Mary Higgins Clark

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Mary Higgins Clark

Born:	December 24, 1927 the Bronx, New York (USA)
Occupation:	novelist
Nationality:	American
Writing period:	1975 - present
Genres:	suspense

Mary Higgins Clark (b December 24, 1927 in the Bronx, New York) is an American author of suspense novels currently residing in New York City, New York. Each of her twenty-four suspense novels has been a bestseller in the United States and in various European countries, and all of her novels remain in print as of 2007, with her debut suspense novel, Where Are The Children, in its seventy-fifth printing.

Her work has dwelled on a central theme: the psychological trauma endured and overcome by her strong female characters.^[1] Clark, known as the "Queen of Suspense",^[2] was also the inspiration for the Mary Higgins Clark Award, given by the Mysery Writers of America. She is also the mother of author Carol Higgins Clark^[3] and mother-in-law of author Mary Jane Clark.^[4]

Contents 1 Biography 1.1 Early Years 1.1.1 Childhood 1.1.2 High School 1.2 Early Careers 1.3 Marriage and Early Publication Attempts 1.4 Widowhood 1.5 Writing Career 1.5.1 First Novel 1.5.2 Entering the Suspense Genre 1.5.3 Success 1.5.4 Work Habits 1.6 Recognition 1.7 Second Marriage 2 Books 2.1 Fiction 2.2 Nonfiction 3 Movie adaptations 4 Television adaptations 5 Awards/Honors 6 References 7 External Links

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early Years

[edit] Childhood

Mary Higgins Clark was born December 24, 1927,^[5] the second child and only daughter of Luke Higgins, who emigrated from Roscommon, Ireland to New York City in 1905, and his wife Nora, who was of Irish descent.^[6] Clark arrived less than nineteen months after the birth of her older brother, Joseph, and her first memory was of being three years old and looking down on her younger brother Johnny, who was sleeping in her doll carriage.^[7]

Even as a small child, Clark was interested in writing, composing her first poem at age six and often crafting short plays for her friends to enact.^[1] She began keeping a journal when she was seven, noting in her very first entry that "Nothing much happened today."^[8]

The family lived off of the profits of their Irish pub, and were fairly well-off, owning a home in the Bronx as well as a summer cottage on Long Island Sound.^[9][10] Although the Great Depression began when Clark was still a baby, her family was not affected, and even insisted on feeding the men who knocked on their door looking for work.^[11] By the time Clark was ten, however, the family began to see financial trouble, as many of their customers were unable to pay the tabs they had run up.^[12] Her father was forced to lay off some of his employees and work longer hours, never able to spend more than a few hours at a home during the evenings. The family was thrown into further turmoil on Saturday, May 6, 1939, when young Mary returned home from 7 a.m. Mass to discover that her father had died in his sleep.^[6]

Nora Higgins, now a widow with three young children to support, soon discovered that few employers were willing to hire a 52-year-old woman who had not held a job in over fourteen years.^[13] To pay the bills, Clark was forced to move out of her bedroom so that her mother could rent it out to paying boarders.^[14]

Six months after their father's death, Clark's elder brother cut his foot on a piece of metal and contracted severe osteomyelitis. Clark and her mother prayed constantly for him, and their neighbors came en masse to give blood for the many transfusions the young boy needed. Despite the dire predictions of the doctors, Joseph Higgins survived.^[15]

[edit] High School

When Clark graduated from Saint Francis Xavier Grammar School she received a scholarship to continue her education at the Villa Maria Academy, a school run by the nuns of the Congregation de Notre Dame de Montreal.^[16] There, the principal and other teachers encouraged Clark to develop her writing, although they were somewhat less than pleased that she devoted her classes to writing stories instead of mathematics.^[1] At sixteen, Clark made her first attempt at publishing her work, sending an entry to True Confessions which was rejected.^[17]

To help pay the bills, she worked as a switchboard operator three days at the Shelton Hotel, where she often listened in to the residents' conversations. In her memoir she recalls spending much time eavesdropping on Tennessee Williams, but complained that he never said anything interesting. On her days off, Clark would window shop, mentally choosing the clothes she would wear when she finally became a famous writer.^[17]

Despite Clark's relationship to the family finances, the money her mother earned babysitting^[18] was not enough, and the family lost their house and moved into a small three-room apartment. When Joseph graduated from high school in 1944, he immediately enlisted in the Navy, both to serve his country during war and to help his mother pay her bills. Six months after his enlistment he contracted spinal meningitis and died.^[19] Although the family mourned Joseph's death deeply, as his dependent, Nora Higgins was guaranteed a pension for life, and no longer needed her daughter's help to pay the bills.^[20]

[edit] Early Careers

The same year that Joseph died, Clark graduated from high school and chose to attend Wood Secretarial School on a partial scholarship. After completing her coursework the following year, Clark accepted a job as the secretary to the head of the creative department in the internal advertising division at Remington-Rand.^[21] As an attendee of her boss's meetings, Clark learned a great deal about advertising and promotion, supplementing her knowledge by taking classes at the Advertising Club. Her growing skills, as well as her natural beauty, were noticed by her boss and others in the company, and she was soon asked to write catalog copy alongside future novelist Joseph Heller and to model for the company brochures with a then-unknown Grace Kelly.^[22]

Clark's life took a sudden turn when her imagination was sparked by an acquaintance's casual comment, "God, it was beastly hot in Calcutta."^[23] Inspired to become a flight attendant like her acquaintance, Clark underwent rigourous interviews to earn a position as a stewardess for Pan American Airlines, making five dollars fewer a week than her secretarial job.^[24] To say goodbye, her supervisor at Remington-Rand invited her to bring a guest and join him and his wife for dinner. Clark gathered her courage and invited her neighbor, Warren Clark, whom she had admired for years. After dinner the two went to a comedy club, where Warren began writing down a list of names on the back of a napkin, informing her that he was beginning the guest list for their wedding, and that he though they should get married the following Christmas, after she had worked as a stewardess for a year. Clark never did get a traditional proposal from her future husband.^[25]

For most of 1949, Clark worked the Pan Am international flights, traveling through Europe, Africa and Asia. One of her flights became the last flight allowed into Czechoslovakia before the Iron Curtain came down.^[5] On another of her flights, Clark escorted a four year old orphaned child, Gillian Ann Richardson, down the steps of the airplane into the waiting arms of her adoptive mother, a scene that was heavily televised.^[26]

[edit] Marriage and Early Publication Attempts

At the end of the year, on December 26, 1949, Clark happily gave up her career to marry Warren Clark. ^[27] To occupy herself, she began taking writing courses at NYU^[2] and, with some of her classmates, formed a writing workshop in which the members would critique each other's works in progress. The workshop, which persisted for almost forty years,^[28] met every Wednesday, with two members chosen each meeting to present their latest work for 20 minutes each. The other members would then have three minutes each to offer constructive criticism.^[29]

One of her professors at NYU told the class that they should look at the newspapers and ask "Suppose...?" and "What If" to develop ideas for their work. Clark says that to this day she gets many of her ideas by asking those questions, along with "Why?"^[29] Using that method, she completed her first NYU writing assignment by expanding on her own experiences to develop a short story called "Stowaway", about a stewardess who finds a stowaway from Czechoslovakia on her plane.^[30] Although her professor offered high praise for the story, Clark was continually frustrated in her attempt to find a publisher. Finally, in 1956, after six years and forty rejections, Extension Magazine agreed to purchase the story for $100. A proud Clark framed that first acceptance letter.^[5]

While those six years were certainly devoid of professional milestones, on a personal level Clark and her husband were very busy. Their first child, Marilyn, was born nine months after their wedding, with Warren Jr. arriving thirteen months after that, and a third child, David, born two years after his brother. Two months after Clark's short story sold, the fourth baby made her appearance and was promptly named Carol, after the heroine in her mother's story.^[31]

After selling that first short story, Clark began regularly finding homes for her works. Through the writer's workshop she met an agent, Patricia Schartle Myrer, who agreed to represent her. Myrer, who represented Clark for twenty years until her retirement, became such a good friend that Clark named her fifth and last child for her.^[32]

While Warren worked and Clark wrote, they encouraged their children to find ways to earn money as well, with all five children eventually taking professional acting and modeling jobs. Young Patty served as a Gerber baby, while David was featured in a national United Way ad. Clark herself filmed a television commercial for Fab laundry detergent. The commercial, which aired during the I Love Lucy show, earned her enough money that she and Warren were able to take a trip to Hawaii.^[33]

In 1959, Warren Clark was diagnosed with severe angina, and, although he curtailed his activities on his doctor's order, Warren suffered three heart attacks within the next five years, each time returning from the hospital in poorer health. After the last heart attack, Clark called a friend who wrote scripts for radio shows to see if there were any job openings, as she felt Warren was too sick to work again . The day in 1964 that she accepted a job writing the radio segment Portrait of a Patriot, Warren suffered a fatal heart attack. His mother was visiting at the time, and collapsed at his bedside upon discovering that he was dead. In one night, Clark lost her husband and her mother-in-law.^[34]

[edit] Widowhood

Despite the security that her new job offered, raising five children aged five to thirteen alone made money tight in the beginning,so much so that for Christmas Clark gave her children personalized poems describing the things she wished she could have purchased for them.^[35] To ensure that her children would not have to struggle financially, Clark was determined that they should have good educations. To provide a good example she entered Fordham University at Lincoln Center in 1971, graduating summa cum laude in 1979, with a B.A. in philosophy. She was able to return to her alma mater in May 1988 as the commencement speaker, and as of 2000 was a trustee at Fordham and a member of the Board of Regents at St. Peter's College. Clark has also been awarded thirteen honorary doctorates.^[5] Her children followed her example. The two eldest, Marilyn and Warren, have become judges, and Patty works at the Mercantile Exchange in New York City. David is the president and CEO of Talk Marketing Enterprises, Inc, and Carol has authored many popular suspense novels.^[18]

In 1981, Clark happened to be in Washington, D.C. the day President Ronald Reagan was shot. Because she had a press pass she was able to join the media waiting to hear the President's prognosis. When the doctor finally arrived to start the press conference, Clark was one of the few people who were chosen to ask a question.^[1]

[edit] Writing Career

[edit] First Novel

Clark's initial contract to be a radio scriptwriter obligated her to write 65 four-minute programs for the Portrait of a Patriot series. Her work was good enough that she was soon asked to write two other radio series. This experience fitting an entire sketch into four minutes taught Clark how to write cleanly and succintly, traits that are incredibly important to a suspense novel, which must advance the plot with every paragraph.^[36]

By the late 1960s, the short story market had collapsed. The Saturday Evening Post, which in 1960 named Clark's short story "Beauty Contest at Buckingham" one of their ten best of the year, had decided to stop publishing fiction, and many of the popular ladies magazines were focusing on self-help articles instead of fiction. Because her short stories were no longer able to find a publisher, Clark's agent suggested that she try writing a full-length novel. ^[37] Leveraging her research and experience with the Portraits of a Patriot series, Clark spent the next three years writing a fictionalized account of the relationship between George and Martha Washington.^[18] From the sale of this book, Clark gained $1500 and the confidence that she could indeed finish a full-length book and find a publisher.^[38] Unfortunately for her, however, the novel "was remaindered as it came off the press,"^[5] and, to make matters worse, four months after the publication of the novel, Clark's mother Nora Higgins died.^[39]

Although two of her children were now in college and dependant on her in part for their tuition, Clark became so frustrated with her employer that she and two of her colleagues quit their jobs to form their own company to write and market radio scripts. To scrape up the $5000 she needed to start the business, Clark was forced to pawn her engagement ring, and, for the eight months it took the company to become profitable, she did not receive a salary, further straining the family finances.^[40]

[edit] Entering the Suspense Genre

Encouraged by her agent to try writing another book, Clark returned to the suspense stories that she loved as a child and which had provided her first success as a short story writer. While Clark was in the midst of the story, Clark's younger brother Johnny died of internal injuries after falling down the steps in front of his building, leaving her as the sole surviving member of her family. To temporarily forget her heartache, Clark threw herself into her writing, and soon finished the novel.^[41]

Very quickly after the novel, Where are the Children? was completed, Simon and Schuster agreed to purchase it for the relatively small sum of $3000. Three months later, in July 1974, Clark received word that the paperback rights for the same novel had sold for one hundred thousand dollars. After removing the hardback publisher's percentage and the amount she owed her agent, Clark net $45,000, to be paid over a three-year period. For the first time in years she was able to stop worrying about how she would pay the bills.^[42]

Where Are the Children? became a bestseller and was favorably reviewed.^[5] Two years after its publication Clark sold her second suspense novel for $1.5 million, celebrating her sudden wealth by buying a mink coat and a Cadillac, which she drove for ten years.^[35]

[edit] Success

As of 2007, Clark has written twenty-four suspense novels, which have sold over 80 million copies in the United States.^[43] All of her suspense novels have been best-sellers, and as of 2007 all are still in print, including Where are the Children?, which is in its 75th printing.^[2] In 2001, the hardcover edition of Clark's On the Street Where You Live was Number One on the New York Times Hardcover Bestseller list at the same time that the paperback version of her novel Before I Say Good-bye reached Number One on the New York Times Paperback Besteller list.^[4] Her books are also number one bestsellers in France,^[28] and have earned her the distinction of being named a Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters in France in 2000.

Known as "The Queen of Suspense", Clark is a "master plotter" who has the ability to slowly draw out the tension while making the reader think everyone is guilty.^[44] Her novels feature strong, independent young women who find themselves in the midst of a problem that they must solve with their own courage and intelligence.^[45] Clark's books are written for adults, yet because she chooses not to include explicit sex or violence in her stories, they have become popular with children as young as twelve.^[5] Many of the books deal with crimes involving children or with telepathy.^[46] While Clark is well aware that many people claiming to be pyschics are behaving fraudulently, she believes that she has met people with genuine ESP powers. Clark's mother, on looking at a photo of her eighteen year old son in his brand new Navy dress blues told her daughter that "He has death in his eyes," and the young man died shortly after. A psychic Clark visited just as her second novel, Where Are the Children, was being published in paperback told her that she would become very famous and make a great deal of money. Although at the time she laughed off the prediction, the following week her novel reached the bestseller lists and she sold the movie rights shortly after, truly launching her career.^[28]

A long-awaited desire came to fruition in 2006, when Clark announced that Simon and Schuster would be publishing her very first children's book, Ghost Ship.^[2][47]

Her debut novel about George Washington, Aspire to the Heavens was retitled Mount Vernon Love Story and rereleased in 2002, the same year that her autobiography, Kitchen Privileges, which relied heavily on the journals she has kept all of her life, was published.^[43][18] Clark has also written three holiday suspense novels in collaboration with her daughter, Carol Higgins Clark.^[3]

[edit] Work Habits

Before beginning the actual writing of her books, Clark prefers to develop an outline and detailed character biographies. Each chapter is continuously revised as she writes, so that when she is ready to move on to the next chapter, the current chapter is considered done and is sent directly to her editor. By the time the editor receives the last chapter, the book is primarily done.^[28]

Creativity abounds in Clark's office, a tower-like room featuring skylights and windows, located on the third floor of her house. Every morning after a light breakfast, Clark arrives in her office around 8 a.m. and works until about 2 pm, unless she is near the end of her book, when she might extend her schedule to work up to 17 hours per day.^[1] Once a year Clark lectures on a cruise ship, allowing her to travel and to do some writing in a more unique location.^[1]

[edit] Recognition

Clark has served as the Chairman of the International Crime Congress in 1988 and was the 1987 president of the Mystery Writers of America. For many years she also served on the Board of Directors of the Mystery Writers of America.^[28] Simon and Schuster, which have published all of Clark's novels and in the late 1990s signed her to a $64-million, four book contract,^[28] have funded the Mary Higgins Clark Award, given by the Mystery Writers of America to authors of suspense fiction for each of the ten years between 2001 and 2011.^[43][45] The announcement that an award would be given in her honor was made at the 55th Annual Edgar Allan Poe Awards, where Clark was inducted as a Grand Master.^[45]

Her devotion to her religion has also been widely recognized. In the highest honor that can be offered to a layperson by the Pope, Clark has been made a Dame of the Order of St. Gregory the Great, and has also been honored as a Dame of Malta and a Dame of the Holy Sepulcher of Jerusalem.^[28] She also serves as a board member for the Catholic Communal Fund and as a member of the Board of Governors at Hackensack Hospital.

[edit] Second Marriage

Clark dated throughout her widowhood, and underwent a "disastrous" marriage in 1978 that was annulled several years later.^[35] In 1996, she remarried, to John J. Conheeney, the retired CEO of Merrill Lynch Futures.^[5] They had been introduced by her daughter, Patty, who had worked at the Mercantile Exchange in New York and thought they would be the perfect couple.^[28] The couple live in Saddle River, New Jersey and also have homes in Manhattan, Spring Lake, New Jersey, and Dennis, Massachusetts.^[5]

[edit] Books

[edit] Fiction

• 1968 Aspire To The Heavens
• 1975 Where Are The Children?
• 1977 A Stranger is Watching
• 1980 The Cradle Will Fall
• 1982 A Cry in the Night
• 1984 Stillwatch
• 1987 Weep No More, My Lady (The introduction of Alvirah and Willy Meehan, her only continuing characters)
• 1989 While My Pretty One Sleeps
• 1989 The Anastasia Syndrome and Other Stories
• 1990 Voices in the Coal Bin (Short Story, only available as an audio book with Carol Higgins Clark's That's the Ticket)
• 1991 Loves Music, Loves to Dance
• 1992 All Around the Town
• 1993 I'll Be Seeing You
• 1993 Death on the Cape and Other Stories
• 1993 Milk Run and Stowaway (Two stories. Like Voices in the Coal Bin, never officially published out of anthologies)
• 1994 Remember Me
• 1994 The Lottery Winner and Other Stories
• 1995 Let Me Call You Sweetheart
• 1995 Silent Night
• 1995 Pretend You Don't See Her
• 1996 Moonlight Becomes You
• 1996 My Gal Sunday: Harry and Sunday Stories
• 1998 You Belong to Me
• 1998 All Through The Night
• 1999 We'll Meet Again
• 2000 Before I Say Good-Bye
• 2000 Deck the Halls (with daughter Carol Higgins Clark)
• 2000 Mount Vernon Love Story (reissue of Aspire to the Heavens
• 2001 On The Street Where You Live
• 2001 He Sees You When You're Sleeping (with daughter Carol Higgins Clark)
• 2002 Daddy's Little Girl
• 2003 The Second Time Around
• 2004 Nighttime Is My Time
• 2004 The Christmas Thief (with daughter Carol Higgins Clark)
• 2005 No Place Like Home
• 2006 Two Little Girls in Blue
• 2006 Santa Cruise (with daughter Carol Higgins Clark)
• 2007 Ghost Ship: A Cape Cod Story
• 2007 I Heard that Song Before

[edit] Nonfiction

• 1993 Mother (With Amy Tan, and Maya Angelou)
• 2001 Kitchen Privileges, A Memoir

[edit] Movie adaptations

• 1982 A Stranger Is Watching
• 1986 Where Are The Children?
• 2005 We'll Meet Again

[edit] Television adaptations

• 1983 The Cradle Will Fall
• 1987 Stillwatch
• 1992 Weep No More, My Lady
• 1992 Double Vision
• 1992 A Cry in the Night (Starring Carol Higgins Clark)
• 1992 Terror Stalks the Class Reunion
• 1995 Remember Me (Mary Higgins Clark Appears as the character Mary)
• 1997 Let Me Call You Sweetheart
• 1997 While My Pretty One Sleeps (Mary Higgins Clark appears as the character Mary)
• 1998 Moonlight Becomes You
• 2001 You Belong to Me
• 2001 Loves Music, Loves to Dance
• 2002 Pretend You Don't See Her
• 2002 Lucky Day
• 2002 Haven't We Meet Before?
• 2002 All Around The Town
• 2004 I'll Be Seeing You
• 2004 Before I Say Good-Bye
• 2004 Try to Remember
• 2005 The Cradle Will Fall
• 2005 A Crime of Passion

[edit] Awards/Honors

• Grand Prix de Literature Policier (France, 1980)
• Gold Medal of Honor, American-Irish Historical Society (1993)
• Spirit of Achievement Award, Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University (1994)
• Gold Medal in Education, National Arts Club (1994)
• Horatio Alger Award (1997)
• Deauville Film Festival Literary Award (France, 1998)
• Outstanding Mother of the Year (1998)
• Catholic Big Sisters Distinguished Service Award (1998)
• Bronx Legend Award (1999)
• Graymoor Award, Franciscan Friars (1999)
• Ellis Island Medal of Honor (2001)
• Passionists' Ethics in Literature Award (2002)
• Christopher Life Achievement Award (2003)

[edit] References

[edit] External Links

• Real Audio interview with Mary Higgins Clark by Don Swaim
• Written interview for Bookselling This Week, by Zach Chouteau http://bookweb.org/news/btw/archive/945.html
• The Mary Higgins Clark Award
• Official Mary Higgins Clark Website from Simon and Shuster