Conan Doyle is best known for his creation of Sherlock Holmes, but he was much more than a facile populist writer, a symbol of the triumphalism of Edwardian England. He was also an ambitious man of letters, a searcher for political and theological truth, and a leader and shaper of opinion. This biography analyzes the man behind the mask: the Catholic who rejected Rome and religion; the atheist who later adopted spiritualism; the family man who loved another woman throughout his marriage; and the father of Sherlock Holmes, who wished to destroy his detective son.