Wilkie Collins

William Wilkie Collins was an English novelist and playwright, known especially for The Woman in White of 1860, a mystery novel and early example of the sensation novel, and for The Moonstone of 1868. The Moonstone established many of the ground rules of the modern detective novel and is often called the earliest clear instance of the form in English. Born to the London painter William Collins, he moved with his family to Italy at twelve and worked initially as a tea merchant. After his first novel, Antonina, appeared in 1850, he met Charles Dickens, who became his friend and mentor, and some of his work appeared in Dickens's journals Household Words and All the Year Round.