Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was born on 22 May 1859 in Edinburgh, in a Roman Catholic family and was educated in Jesuit schools. After his graduation (laurea) as doctor in 1885, Doyle practiced medicine as an eye specialist near Porsmouth in Hampshire until 1891 when he became a full time writer. In 1887 appeared Sherlock Holmes’s first adventure. During the South African war (1899-1902) Doyle served for a few months as a physician (medico) at a field hospital He was appointed (nominato) Sir Arthur in 1902 for his work in Boer War propaganda and for his ability as a writer. Fourteen months after his wife died, Conan Doyle married in 1907 his second wife, Jean Leckie. He dedicated himself in spiritualistic studies after his son Kingsley died in World War I and became president of several important spiritualist organizations. Doyle’s practiced seven months in the Arctic as ship’s doctor on a whaler (baleniera), and three on a steamer (barca a vapore) bound (diretta) to the West Coast of Africa and these experiences offered him material for his writings. He died on July 7, 1930 from heart disease (malattia di cuore) at his home, Windlesham, Sussex. In A Study in Scarlet (1887), Doyle introduced to the reading public the detective Sherlock Holmes, his partner Dr. Watson, and their major opponent Moriarty, an evil genius who is a kind of Holmes’ doppelganger (doppio, sosia). It was followed by The Sign of Four (1890), published in the Lippincott’s Magazine; The Final Problem (1893), the story which marked the end of S. Holmes and The Hound Of Baskervilles (1902), an early case of the dead detective in which the murder weapon (l’arma letale) is an animal. The Lost World (1912) are stories about the adventures of Professor George Edward Challenger in which Doyle blended (unì) science with fantastic romance. The book had a remarkable influence on John Michael Crichton (1942 – 2008)’s Jurassic Park . The American writer paid his tribute to Conan Doyle in the sequel of the dinosaur saga, The Lost World. Tales of Pirates and Blue Water (1922) is another collection of stories about the adventures of the cruel pirate Captain Sharkey whose figure loosely (liberamente) inspired the protagonist of the famous movie series Pirates of the Caribbean, Jack Sparrow. Most of his stories have been translated into more than fifty languages, and made into plays, films, radio and television series, a musical comedy, a ballet, cartoons, comic books, and advertisement.