Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859 -1930) was a Scottish physician and writer, most noted for his stories about the detective Sherlock Holmes, which are generally considered a major innovation in the field of crime fiction, and for the adventures of Professor Challenger. He was a prolific writer whose other works include science fiction stories, historical novels, plays and romances, poetry, and non-fiction. The first two Sherlock Holmes novels, A STUDY IN SCARLET and THE SIGN OF FOUR, were published in 1887 and 1890, but it was the publication in the STRAND MAGAZINE from 1891 onwards of the immortal short stories, starting with 'A Scandal in Bohemia', that brought him real fame. The complete canon was voted the greatest crime series of all time by the Mystery Writers of America.