Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was born on 22 May 1859 in Edinburgh. He studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh and began to write stories while he was a student. Over his life he produced more than thirty books, 150 short stories, poems, plays and essays across a wide range of genres. His most famous creation is the detective Sherlock Holmes, who he introduced in his first novel A Study in Scarlet (1887).

This was followed in 1889 by an historical novel, Micah Clarke. In 1893 Conan Doyle published 'The Final Problem' in which he killed off his famous detective so that he could turn his attention more towards historical fiction. However Holmes was so popular that Conan Doyle eventually relented and published The Hound of the Baskervilles in 1901.

The events of the The Hound of the Baskervilles are set before those of 'The Final Problem' but in 1903 new Sherlock Holmes stories began to appear that revealed that the detective had not died after all. He was finally retired in 1927. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle died on 7 July 1930.

Sarah Orne Jewett (1849-1909) was an American novelist, short story writer, and poet. As a young child she was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis and encouraged to take frequent nature walks. Today she is best known for her nature writing and regional works set along the coast of Maine. At nineteen, Jewett had a short story published in The Atlantic.

She is the author of Deephaven (1877), Old Friends and New (1879), Country By-Ways (1881), A White Heron and Other Stories (1886), and A Native of Winby and Other Tales (1893). Her novels include A Country Doctor (1884) and The Country of the Pointed Firs (1896). For most of her adult life, Jewett lived with Annie Adams Field in what was then termed a 'Boston marriage'.