Return to Wilkie Collins Appreciation Page
This page is maintained by David R Grigg (). Last modified on 07 Jan 2000.
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The following is courtesy of my correspondent Paul Lewis:
There is a biography of Collins by Catherine Peters, who edited a number of the more recent editions of his novels, called "The King of Inventors" ; published by Secker and Warburg, London in 1991 and is now out in paperback. Catherine Peters teaches Eng Lit at Somerville College, Oxford.
'The Secret Life of Wilkie Collins' by William M Clarke was published by W H Allen. But Sutton are producing a new and updated edition later this year.
'Wilkie Collins - the complete shorter fiction' ed. Julian Thompson has just been published by Robinson Publishing, 7 Kensington Church Court, London W8 4SP.
A very expensive little bibliography is available from ABCL, PO Box 224, Canterbury, Kent CT2 0UU.
Thanks, Paul, who also advised me of the existence of the Wilkie Collins Society.
Some older biographies are:
I can also strongly recommend a book called "And Always a Detective - Chapters on the History of Detective Fiction" by R.F.Stewart, pub David and Charles 1980, which first introduced me to the name of Wilkie Collins.
Not recommended, really, but for curiosity value you might look at 'The Detective and Mr Dickens' by William J Palmer, St Martin's Press, New York, 1990. It purports to be a secret journal written by Wilkie Collins about some scandalous adventures he and Charles Dickens become involved in. It is, of course, just a modern pastiche. Be warned, though, the sex scenes involving Ellen Terry are not written with Victorian circumspection! Further information about this pastiche, and its two sequels should look at http://www.mdn.com/dickens/. Thanks to my correspondent Bob Bergland for this.