Collins, Wilkie (William Wilkie Collins), 1824–89, English novelist. Although trained as a lawyer, he spent most of his life writing, producing some 30 novels. He is best known for two mystery stories, The Woman in White (1860) and The Moonstone (1868), which are considered the first full-length detective novels in English and among the best of their genre; they helped to define the genre of literary melodrama which would peak at the end of the century. Collins's heroines are drawn with considerable clarity and sympathy. He was a friend of Dickens, in whose periodical Household Words many of Collins's novels first appeared.

Bibliography

See W. Baker and W. M. Clarke, ed., The Letters of Wilkie Collins (Vol. I–II;, 2000); biographies by W. M. Clarke (1988) and C. Peters (1993); studies by M. P. Davis (1956), W. H. Marshall (1970), N. Page (1974), and S. Lonoff (1982).

Collins, (William) Wilkie

(born Jan. 8, 1824, London, Eng.—died Sept. 23, 1889, London) English novelist. After working briefly in commerce and law, he took up writing and became associated with Charles Dickens, who had a formative influence on his career. For two works, he is remembered as one of the first and best writers of English mystery novels. The Woman in White (1860), inspired by an actual criminal case, made him famous. The Moonstone (1868), one of the first English detective novels, introduced features that became conventions in the genre.