Tag: Books and favorite authors

GEORGE ORWELL

IMAGE WITH INFO: WIKIPEDIA

Eric Arthur Blair, popularly known as George Orwell, rose to fame as an English novelist, essayist, journalist, and critic. His writing is noted for its clarity, social critique, opposition to tyranny, and support for democratic socialism. His writings included literary criticism, poetry, fiction and polemical journalism.

George Orwell was born on 25 June 1903 at Motihari, Bengal Presidency, British India. Charles Blair, his great-grandfather, was a well-to-do country gentleman from Dorset who married Lady Mary Fane, the 8th Earl of Westmorland’s daughter. Blair was also the absentee owner of Jamaican plantations. Thomas Richard Arthur Blair, his grandpa, was a priest in the Anglican Church. Richard Walmesley Blair, Orwell’s father, looked after the cultivation and storage of opium for export to China while employed by the Indian Civil Service as a Sub-Deputy Opium Agent. His mother Ida Mabel Blair (née Limouzin) grew up in Moulmein, Burma, where her French father engaged in speculative activities. He had two sisters, Marjorie, older than him by 5 years and Avril, younger to him by years.

Eric’s mother, Ida, relocated to Henley-on-Thames in Oxfordshire in 1904 with her children. Eric Blair ( George Orwell) didn’t get to meet his father until 1912 except for a brief visit in mid-1907. Eric and his sister, Marjorie were enrolled in a Roman Catholic Convent under the administration of French Ursuline nuns.Blair received a scholarship to St. Cyprian’s School in Eastbourne, East Sussex, thanks to Charles Limouzin’s social connections. He was in the boarding school for five years, starting from September 1911. After completing his schooling, he joined as an Imperial Policeman in Burma and later,returned home to Suffolk to start his writing career, using George Orwell as his pen name. He earned a meager income by submitting journalistic pieces, and working as a teacher and a bookseller in London. He achieved success as a writer between late 1920s and 1930s as his books were published.

Upon his return to England, his first episode of ill health was caused by a wound he sustained while fighting in the Spanish Civil War. He served as a journalist and a BBC employee during the Second World War. Fame came to him during his lifetime as a result of the publication of Animal Farm. He worked on Nineteen Eighty-Four in his final years, commuting between London and Jura in Scotland. Less than a year before his passing, in June 1949, it was published.

He married Eileen O’Shaughnessy in 1936 who died in 1945 and later married Sonia Brownell in 1949. By this time, his health started deteriorating as he had contracted tuberculosis.

Finally, he bade farewell to this world on 21 January 1950 (aged 46) in London, England. His books are still some of the most cherished, priceless treasures of English literature.

His noteworthy books :

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Matsuo Bashō

INFO WITH IMAGE : WIKIPEDIA

Matsuo Bashō , a renowned Japanese poet, whom we associate with Haiku, a highly popular form of poetry, was born as Matsuo Kinsaku in the year 1644 ,near Ueno, in Iga Province. Later on, he went by the name, Matsuo Chūemon Munefusa during Edo period. After centuries of discussion, Basho is now regarded as the greatest haiku master. During his lifetime, Bash was lauded for his works in the collaborative haikai no renga style (then called hokku).

A Traditional Japanese Haiku consists of three phrases made of 17 phonetic units or syllables, usually written as 5-7-5 including a cutting word called Kireji and a seasonal reference called Kigo. The poems which don’t follow these pattern come under the category called Senryu.

Basho also rose to fame with his travel essays and published ‘Records of a Weather-Exposed Skeleton (1684)’ after traveling West to Kyoto and Nara. The poetry of Matsuo Bash is well known throughout the world, and in Japan, many of his works are depicted on traditional buildings and monuments. Although Bash is well-known in the West for his hokku, he felt that leading and taking part in renku was where he produced his best work.

Basho’s family were of Samurai descent. His father was a peasant who owned land with the privilege of being a Samurai. Basho got trained as a Ninjutsu but worked as a domestic help to Tōdō Yoshitada but didn’t get promoted to Samurai class. He began working as a cook or a kitchen worker and then as a page to Yoshitada. Yoshitada influenced him to take up writing poetry.He enjoyed writing haikai no renga, a type of collaborative poetry, just as much as  Yoshitada did.

An opening 5-7-5 mora stanza was called a  hokku, but when it was presented as a stand-alone piece centuries later, it was termed a  haiku. Basho used Sobo as his pen name . He published his first extant poem in 1662 and by 1726, two of his hokkus were compiled and published. In 1665 , Basho and Yoshitada collaborated to write a hundred verse renku or hyakuin. Yoshitada died in 1666 which came as a severe jolt to Basho who almost became a recluse and left home.

The poet started writing under the pen name  Basho in 1680 after receiving a gift of a basho (banana)tree from one of his  students.

Bashō died on November 28, 1694 at Osaka, leaving behind the rich treasures of his literary skills. These lines are assumed to be his final composition.

His popular works are :

His popular Haikus translated in English

Pinterest

Voice.club

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CHETAN BHAGAT

( INFO WITH IMAGE: WIKIPEDIA)

Chetan Bhagat is a name that needs no introduction. He is one of the most popular Indian authors who has successfully published bestsellers like Five Point Someone, 2 States: The Story of My Marriage, The 3 Mistakes of My Life, Half Girlfriend, One Indian Girl etc. Besides being an author, he is also a newspaper columnist and a YouTuber.

He uses books as a means of expression  of his beliefs and viewpoints about young  people and society at large. Chetan has  delivered numerous presentations at  numerous institutions and organisations as a  motivational speaker.

He was born on 22 April 1974 (age 48) at Delhi, India. Chetan Bhagat grew up in a middle class family. His father was in Indian Army and mother, a government employee. He has a brother, Ketan. He attended local Delhi schools and then joined Army Public school. He was a brilliant student, scoring high grades consistently and at the same time also started writing articles for the school literary magazine.

Chetan Bhagat received his mechanical engineering degree from the IIT Delhi before doing his PGP at the IIM Ahmedabad[4]. He began working as an investment banker but resigned after a short time to pursue literature. In addition to three non-fiction publications, he has published 10 novels. In 2004, Five Point Someone, his debut book, was released. The Aamir Khan starrer Bollywood Blockbuster, ” 3 idiots, ” was adapted from this book.

He got married to Anusha Suryanarayan in 1998 and is blessed with twin sons, Shyam Bhagat and Ishaan Bhagat.

CHETAN BHAGAT ‘S POPULAR BOOKS ARE:

AWARDS AND ACCOLADES

He has made India proud with his exceptional literary skills.

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THE CLASSICS I WISH TO READ

Hi Friends,

Now, I would like to talk about the great classics in English literature that I wish to read. I have read some of them a long time ago and would not mind reading again.

Amazon

David Copperfield by Charles Dickens

David Copperfield by Charles Dickens is one of my most favorite classics which I am planning to read again. The story is about the journey and hardships faced by David Copperfield right from the time, his mother marries the evil Mr. Murdstone to his dreadful time in a boarding school, his running away from the school to his life as a young man and the atrocities of The Murdstones, Uriah Heep and his love life.

All the blurbs are referred from Wikipedia.

Flipkart

The Time Machine by H G Wells.

I am yet to read this superb work of science fiction written by the legendary H G Wells in 1895. It’s amazing to note how he managed to write such an excellent plot as in those days, the concept of Time Travel could hardly be imagined. Can’t wait to read this masterpiece. According to a small blurb inspired by Wikipedia, the story is based on the concept of Time Travel. The storyteller describes how the Traveler  explained to his regular dinner guests that  time is only a fourth dimension and shows  them a tabletop model device for travelling  through it. When he returns for dinner the next week, he tells an amazing story and takes on the role of the new narrator after revealing that he  has created a device that can transport a  person through time. Time Traveler tries his device in the new  story. He initially believes nothing has changed,  but he quickly realises he travelled five  hours into the future. As he moves on,  he notices that his house has vanished and  has been replaced with a verdant garden.  The Time Traveler makes a stop in  A.D. 802,701, where he encounters a society of  diminutive, elegant, and childlike adults  known as the Eloi.

Amazon

The Strange Case of Dr.Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson.

I read this book a long time ago. I would like to read it again. The story is about Gabriel John Utterson, who is a lawyer in London, investigating a series of crime that center around his old friend Dr. Henry Jekyll and a sinister psychopath, Edward Hyde.

Amazon

The Black Cat : A Short Story by Edgar Allan Poe.

This is another book that I wish to read. It’s a horror cum thriller. It’s about the narrator and his black cat and his transformation from an animal lover to a cold blooded murderer. I already read The Murders in the Rue Morgue which was soooo exciting and fabulous. Edgar Allan Poe was a literary genius.

Amazon

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne.

Jules Verne is my favorite French Author. When it comes to science fiction, H G Wells and Jules Verne , both are master storytellers. This is such a book that I would not mind reading twice.

The story is set in 1866 when the ships from different countries report seeing a mystery sea creature that they assume to be a giant Narhwal . The US Government arranges for an expedition to find out and hunt down the monster terrorizing the sea. Professor Pierre Aronnax, a French marine biologist, and also the narrator of the story is selected for this mission along with Canadian whaler and master harpooner Ned Land and Aronnax’s faithful manservant Conseil .

I am planning to read some more classics which I will share next week.

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MARGARET ATWOOD

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Margaret Eleanor Atwood is one of the most popular figures in English literature. Besides being a Canadian poet, she is also famous as a novelist, a literary critic, an essayist, teacher, environmental activist, and inventor. Wow! She reminds me of Leonardo Da Vinci who was everything, a human could imagine to be. Her literary career comprises of 18 books of poetry, 18 novels, 11 books of non-fiction, nine collections of short fiction, eight children’s books, and two graphic novels, and a number of small press editions of both poetry and fiction since 1961. This is such a remarkable achievement.

She was born as Margaret Eleanor Atwood on November 18, 1939 (age 83) at Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Her parents were Carl Edmund Atwood, an entomologist, and Margaret Dorothy (née Killam), a former dietitian and nutritionist from Woodville, Nova Scotia. Atwood spent a large portion of her childhood in the wilderness of northern Quebec and travelled frequently between Ottawa, Sault Ste. Marie, and Toronto due to her father’s study in forest entomology.

She was enrolled in a regular school only after she was 12. Further, she joined Leaside High School in Leaside, Toronto to graduate in 1957. Atwood’s keen interest in writing blossomed when she was only 6 and started writing plays and poems. Her love for reading flourished as she began to read the books on literature, Dell pocketbook mysteries, Grimms’ Fairy Tales, Canadian animal stories, and comic books. She also took part in the Girl Guides of Canada’s Brownie programme as a young child. In a number of her publications, Atwood has written about her experiences as a Girl Guide.

Atwood decided at age 16 that she wanted to pursue a career as a writer. She went to Victoria College in the University of Toronto in 1957 and successfully completed Bachelor of Arts in English (honours) and minors in philosophy and French. When she was in the said college, she started publishing poems and articles in Acta Victoriana, the college literary journal, and took part in the sophomore theatrical tradition of The Bob Comedy Revue. Jay Macpherson and Northrop Frye were some of her professors.

With a Woodrow Wilson fellowship, Atwood  started graduate study at Radcliffe College  at Harvard University in 1961.After  graduating from Radcliffe with an MA  in 1962, she continued doctoral studies for  two years but did not complete her  dissertation,  The English Metaphysical  Romance.

Atwood’s sister, Ruth,was born in 1951 and has a brother, Harold Leslie Atwood, older than her by two years. Atwood got married to Jim Polk, an American Writer, in 1968 and divorced in 1973. Fellow novelist, Graeme Gibson, entered her life and they settled in Alliston, Ontario. They were blessed with a daughter, Eleanor Jess Atwood Gibson, in 1976. Atwood and Gibson lived together until September 18, 2019 when Gibson died of dementia. She gave a tribute to Gibson in the form of a poem, Dearly, and an essay on grief and poetry which appeared in The Guardian in 2020.

Margaret Atwood is an inspiration to all the women writers. I had read her most popular book ” The Handmaid’s Tale” . I loved it so much. May she continue to rule the hearts of billions of her admirers.

AWARDS AND HONORS

Best published works.

Can’t wait to read the rest of her books.

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Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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German poet, dramatist, writer, scientist, statesman, theatre director, and critic Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was born on August 28, 1749 at Free Imperial City of Frankfurt, Holy Roman Empire. In addition to treatises on botany, anatomy, and colour, his writings also contain plays, poetry, literary criticism, and aesthetic works. He is recognised as the finest and most influential writer in the German language, and from the late 18th century to the present, Western literature, politics, and philosophy have been greatly influenced by his works.

Goethe’s parents were Johann Caspar Goethe, an Imperial Councillor who had studied law in Leipzig, and Catharina Elisabeth Textor. Johann and his sister Cornelia Friederica Christiana ( born 1750) were the sole survivors as their other siblings died at a young age.

Goethe and his sister were homeschooled by their father and private tutors taught them, Latin, Greek, Biblical Hebrew (briefly),French, Italian, and English. Goethe also took lessons in dancing, riding, and fencing. His father wanted to give them the best of education so that they could enjoy all the facilities that he himself lacked.

Initially, Goethe took keen interest in drawing but found his true love in literature. He started reading the works of Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock and Homer.

Besides literature, he was attracted towards Theater and puppet shows fascinated him. Goethe also got to know some of the  Frankfurt actors. He displayed a crush on  Gretchen in his earliest literary works;  she would later make a return in his Faust,  and he would succinctly summarise their  exploits in Dichtung und Wahrheit. 

He had great affection for Caritas Meixner  (1750–1773), a wealthy Worms trader’s daughter and his sister’s friend who would later wed G. F. Schuler. Inspite of having studied law in Leipzig University from 1765 to 1768, he took a keen interest in attending poetry lessons of the university’s professor Christian Fürchtegott Gellert. Goethe fell in love with the daughter of an innkeeper and carpenter in Leipzig, Anna Katharina Schönkopf, and wrote jovial Rococo rhymes about her. He published Annette, his first book of poems, under an assumed name in 1770. Goethe quit his studies and returned to Frankfurt by August 1768.

Goethe’s health condition worsened in Frankfurt and in the days that followed, his relationship with his father was greatly strained. His mother and sister nursed him back to health and by April 1770, he went to complete his studies from the the University of Strasbourg.

He was equally interested in the study of Natural Science and published his first scientific work ” the Metamorphosis of Plants” in 1788 after his return from the trip to Italy. He became the managing director of the theatre at Weimar in 1791 and formed a close friendship with the dramatist, historian, and philosopher Friedrich Schiller in 1794, and premiered in his plays until Schiller’s death in 1805.

Goethe died from a heart failure 22 March 1832 at Weimar, Grand Duchy of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, German Confederation.

His most popular works are:

His poem translated in English

courtesy:

https://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/German/Goethepoems.php#anchor_Toc74652087

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BARBARA CARTLAND

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The Queen of Romance, Dame Mary Barbara Hamilton Cartland, DBE, DStJ, was an  English author who wrote both contemporary and historical romance books. Her books were mostly based on contemporary and historical romance set during Victorian or Edwardian Period.

She was born as Mary Barbara Hamilton Cartland on 9 July 1901 at Edgbaston, Birmingham, England. Her parents were British Army Officer, Major James Bertram “Bertie” Falkner Cartland (1876–1918), and his wife, Mary Hamilton Scobell, known as “Polly” (1877–1976). She was the eldest child and the only daughter with two brothers: Major Ronald Cartland, a Member of Parliament, and an Army Major (1907–1940), and James Anthony “Tony” Hamilton Cartland (1912–1940). Her brothers died in the war conflicts in Flanders.

Although she was born into comfortable  upper middle-class surroundings,  the Cartland family’s financial situation  quickly declined soon after she was born. She held her paternal grandfather, James Cartland, responsible for the financial crisis after he committed suicide following the declaration of the bankruptcy.

Her family situation worsened after her father’s death in Berry-au-Bac in World War I. To make ends meet while raising Cartland  and her two brothers, who later  perished in a combat in 1940, her mother started a dry  goods shop in London. Cartland attended private girls’ schools: The Alice Ottley School, Malvern Girls’ College, and Abbey House, an educational institution in Hampshire. She began her career as a successful society reporter in 1922 and was inspired by Edwardian Author, Elinor Glyn, to take up writing.

It’s believed that she turned down 49 suitors before tying the knot with Captain Alexander “Sachie” George McCorquodale, on 23 April 1927 and got divorced in 1933. Barbara claimed that their daughter, Raine McCorquodale, was in fact born to  George Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, 5th Duke of Sutherland, or Prince George, Duke of Kent. Their divorce was quite controversial with accusations of infidelity. She got married for the second time to her former husband’s cousin, Hugh McCorquodale, on 28 December 1936. She had two sons from him; Ian McCorquodale (born 11 October 1937), a former Debretts publisher, and Glen McCorquodale (born 1939), a stockbroker. Hugh McCorquodale died in 1963.

Cartland published 25 million books in France, earning her the Médaille de Vermeil de la Ville de Paris, the highest honour bestowed by the city of Paris, in January 1988.Cartland was awarded the title of Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) by Queen Elizabeth II in 1991 in recognition of her over 70 years of achievements to literature, politics, and society.According to her son Ian, Cartland was not happy with the wax replica of herself that was on exhibit at Madame Tussauds because it was not “beautiful enough.”

She passed away on 21 May 2000 (aged 98) at Hatfield, Hertfordshire, England, leaving behind her fabulous books, many of whom were adapted into movies and TV series like A Hazard of Hearts, A Ghost in Monte Carlo and Duel of Hearts. She has written over 723 novels and made it into the Guinness Book of World Records for the most published books in a year (1977).

Her most popular books.

Historical Romance

The Hidden Heart 1946

The Kiss of the Devil 1949

The Knave of Hearts 1950 also known as The Innocent Heiress

The Little Pretender 1950

A Ghost in Monte Carlo 1951

Love is an Eagle 1951

Cupid Rides Pillion1952

Love is the Enemy 1952

Elizabethan Lover 1953

Love Me for Ever 1953

Desire of the Heart 1954

The Enchanted Waltz 1955

The Coin of Love 1956

The Captive Heart 1956

Stars in My Heart 1957

As Barbara McCorquodale

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SURYAKANT TRIPATHI NIRALA

( Google Image) ( Info : Wikipedia).

Hindi literature is incomplete without mentioning Suryakant Tripathi ‘Nirala’. He was an excellent poet, novelist, essayist and story-writer, who mainly published his works in Hindi.He belonged to the Chayavad ( Romantic) movement in Hindi literature.Besides, being a writer, he was also an artist with many contemporary sketches to his credit.

Suryakant Tripathi ‘Nirala’ was born on 21 February 1897 at Midnapore, Bengal Presidency, British India. Pandit Ramsahaya Tripathi, Nirala’s despotic father, was a government employee. When he was a child, his mother passed away. Nirala attended Mahishadal Raj High School in Mahishadal, Purba Medinipur, where he received her education in Bengali. Later, he relocated to Lucknow before going to the village of Gadhakola in the Unnao district, which is where his father was born. He was inspired by people like Ramakrishna Paramhansa, Swami Vivekananda, and Rabindranath Tagore as a young man.

Nirala got married at the age of 20. His wife, Manohara Devi, inspired him to learn Hindi. As a result, he started composing poems in Hindi instead of Bengali. Nirala’s childhood was miserable but spent a few good years in his married life. Disaster struck his family in the form of Spanish flu influenza outbreak in 1918 when he lost his wife and widowed daughter.

His lifestyle for the majority of his life was  largely bohemian. He was vehemently  opposed to social injustice and exploitation which he exposed through his writing.Acceptance was difficult because he was  essentially a renegade in both form and content. He received lots of contempt and  mockery. He may have developed schizophrenia  later  in life as a result of all of this, and he was  subsequently admitted to Ranchi’s Central  Institute of Psychiatry.

He left behind a great legacy of treasured works of Hindi literature as he passed away on 15 October 1961 (aged 64) at Allahabad (now Prayagraj) Uttar Pradesh, India.

His noteworthy works:

Poetry

Ram Ki Shakti Puja (राम की शक्ति पूजा)

Dhwani (ध्वनि)

Apara (अपरा)

Saroj Smriti (सरोज स्मृति)

Parimal (परिमल)

Priyatam (प्रियतम)

Anaamika (अनामिका, 1938)

Geetika (गीतिका)

Kukurmutta (कुकुरमुत्ता, 1941)

Adima (अणिमा)

Bela (बेला)

Naye Patte (नये पत्ते)

Archana (अर्चना)

Geet Gunj (गीतगुंज)

Aradhana (आराधना)

Tulsidas (तुलसीदास, 1938)

Janmabhumi (जन्मभूमि)

Jago Phir Ek Bar (जागो फिर एक बार)

Bhikshuk (भिक्षुक)

Todti Patthar (तोड़ती पत्थर)

Suryakant Tripathi Nirala Poem.

( Poetry and translation :

https://poetandpoem.com)

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GUSTAVE FLAUBERT

( Image with info: Wikipedia)

Gustave Flaubert was a French Novelist who introduced the concept of Literary Realism in France and the rest of the world. Literary Realism refers to the reflection of subject matter accurately while avoiding speculative fiction and magical aspects. It is a subset of the larger realism in the arts movement.

Gustave Flaubert was born on 12 December 1821 at Rouen, Normandy, Kingdom of France. His parents were Anne Justine Caroline (née Fleuriot; 1793–1872) and Achille-Cléophas Flaubert (1784–1846), director and senior surgeon of the major hospital in Rouen. His passion for writing began as early as the age of eight as per the information revealed by some sources.

He received his formal education at Lycée Pierre-Corneille, Rouen until 1940 and moved to Paris to study law. He was a disinterested student in Paris and thought the place was unpleasant. He met a few people, Victor Hugo among them. He travelled to Corsica and the Pyrenees toward the end of 1840. After experiencing an epileptic seizure in 1846, he fled Paris and gave up on his legal studies.

Flaubert was romantically involved with Louise Colet from 1846 to 1854. His letters to her during the said period are still there to confirm the relationship. He moved back to Croisset, close to Rouen and the Seine, after leaving Paris, where he spent the rest of his life. He did, however, occasionally travel to England and Paris, where it appears that he had a mistress.

He never married or had children. However, he had an active sexual life with both male and female prostitutes. His biographer Émile Faguet states that Colet was his only true love. He shared a warm relationship with his niece, Caroline Commanville and George Sand with whom he also exchanged correspondence. His circle of friends included Émile Zola, Alphonse Daudet, Ivan Turgenev, and Edmond and Jules de Goncourt.

Flaubert went through a difficult year in 1870s.His mother passed away in 1872, and throughout the War of 1870, Prussian  soldiers were living in his home. He ran into financial problems after her passing as a  result of his niece’s husband’s economic  difficulties. For the majority of his life,  Flaubert battled venereal illnesses. His health continued to deteriorate. He passed away on 8 May 1880 (aged 58) at Croisset (Canteleu), Rouen, French Third Republic, due to cerebral hemorrhage.

His most popular works include :

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MARY HIGGINS CLARK (IMAGE WITH INFO : WIKIPEDIA)

Mary Higgins Clark was an American writer  of suspense novels. She was born Mary  Theresa Eleanor Higgins on December 24,  1927.With her debut suspense novel, Where Are the Children?, in its seventy-fifth printing,  each of her 51 books was a bestseller in the United States and several European nations. As of 2015, all of her books were still in print.

Mary Theresa Eleanor Higgins happened to be the second child and the only daughter of Nora C. (Durkin) and Luke Joseph Higgins. Her brother, Joseph, was older than her by a year and a half. She had a younger brother, John. Her mother was born in America and also of Irish ancestry, and her father was an immigrant from Ireland.

She took a keen interest in writing at a young age of seven when she started composing poems and short plays to be enacted by her friends. She also started maintaining a journal to record the daily events in her life.

The family had a property in the Bronx and a vacation home on Long Island Sound, and  they also earned income by running an Irish pub. Despite the fact that Higgins Clark was  just a baby when the Great Depression  started, her family initially escaped  unaffected and even insisted on feeding the jobless men who came to their home. When Higgins Clark turned 10, the family  started to run into financial difficulties as a result of many of their patrons who couldn’t pay the bar tabs they had racked up. 

Higgins Clark’s father was compelled to fire a number of employees and put in extra overtime, spending hardly more than a few hours per day at home. The Higgins family suffered a major setback when Mary discovered that her father, Luke Joseph Higgins, passed away in his sleep in 1939. Mary’s widowed Mom, Nora, was unable to get a job as she was 52 and had not worked for 14 years. Mary Higgins Clark had to give up her bedroom so that her mother could get rent from paying boarders. To add to their misfortune, Mary’s older brother, Joseph, had injured his foot over a piece of metal, leading to severe osteomyelitis. When the young boy needed numerous  blood transfusions, Higgins Clark and her  mother fervently prayed for him, and their  neighbours flocked to their home in great  numbers to donate blood. Joseph Higgins  lived despite the physicians’ grim warnings. Higgins Clark believed that their prayers were important in his recovery.

Mary Higgins Clark believed that their prayers were important in his recovery.

Higgins Clark obtained a scholarship from the Congregation de Notre Dame de Montreal to attend the Villa Maria Academy after she graduated from Saint Francis Xavier Grammar School. She started working as a switchboard operator at the Shelton Hotel and used to listen to the residents’ conversation. Her earnings were not enough for the family. Her mother took up a job as a babysitter to supplement the family income. Her older brother, Joseph, joined the Navy in 1944 after his graduation. Later on, he died after contracting spinal meningitis. His mother started receiving pension, thus, easing the pressure on Mary Higgins Clark.

Mary Higgins married Warren Clark in 1949 who died in 1964. Later, she married Raymond Ploetz in 1978 and they separated in 1986. She married again in 1996 to John J. Conheeney who died in 2018. She had 5 children. Her daughter, Carol Higgins Clark, and daughter in law, Mary Jane Clark are also authors by profession.

Mary Higgins Clark breathed her last on January 31, 2020 (aged 92) at Naples, Florida, U.S. Nevertheless, she still lives forever in the hearts of her numerous admirers.

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