1824-1889
Famed British writer of plays, novels, and short stories Wilkie Collins was born William Wilkie Collins on this day in the Marylebone area of London. Collins is credited with the invention of the modern English detective novel. His family was well off and well connected. His father was a celebrated landscape painter at the Royal Academy of Arts (RA); his godfather was the British painter Sir David Wilkie, for whom Collins' middle name was derived. The family moved frequently, but it was their time abroad in France and Italy that had lasting influence on him, especially in his pursuit of language. He also spent years (not consecutive) in boarding schools, which had the opposite effect on him, as he was the frequent target of bullies. It was this experience that literally drove him to begin to construct stories for escapism. So strong was this for him as coping mechanism, that he later credited a particular bully with the realization that he could write these stories down. After he finished school, he began an apprenticeship at the age of 17 in 1840, and also began to write on the side at the same time. In 1843, he published his first piece in a magazine; the very next year he started his first novel. It would not be until 1850 though until his first novel found a publisher willing to take the book. In the meantime, he had spent 5 years as a clerk and and nearly completed the study of the law in lew of becoming a clergyman, which his father was pressing upon him (he was eventually called to the bar in 1851). It was the meeting of another writer in 1851 that would be the greatest professional moment of important in his life. A mutual friend introduced him to Charles Dickens, they would not only be very good friends thereafter, they would also collaborate. Dickens' edited Collins' 1852 short story "A Terribly Strange Bed" and subsequently published the piece in his own weekly 'Household Words.' During the 1850's he had success at a number of endeavors, including getting major works published, having his published material reach the stage (again with the help of Dickens'--this time with his Tavistock House theatrical company) and finding a working position at Dickens' Household Words. But it would be the 1860's that proved his most successful. It was during this period that his most well known works were published, including The Woman in White (published in 1859 and made widely popular through serialization in the 1860's, the book is sometimes referred to as a work of "proto detective fiction" with gothic elements) and The Moonstone (1868, a work that is considered the first modern detective novel). He also began to write directly for the stage. The 1870's were not quite as kind to Collins. For starters his close friend/confidant/collaborator Dickens died, for another his long history of trying to keep the pain of gout at bay with laudanum began to take a toll. Still he had successes. His fiction, in serial form, was a popular as ever--his works selling under the moniker of "sensation novel;" and he toured the United States reading his works to eager audiences, meeting several prominent American authors along the way. Additionally The Woman in White was produced as a popular theatrical play in the West End. Later in life, as he also developed extreme trouble with his eyesight, he turned to mentoring younger writers in absence of being able to the write himself. Given the popularity even into the 20th century of both The Woman in White and The Moonstone, it is little surprise that these two works are the principle sources of his work for films over the years. Multiple versions of both were produced during the silent era; but so were multiple versions of his novel The New Magdalen made during the 1910s (though it diminished in popularity for films therafter). The first film adapted from his work was the Selig production of The Moonstone in 1909, an almost unknown film today. The second film, released the following year, was an adaptation of The New Magdalen, starring Paul Panzer and soon-to-be serial action star Pearl White (who was new to film acting in 1910). The first film adaptations of The Woman in White, came in 1912: there were two of them. The first was a small short production by Gem Motion Picture Company; their The Woman In White did have Universal Film distribution. The second film was a Thanhouser production starring Marguerite Snow and James Cruze, that lacked large scale distribution. Both film were released at nearly the same time in October of 1912. In 1914, film pioneer Alice Guy directed The Dream Woman, a seven minute horror film (yep, you read that right, a woman directed a horror film in 1914, complete with not just a ghost, but also a REALLY big knife...eat your heart out Michael Myers). The film was based on Collins' "novella" of the same name--part of his The Frozen Deep and Other Stories (1874)--it is lamentably among the long list of Guy films that is lost, hopefully not forever. The first feature treatment of The Moonstone came in 1915 with the Frank Hall Crane directed 50 minute World Film production by the same name (by the standards of the day, the first feature of Collins' work came with the 40 minute The Quest of the Sacred Jewel in 1914). Incredibly popular in the 1910's for films, the popularity of the use of his materiel fell off a cliff int he 1920's. Only two films were made during that decade using his work. She Loves and Lies was a Norma Talmadge production based on one of Collins' short stories and was released in January of 1920. The second was The Woman in White released in May of 1929, and a bit shockingly, the first British production of his work (at least as far as the research I have done indicates); the film was fully silent and starred Blanche Sweet. The Moonstone was the first work taken up in the sound era in a film independently produced as a poverty row film in 1934. There would be just three more films between this release and the first appearance of his work on television (all of them productions of The Woman in White). The series "Fireside Theater" featured two episodes of his work in 1949 and 1950 based on short stories. Since this time, more often than not, the use of his work has been for television series, with the few films also productions for television broadcast. The most recent production was the 2018 mini-series 'The Woman in White' which sports five episodes. Oh, and it is worth mentioning that one of those television productions was The Woman in White, a British made-for-television film from 1997 starring "The Walking Dead" lead (and Ian Anderson's son-in-law) Andrew Lincoln. Wilkie Collins passed away on the 23 of September at the age of 65 after years of suffering from gout. He was laid to rest in Kensal Green, one of Greater London's most well known cemeteries.
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| Source:Wikipedia |
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