Mary Higgins Clark
JD, PhD
NY, USFrom her first book in 1975, Where Are the Children, to her most recent offering I Heard That Song Before, and all 40 bestsellers in between, Mary Higgins Clark has established herself as America’s premier suspense writer and has earned her title as “The Queen of Suspense.”
Mary Higgins Clark, born and raised in New York, is of Irish descent. She considers her Irish heritage an important influence on her writing. “The Irish are, by nature, storytellers," she observes.
Her father died when she was ten. Her mother struggled to bring up Mary and her two brothers. After graduating from high school, Mary Higgins Clark went to secretarial school, so she could get a job and help her mother with the family finances. After working for three years in an advertising agency, travel fever seized her. For the year 1949, she was a stewardess on Pan American Airline’s international flights, to see the world. “My run was Europe, Africa and Asia” she recalls. It was in a revolution in Syria and on the last flight into Czechoslovakia before the iron Curtain went down. She flew for a year and then got married.
Mary married a neighbor., Warren Clark. Nine years her senior, she had been in love with him since she was 16. Soon after her marriage, she started writing short stories. It took her six years and forty rejection slips before she sold her first story to Extension magazine in 1956 for $100. "I framed that first letter of acceptance."
Warren Clark died in 1964 of a heart attack, leaving Mary a widow with five children to support. She went to work writing radio scripts. In addition, she decided to work on a book. Every morning, she got up at 5 AM and wrote until 7 AM, when she had to get the kids ready for school. Her first book was a biographical novel about the life of George Washington. Next she decided to write a suspense novel. Where Are the Children?, which became a bestseller, and marked a turning point in her life and career.
Mary Higgins Clark decided to make time for things she had always wanted to do. So far, she had put all her energies into her children's education. Now she was going to catch up on her own. In 1974, she entered Fordham University at Lincoln Center and graduated summa cum laude in 1979 with a B.A. in philosophy. She has four honorary degrees.From her first book in 1975, Where Are the Children, to her most recent offering I Heard That Song Before, and all 40 bestsellers in between, Mary Higgins Clark has established herself as America’s premier suspense writer and has earned her title as “The Queen of Suspense.”
Mary Higgins Clark, born and raised in New York, is of Irish descent. She considers her Irish heritage an important influence on her writing. “The Irish are, by nature, storytellers," she observes.
Her father died when she was ten. Her mother struggled to bring up Mary and her two brothers. After graduating from high school, Mary Higgins Clark went to secretarial school, so she could get a job and help her mother with the family finances. After working for three years in an advertising agency, travel fever seized her. For the year 1949, she was a stewardess on Pan American Airline’s international flights, to see the world. “My run was Europe, Africa and Asia” she recalls. It was in a revolution in Syria and on the last flight into Czechoslovakia before the iron Curtain went down. She flew for a year and then got married.
Mary married a neighbor., Warren Clark. Nine years her senior, she had been in love with him since she was 16. Soon after her marriage, she started writing short stories. It took her six years and forty rejection slips before she sold her first story to Extension magazine in 1956 for $100. "I framed that first letter of acceptance."
Warren Clark died in 1964 of a heart attack, leaving Mary a widow with five children to support. She went to work writing radio scripts. In addition, she decided to work on a book. Every morning, she got up at 5 AM and wrote until 7 AM, when she had to get the kids ready for school. Her first book was a biographical novel about the life of George Washington. Next she decided to write a suspense novel. Where Are the Children?, which became a bestseller, and marked a turning point in her life and career.
Mary Higgins Clark decided to make time for things she had always wanted to do. So far, she had put all her energies into her children's education. Now she was going to catch up on her own. In 1974, she entered Fordham University at Lincoln Center and graduated summa cum laude in 1979 with a B.A. in philosophy. She has four honorary degrees.