Sherlock Holmes: A Baker Street Dozen Audiobook

About Arthur Conan Doyle

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930) was a writer and physician most noted for his fictional stories about the detective Sherlock Holmes, the first scientific detective, which are generally considered milestones in the field of crime fiction. Before becoming a writer, he attended the University of Edinburgh to train as a physician, and it was from his teacher, Joseph Bell, that he learned much of what would inspire Holmes’s skills of deduction. He also wrote science fiction stories, historical novels, plays, romances, poetry, and nonfiction. After his son Kingsley died in the first World War, he became a convert to spiritualism and a social reformer who used his investigative skills to prove the innocence of individuals.

About the Narrators

Sir John Gielgud (1904–2000) is arguably the greatest Shakespearean actor of the twentieth century and one of the best overall actors of his generation. His theatrical career spanned more than sixty years, beginning with a role in the London production of The Constant Nymph and ending with Sir Sydney Cockerell: The Best of Friends in 1988. His film career spanned more than seventy years and saw him in such roles as the Pope in Elizabeth, Priam in Hamlet, Professor of Sunlight in Gulliver’s Travels, and Master of Trinity in Chariots of Fire.

Sir Ralph Richardson (1902-1983) was one of the greatest actors of the twentieth century English theater, ascending to the height of his profession in the mid-1930s when he became a star in London's West End. He became the first actor of his generation to be knighted in 1947. Along with Laurence Olivier and John Gielgud, he is considered one the greatest English actors of the generation.

Orson Welles (1915–1985) was an iconic Academy Award–winning director, writer, actor, and producer for film, stage, radio, and television. He won the 1941 Academy Award for best original screenplay for Citizen Kane and in 1970 received the Academy Honorary Award. Known for his baritone voice, he was well regarded as a radio and film actor, a celebrated Shakespearean stage actor, and an accomplished magician. He first gained notoriety for his October 30, 1938, radio broadcast of H. G. Wells’ The War of the Worlds. Winner of multiple awards, he is now widely acknowledged as one of the most important dramatic artists of the twentieth century. In 2002, two British Film Institute polls of directors and critics voted Orson Welles the greatest film director of all time.