William Wilkie Collins

William Wilkie Collins, the author of the first detective stories in English, was born in London in 1824. He was the son of landscape painter William Collins and was named after his godfather, the painter David Wilkie. He studied law in London, although he never intended to practice, and briefly tried his hand at painting. From 1848, he began writing articles and stories, many of which were published anonymously, as well as the adventure novel "Iolani," which was discovered and published for the first time in 1999. His father's biography was his first significant published work and gave him the courage to devote himself to writing. This was followed by the historical novel "Antonina or The Fall of Rome" (1850), which was a publishing success. The work caught the attention of Charles Dickens, who became a close friend and helped him stage two melodramas, "Lighthouse" (1855) and "The Frozen Deep" (1857). He also published many of his works in serial form in Dickens's magazines "Household Words" and "All the Year Round." Collins was a pioneering author of mystery and suspense stories. However, the work that made him famous was "The Woman in White" (1860), establishing the genre of sensation fiction. His novels "No Name" (1863), "Armadale" (1866), and "The Moonstone" (1868) also achieved great success. The latter was mostly dictated from his bed, as he suffered from arthritis. In his later years, he became addicted to opium, and the novels he wrote between 1870 and 1889 are considered inferior to his earlier works. He passed away in 1889.