Painting by Henry L. Gates (1927)
Sample of authors
Doyle, Arthur Conan
Scottish author with Irish ancestry, born in Edinburgh. His father, Charles Altamont Doyle, worked as a civil servant, but was also a painter and illustrator. He was sickly, become seriously alcoholic over the years and was admitted into psychiatric care in 1885. He died in 1893. It was Arthur’s mother, Mary, born Foley, who instead held the family together, struggling to give her son a good e...
Literary figures
A.J. Raffles
Gender: Male
He is an expert in two areas – cricket and theft. A.J. (as he is usually called) Raffles is the most famous literary master thief of all time, and to this day people speak of a “Raffles heist” when someone commits a rare and sophisticated theft. He is a man of the world, skilled at disguise, and he moves in the best circles. However, E.W. Hornung finally lets him die a hero’s death in the Boer War...