Wilkie Collins

1824–1889

1 series 1 book in order 1868

William Wilkie Collins (8 January 1824 – 23 September 1889) was an English novelist, playwright, and short story writer. He is best known for The Woman in White (1859) and The Moonstone (1868), with the latter often called the first modern English detective novel. Born in London to a family of a painter, he spent part of his childhood in Italy and France, where he learned French and Italian. He worked as a clerk for a tea merchant before publishing his first novel, Antonina, in 1850. He met Charles Dickens around this time, and the two became close friends and collaborators. Some of Collins's works appeared in Dickens's journals. Collins achieved financial stability and international recognition in the 1860s, but his health declined in the 1870s and 1880s due to gout and opium addiction. He was critical of marriage and maintained relationships with two women, Caroline Graves and his common-law wife Martha Rudd, with whom he had three children.

Born

1824

Active years

1868

Known for

Literature Heritage Series

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