Wilkie Collins

Wilkie Collins

William Wilkie Collins (8 January 1824 – 23 September 1889) was an English novelist, playwright, and author of short stories. He was very popular during the Victorian era and wrote 30 novels, more than 60 short stories, 14 plays, and more than 100 nonfiction essays. His best-known works are The Woman in White, The Moonstone, Armadale, and No Name.

Collins was a lifelong friend of Charles Dickens. A number of Collins's works were first published in Dickens's journals All the Year Round and Household Words. The two collaborated on several dramatic and fictional works, and some of Collins's plays were performed by Dickens's acting company.

Collins predicted the deterrence concept of mutually assured destruction that defined the Cold War nuclear era. Writing at the time of the Franco-Prussian War in 1870 he stated, "I begin to believe in only one civilising influence—the discovery one of these days of a destructive agent so terrible that War shall mean annihilation and men's fears will force them to keep the peace."

Read more about Wilkie Collins:  Works, Bibliography, Films Based On His Novels, In Popular Culture, Blue Plaques

Famous quotes containing the word collins:

    The sun shines bright in the old Kentucky home;
    ‘Tis summer, the darkeys are gay;
    The corn-top’s ripe, and the meadow’s in the bloom,
    —Stephen Collins Foster (1826–1884)