An exceptionally talented storyteller, Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, in May 1859. In 1868, at the age of nine, Doyle was sent to Hodder Place, the Jesuit preparatory school, Stonyhurst, after which, until 1875, he attended the Stonyhurst College.

Doyle began writing while studying at the University of Edinburgh Medical School, which he joined in 1876. "The Mystery of Sasassa Valley,' his first story, was accepted for publication in Chambers's Edinburgh Journal in 1879. It is set in a South African valley inhabited by a demon with glowing eyes. His second story, "The American's Tale,' was published in the London Society in 1880.and many more..