
Sherlock Holmes May Not Have Been a Real Crime-Fighter, but His Creator Was - lermontov
https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/sherlock-holmes-may-not-have-been-a-real-crime-fighter-but-his-creator-was/2018/07/09/84146ef4-839b-11e8-9e80-403a221946a7_story.html
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GatorD42
Conan Doyle was fascinating, I highly recommend the biography Teller of Tales,
he was prescient about a lot of things (submarine warfare, other military
issues during WWI) but also fooled by the rampant fraud in the spiritualist
movement, like the Cottingley photographs.

This article makes it seem like he personally investigated the cases, he
didn’t. What he did was help publicize them and write long book length
summaries of the evidence to convince people. He also published a “pamphlet”
on Belgian colonial exploitation of the Congo. He worked directly with the
lawyers / investigators to get the facts and used his fame and writing ability
to get public attention.

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anthonybsd
He was also one of the prime suspects behind
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piltdown_Man](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piltdown_Man)
fraud which set back scientific community in general, and anthropology in
particular quite a bit.

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NeedMoreTea
I thought Doyle was fairly quickly ruled out. Charles Dawson seems most
likely, has been connected with other frauds and half his collection was fake.

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anthonybsd
Right you are. [https://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2016/08/10/sir-arthur-
co...](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2016/08/10/sir-arthur-conan-doyle-
cleared-of-piltdown-man-hoax/)

I remember reading this in the 90s in SciAm which was supposedly linked to his
deep resentment of scientific community in general.

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NeedMoreTea
Memory is a funny thing - that's much more recent than I thought!

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Jaruzel
This was explored in a semi-fictional and slightly humourous way in the short-
lived period drama 'Houdini & Doyle':

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Houdini_%26_Doyle](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Houdini_%26_Doyle)

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mkay3131
As well as in the book "Arthur and George" by Julian Barnes. Highly
recommended.

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newswriter99
There's a lot about Doyle that was atypical. Brilliant mind. But he believed
in some pretty supernatural stuff as well. Faeries and the like.

Imagine what you believe in now that will seem fanciful in a century.

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ggg9990
Is that weird? Tons of brilliant people through history have believed in God,
spirits, and other supernatural stuff.

