote his time and energies to writing other kinds of book. If he had succeeded in this plan, it is likely that we would have more books featuring the formidable Professor Challenger, who is the hero of The Lost World (first published in 1912) and of two other books as well - The Poison Belt (1913) and The Land of Mist (1926). With the publication of The Lost World, Challenger instantly became Conan Doyle's second most famous and enduring character; and science fiction became the second genre at which Conan Doyle excelled. Sherlock Holmes is reputed to be based on one of Doyle's own professors, and the same is true of Professor Challenger. The description on page 21 of this volume would have struck Doyle's contemporaries as remarkably similar to the eminent scientist, Professor Rutherford, whose lectures Doyle attended in Edinburgh. Arthur Conan Doyle was knighted in 1902 for his public defence of the British cause in the Boer Wars. After the death of his son in the First World War, he devoted the rest of his life to spiritualism, about which he wrote several books and lectured all around the world.Doyle, Arthur Conan is the author of 'Lost World ' with ISBN 9780140367485 and ISBN 0140367489.