First Paper

A Wilkie Collins Chronology

1824: William Wilkie Collins born January 8 at 11 New Cavendish Street, Borough of St. Marylebone, the elder son of the painter William Collins. Sir David Wilkie stands as godfather.
1833: At this time Willie presumably a resident pupil at Maida Hill Academy.
1838: September, family departs for Italy.
1838: August, family returns from Italy. Willie attends a private school in Highbury.
1841: Willie apprenticed to Mr. E. Antrobus, principal partner in Antrobus & Company, a large firm of tea merchants.
1842: Summer, a journey to Scotland with his father, with a visit to Edinburgh and the Shetland Islands.
1843: August, "The Last Stagecoachman" appears in The Illuminated Magazine, Wilkie's first publication under his own name.
1844: August and September, Wilkie's first journey to Paris, with Charles Ward.
1846: Willie released by his father from Mr. Antrobus' company. May, Willie is entered as a law student on the rolls of Lincoln's Inn.
1847: February, the death of William Collins.
1848: The publication of Wilkie's first book, The Memoirs of the Life of William Collins, Esq., R. A.
1849: Willie in Paris, finishing Antonina; exhibits a landscape at the Royal Academy.
1850: Antonina; or the Fall of Rome published, his first novel February, A Court Duel produced at Miss Kelly's Theatre. Wilkie takes a walking trip to Cornwall with Henry Brandling, as background for a travel book.
1851: Rambles Beyond Railways. March, Wilkie meets Dickens;plays a part in the amateur theatrical Not so Bad as We Seem.
1852: Mr. Wray's Cash Box; Basil: a Story of Modern Life. Willie on tour with Dickens' Splendid Strollers.
1853: Autumn, Wilkie journeys to Switzerland and Italy with Dickens and Augustus Egg.
1854: Hide and Seek.
1855: June, The Lighthouse produced at Tavistock House. 1856; After Dark. November, Willie becomes an editor of Household Words. December, publication of The Wreck of the Golden Mary, Wilkie's first collaboration with Dickens. Early signs of physical deterioration.
1857: The Dead Secret. January, The Frozen Deep produced at Tavistock House. August, The Lighthouse produced at the Olympic Theatre. September, Willie travels with Dickens through northern England.
1858: October, The Red Vial produced at the Olympic Theatre.
1859: The Queen of Hearts. Willie's liaison with Caroline Elizabeth Graves.
1860: The Woman in White.
1860: The Woman in White.
1862: No Name.
1863: My Miscellanies. Willie resigns as an editor of All the Year Round, successor to Household Words.
1866: Armadale. October, The Frozen Deep produced at the Olympic Theater.
1867: December, No Thoroughfare, the last collaboration of Collins and Dickens, published in All the Year Round; an adaptation of it produced at the Adelphi Theatre.
1868: The Moonstone. January, the death of Willie's mother. Caroline Graves marries Joseph Charles Clow, and Willie's liais with Martha Rudd, who becomes the mother of his three children, begins presumably at this time; by the early 1870's, Caroline is again living with Willie.
1869: March, Black and White produced at the Adelphi Theatre. July, Wilkie's first child, Marian, is born.
1870: Man and Wife.
1871: May, Willie's second child, Harriet Constance, is born. June, No Name produced at the Fifth Avenue Theatre, New York. October, The Woman in White produced at the Olympic Theatre.; 1872; Poor Miss Finch.
1873: The New Magdalen; also Miss or Airs? and Other Stories in Outline. February, Man and Wife produced at the Prince of Wales's Theatre. April, the death of Charles Collins, Wilkie's brother. May, The New Magdalen produced at the Olympic Theatre. Wilkie begins readings in the United States and Canada.
1874: The Frozen Deep and Other Tales. Wilkie returns from the United States. December, the third child, William Charles, is born.
1875: The Law and the Lady.
1876: The Two Destinies. April, Miss Gwilt produced at Globe Theatre.
1877: September, The Moonstone produced at the Olympic Theatre.
1879: The Haunted Hotel, a Mystery of Modern Venice; to which is added My Lady's Money; also The Fallen Leaves: First Series.
1880: Jezebel's Daughter.
1881: The Black Robe.
1883: Heart and Science. June, Rank and Riches produced at the Adelphi Theatre.
1884: I Say No.
1886: The Evil Genius and The Guilty River.
1887: Little Novels.
1889: The Legacy of Cain. September 23, Wilkie Collins dies at 82 Wimpole Street; buried at Kensal Green.
1990: Blind Love (completed by Walter Besant). The Lazy Tour of Two Idle Apprentices and Other Stories (early narratives by Collins and Dickens).

This information is taken from: http://www.lang.nagoya-u.ac.jp/~matsuoka/Collins- Chro.html , and has been published the 3rd of November of 2008.