CONVERSATIONS
(CwHD) is a weblog about words and language and other nonsense. CwHD
began May 1, 2017. Besides thematic essays, the site provides a
vehicle for sharing my own words and language. In July, 2017, I
opened The Bookstore. This page provides an overview of my published
work. Print and ebook copies are available through my publishing
website (link in sidebar):
majikwoids
Last week I listed the six most influential author's of detective stories. This week's post begins the biographies of those writers.
William Wilkie Collins
(1824 - 1889)
William
Collins was born and raised in the fashionable London district of
Marylebourne. Wilkie, as he was affectionately known, then spent the
remainder of his life within the same few blocks. Curiously, the
fictional home of Sherlock Holmes also was located in the district at
221B Baker Street.
By
any standard, Collins led an unconventional life. Early on he became
a story-teller. At boarding school, the short, stout boy with the
disproportionately large head and shoulders with a lump on his
forehead, and with small hands and feet, began spinning tales to
appease a bully. His ungainly physical attributes, however, seemed no
burden to Collins. He seems to have used himself for the model of
Count Fosco, one of the principle characters in The Woman In
White.
Initially
a journalist, at 24 he entered law school and passed the bar in 1851;
but he never practiced. He had begun writing fiction in 1843 and his
first story appeared in a popular illustrated magazine. His first
novel, inspired by the death of his father, was The Memoirs of the
Life of William Collins, Esq., R.A. The
book was published in 1848, receiving good reviews. Wilkie never
looked back.
Writing
afforded him the financial wherewithal and the freedom to cultivate
his bohemian preferences. He remained a lifetime bachelor, though he
did live with several women. He indulged in good food, good drink,
often to excess. Wilkie wore flamboyant clothes, frequently traveled
to France and Italy, was widely read, and maintained a vigorous sense
of humor. Despite his apparent joie de vivre, his health was often
poor. To relieve the symptoms of his many ailments, he took larger
and larger doses of laudanum, a tincture of opium, which was a common
medication of the 19th century.
His
wide circle of friends included Charles Dickens; and for many years
Collins provided material for Dickens' magazines. The Woman
In White, No Name, Armadale, and
The Moonstone were his best
known works. During his lifetime he wrote over thirty major books,
hundreds of articles, short stories and essays, and a dozen plays. He
was noted for his cynical regard for the Victorian establishment, and
for championing the many victims of the prevalent social injustices.
As
we shall see, that cynical regard for establishment would become a
major theme in all subsequent detective fiction.
