Mary Higgins Clark Biography
Mary Higgins Clark's books are world-wide bestsellers. In the U.S. alone, her books have sold
over 80 million copies. She is the author of over twenty-five suspense
novels, including Where Are the Children? (1975), A Stranger Is Watching
(1978), The Cradle Will Fall (1980), A Cry in the Night (1982),
Stillwatch (1984), Weep No More, My Lady (1987), While My Pretty
One Sleeps (1989), Loves Music, Loves to Dance (1991), All Around
the Town (1992), I'll Be Seeing You (1993), Remember Me
(1994), Let Me Call You Sweetheart (1995), Silent Night (1995),
Moonlight Becomes You (1996), Pretend You Don't See Her (1997),
You Belong To Me (1998), All Through the Night (1998), We'll Meet
Again (1999), Before I Say Good-Bye (2000), On the Street Where
You Live (2001), Daddy's Little Girl (2002), The Second Time
Around (2003), Nighttime is My Time (2004) and No Place Like Home
(2005). She is the author of three collections of short stories, The
Anastasia Syndrome & Other Stories (1989), The Lottery Winner: Alvirah &
Willy Stories (1994) and My Gal Sunday: Henry and Sunday Stories
(1996). A re-issue of her first book, a biographical novel about George
Washington, originally titled Aspire to the Heavens, was published with a
new title, Mount Vernon Love Story, in June 2002. Her memoir, Kitchen
Privileges, was published by Simon & Schuster in November 2002 and in trade
paperback by Pocket Books in October 2003.
She is co-author, with her daughter Carol Higgins Clark, of three suspense
novels Deck the Halls (2000), He Sees You When You're Sleeping
(2001) and The Christmas Thief (2004).
Two of her novels were made into feature films, Where Are the Children?
and A Stranger Is Watching. Many of her other works, novels and short
stories, were made into television films.
Mary Higgins Clark's fame as a writer was achieved against heavy odds. Born
and raised in the Bronx, her father died when she was eleven and her mother
struggled to raise her and her two brothers. On graduating from high school, she
went to secretarial school, so she could get a job and help with the family
finances. After three years of working in an advertising agency, travel fever
seized her. For the year 1949, she was a stewardess on Pan American Airlines'
international flights. "My run was Europe, Africa and Asia," she recalls. "I was
in a revolution in Syria and on the last flight into Czechoslovakia before the
Iron Curtain went down. After flying for a year, she married a neighbor, Warren
Clark, nine years her senior, whom she had known since she was 16. Soon after
her marriage, she started writing short stories, finally selling her first to
Extension Magazine in 1956 for $100.
Left a young widow by the death of her husband from a heart attack in 1964,
Mary Higgins Clark went to work writing radio scripts and, in addition, decided
to try her hand at writing books. Every morning, she got up at 5 AM and wrote
until 7 AM, when she had to get her five children ready for school. Her very
first book was a biographical novel about George Washington, inspired by a radio
series she was writing, "Portrait of a Patriot." Originally published in 1969 by
Meredith Press with the title Aspire to the Heavens, it was discovered
years later by a Washington family member and re-issued in 2002 with the title,
Mount Vernon Love Story.
Mary Higgins Clark's first suspense novel, Where Are the Children? was
published by Simon & Schuster in 1975. It became a bestseller and marked a
turning point in her life and career. It is currently in its 75th edition in
paperback and was re-issued in hardcover as a Simon & Schuster classic.
Freed to catch up on things she always wanted to do, she entered Fordham
University at Lincoln Center, graduating summa cum laude in 1979, with a B.A. in
philosophy. She was awarded an honorary doctorate from Fordham University in
1998. She is a past trustee of Fordham University and a current trustee of
Providence College and the Hackensack College Medical Center. She has eighteen
honorary doctorates.
She is # 1 fiction bestselling author in France, where she received the Grand
Prix de Literature Policière in 1980 and The Literary Award at the 1998
Deauville Film Festival. In 2000, she was named by the French Minister of
Culture "Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters."
Mary Higgins Clark was chosen by Mystery Writers of America as Grand Master
of the 2000 Edgar Awards. An annual Mary Higgins Clark Award sponsored by Simon
& Schuster, to be given to authors of suspense fiction writing in the Mary
Higgins Clark tradition, was launched by Mystery Writers of America during
Edgars week in April 2001. She was the 1987 president of Mystery Writers of
America and, for many years, served on their Board of Directors. In May 1988,
she was Chairman of the International Crime Congress.
Active in Catholic affairs, Mary Higgins Clark was made a Dame of the Order
of St. Gregory the Great, a papal honor. She is also a Dame of Malta and a Lady
of the Holy Sepulcher of Jerusalem. She received the Catholic Big Sisters
Distinguished Service Award in 1998 and the Graymoor Award from the Franciscan
Friars in 1999. Honors she has received include the Gold Medal of Honor from the
American-Irish Historical Society (1993), the Spirit of Achievement Award from
the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University (1994), the
National Arts Club's first Gold Medal in Education (1994), the Horatio Alger
Award (1997), the Outstanding Mother of the Year Award (1998), the Bronx Legend
Award (1999), the 2001 Ellis Island Medal of Honor, the Passionists' Ethics in
Literature Award (2002), the first Reader's Digest Author of the Year Award 2002
and the Christopher Life Achievement Award in 2003. She is an active advocate
and participant in literacy programs.
In 1996, Mary Higgins Clark married John Conheeney, the retired Chairman and
CEO of Merrill-Lynch Futures. They live in Saddle River, New Jersey. Between
them, they have sixteen grandchildren -- Mary's six and John's ten.
This biography was last updated on 08/12/2011.
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