“The
first four months of writing the book, my mental image is scratching with my
hands through granite. My other image is pushing a train up the mountain, and
it's icy, and I'm in bare feet.” – Mary Higgins Clark
Born
in The Bronx, NY, on Christmas Eve 1927, Mary Theresa Eleanor Higgins Clark
said she just seemed destined to become a writer. She started a daily journal and wrote her
first poems by age 7, then crafted plays for her family and friends when she
was 8.
Despite
her penchant for writing, she started her adult career as a copy editor and
then became an airline stewardess for Pan Am Airlines. But after marrying and
starting her family, she took a writing workshop and returned to writing, although not with overnight success. Her first short
story, Stowaway, was rejected 40 times before finally being picked up in
1956, opening the door to hundreds more her short stories being published
around the globe.
In
1975 she decided to try her hand at mystery-suspense. Her debut novel in the genre, Where Are The
Children? has been continuously in print since then, now in its 78th
printing. Ultimately, Higgins-Clark
wrote some 50 novels and at least 30 have been
adapted into movies or television programs.
Among her many awards were the Horatio Alger Award, the Passionists’ Ethics in
Literature Award, and the National Arts Club’s Gold Medal in Education. She
also was awarded 18 honorary doctorate degrees from some of the nation’s most
prestigious colleges and universities.
“If
you want to be happy for life,” she said shortly before her death in 2020, “love what
you do.”
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