William Wilkie Collins was born in London to painter William Collins and Harriet Geddes. During his youth, he spent two years living in Italy and France, where he learned both Italian and French. He initially worked as a tea merchant before turning his attention to writing. His literary career began in earnest with the publication of his first novel, Antonina, in 1850. Shortly thereafter, he met Charles Dickens, who became a lifelong friend, mentor, and collaborator. Collins published several works in Dickens's journals, Household Words and All the Year Round, and the two writers collaborated on both drama and fiction.
Collins achieved immense popularity and financial stability during the 1860s. He is widely credited with helping to pioneer the "sensation novel" genre, most notably with The Woman in White (1860). He followed this success with The Moonstone (1868), which is celebrated for establishing many of the conventions of the modern detective novel and serving as an early example of the police procedural.
In his personal life, Collins was known for his unconventional lifestyle and criticism of the institution of marriage. He maintained long-term relationships with two women: Caroline Graves, with whom he lived for most of his life, and Martha Rudd, with whom he had three children. In his later years, Collins suffered from gout and became addicted to the opium he took to manage the pain. This addiction, combined with declining health, led to a decrease in the quality and critical reception of his literary output during the 1870s and 1880s until his death in 1889.
