Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller was born in Torquay, Devon, in the United Kingdom, the daughter of a wealthy American stockbroker. Her father died when she was eleven years old. Her mother taught her at home, encouraging her to write at a very young age. At the age of 16, she went to Mrs. Dryden's finishing school in Paris to study singing and piano. In 1914, at age 24, she married Colonel Archibald Christie, an aviator in the Royal Flying Corps. While he went away to war, she worked as a nurse and wrote her first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles (1920), which wasn't published until four years later. When her husband came back from the war, they had a daughter. In 1928 she divorced her husband, who had been having an affair. In 1930, she married Sir Max Mallowan, an archaeologist and a Catholic. She travelled with her husband's job, and set several of her novels set in the Middle East. Most of her other novels were set in a fictionalized Devon, where she was born.
Agatha Christie is credited with developing the "cozy style" of mystery, which became popular in, and ultimately defined, the Golden Age of fiction in England in the 1920s and '30s, an age of which she is considered to have been Queen. In all, she wrote over 66 novels, numerous short stories and screenplays, and a series of romantic novels using the pen name Mary Westmacott. She was the single most popular mystery writer of all time. In 1971 she was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire.
As of June 2018, Christie has retained her crown as the world’s most translated author with a total of 7,236 translated versions of her works are on record with the UNESCO Translationum Index.
Agatha Christie
×CloseEnglish mystery and detective writer (1890–1976)
Born | 15 September 1890 |
Died | 12 January 1976 |
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Agatha Christie
×CloseEnglish mystery and detective writer (1890–1976)
Born | 15 September 1890 |
Died | 12 January 1976 |
Subjects
Fiction, English Detective and mystery stories, Fiction, mystery & detective, general, Fiction, mystery & detective, traditional, Detective and mystery stories, English literature, England, fiction, Private investigators, Mystery, Poirot, hercule (fictitious character), fiction, Large type books, Hercule Poirot (Fictitious character), Private investigators, fiction, Murder, Investigation, Fiction, mystery & detective, women sleuths, Jane Marple (Fictitious character), Women detectives, Mystery and detective stories, Marple, jane (fictitious character), fiction, Romans, nouvelles, American Detective and mystery stories, Belgians, Mystery fiction, Fiction, short stories (single author)Places
England, Belgium, London, Fernly Park, King's Abbot, 221B Baker Street, India, Calcutta, Devon, Surrey, Montana, Ying guo, Australia, Baker Street, Devon (England), France, Great Britain, London (England), ying guo, Alpha Inn, Angleterre, British Museum, Brixton, Caribbean, Covent GardenPeople
Hercule Poirot (Fictitious character), Hercule Poirot, Sherlock Holmes, John H. Watson, Jane Marple (Fictitious character), Agatha Christie (1890-1976), Caroline Sheppar, Cecil Ackroyd, Charles Kent, Colonel Melrose, Elizabeth Russell, Flora Ackroyd, Geoffrey Raymond, Hector Blunt, Inspector Davis, Inspector Raglan, James Sheppard, John Parker, Mr Hammond, Mrs Ferrars, Mrs Folliott, Ralph Paton, Roger Ackroyd, Ship steward, Ursula BourneTime
20th century, 1930s, 20th Century, 1920s, 19th century, Xiandai, xian dai, 1890, England, 1888, 1894, 1894-1901, 1900-1945, 1917, 1926, 1932 - 1975, 1936, 1938, 1945-1970, 1950-, 1950s, 1952-, Elizabeth 2, 20e siècle, 20th Century - 1930s, 20th century mysteriesID Numbers
- OLID: OL27695A
- ISNI: 0000000121022127
- VIAF: 71388952
- Wikidata: Q35064
- Inventaire.io: wd:Q35064
Links (outside Open Library)
Alternative names
- Mary Westmacott
- Westmacott Mary
- Agatha Christie
- Christie, Agatha, 1890-1976
- AGATHA CHRISTIE
- Agatha Christie Mallowan
- Christie Agatha
- Agatha CHRISTIE
- A. Kristi
- Aghata Christie
June 13, 2024 | Edited by Drini | merge authors |
May 1, 2024 | Edited by Tom Morris | merge authors |
April 22, 2024 | Edited by MARC Bot | move website to links |
March 2, 2024 | Edited by Lisa | merge authors |
April 1, 2008 | Created by an anonymous user | initial import |