Wilkie Collins

-
Best remembered for his sensational fiction of the 1860s, WC was, in the course of his forty-year writing career, the author of many ingeniously-plotted novels, as well as a writer of plays (some in collaboration with Charles Dickens ), short stories, a biography of his father, and a travel book. Innovative narrative technique is a feature of his work, along with legal and social critique. His writings are also notable, in a literary culture that viewed physical difference as a marker of moral failure, for their sympathetic representation of disability.

Milestones

8 January 1824

WC , novelist, was born at 11 New Cavendish Street, Marylebone.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.

August 1843

WC 's first identified published work, a short story titled The Last Stage Coachman, appeared in the Illuminated Magazine.
Peters, Catherine. The King of Inventors: A Life of Wilkie Collins. Minerva (imprint of Octopus).
60

26 November 1859

WC 's sensation novel The Woman in White began its serialization in Dickens'sAll the Year Round, following on the same page the conclusion of Dickens's own A Tale of Two Cities in instalments.
Borne Back Daily. http://borneback.com/ .
26 November 2010

15 August 1860

The previously serialised volume edition of WC 's extremely popular sensation novel The Woman in White was published by Sampson Low . It had reached its sixth edition by 1 November.
Cox, Michael, editor. The Oxford Chronology of English Literature. Oxford University Press.

23 September 1889

WC died in his home at 82 Wimpole Street, London, from an attack of bronchitis.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
His poor health meant that the convivial Collins had become a recluse by the time of his death.

January 1890

WC 's final novel, Blind Love, was published posthumously. With his health failing, Collins had arranged for it to be completed from his notes by Sir Walter Besant .
Gasson, Andrew. Wilkie Collins: An Illustrated Guide. Oxford University Press.
20, 22

Biography

8 January 1824

WC , novelist, was born at 11 New Cavendish Street, Marylebone.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.

Education and Early Occupations