Talk:Wilkie Collins

proposed new external link
I'd like to add a link like: to the 'External Links' section. This links to a list of Collins works that you can download to read on a cell phone. I have read quite a few from this site and got a lot of value out being able to read the PD texts away from the PC.
 * Free to read on a cell phone - Collins works.

The texts are Public Domain in the US, just like Project Gutenberg, they are packaged with the reader and available under a creative commons licence (share if (attribution, non-commercial, no derivative) ). The site is non-commercial without registration, subscription, or advertising. The texts as packaged together with the reader as a java program that runs on cell phones, this is a way for people to access the authors work that adds to the range in the existing external links (hopefully translating to more reading going on).

I checked WP:EL and the link seems appropriate: Filomath 22:59, 12 August 2007 (UTC)
 * What should be linked: '...should link to a site hosting a copy of the work if none of the "Links normally to be avoided" criteria apply.'
 * Links normally to be avoided: it seems only #8 might apply; 'Direct links to documents that require external applications (such as Flash or Java) to view the relevant content...'. The site lets you download java programs that only run on a J2ME environment, this means most/all current cell phones. So although they are limited to being read on a phone they do add an access method to all the others in the existing External Links, in the same way that LibriVox adds a format but requires an mp3 player.

Text is stolen
The gist of this article's text is taken word for word from a copyrighted online article by Philip Allingham. Please revise. 68.227.189.37 (talk) 23:48, 18 March 2009 (UTC)
 * Can you give a link or citation to the article in question? David Arthur (talk) 16:17, 19 March 2009 (UTC)
 * The text taken from victorianweb.org has been removed. Kafka Liz (talk) 16:47, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

The text of the article has been completely changed using credible sources. INeverCry  03:03, 8 March 2012 (UTC)

New file
Recently the file File:(William) Wilkie Collins by Rudolph Lehmann.jpg (right) was uploaded and it appears to be relevant to this article and not currently used by it. If you're interested and think it would be a useful addition, please feel free to include it. Dcoetzee 18:31, 30 March 2009 (UTC)
 * File is in use. INeverCry   03:06, 8 March 2012 (UTC)

Untitled
OK - I am no biologist, but can this really be true?

Collins never married, but lived, on and off from 1858, with a widow, Mrs. Caroline Graves, and her daughter, Elizabeth (whom Collins called "Carrie"[1]). He also fathered three children by another woman, Martha Rudd (Marian on 4 July 1869, Harriet on 14 May 1871 and William Charles on 25 December 1874[1]), whom he met after Mrs. Graves left him to marry Joseph Charles Clow on 29 October 1868.[2] Mrs. Graves returned to Collins after two years, and he continued both relationships until his death in 1889.

Sooooo (the large number of 'o's indicating incredulity.) So a woman he met "after... 29 October 1868" gave birth to his child "Marian on 4 July 1869". OK. Maaaaaybe. (see note about the 'o's.) But, of course, not. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.196.114.70 (talk) 04:54, 14 March 2010 (UTC)
 * I've fixed this discrepancy. INeverCry   03:06, 8 March 2012 (UTC)

Signature
File:Wilkie Collins Signature.jpg Here's his signature in case it can be used.-- INeverCry 21:48, 14 November 2011 (UTC)
 * In use. INeverCry   03:07, 8 March 2012 (UTC)

Scottish ancestors
Wilkie Collins' maternal grandfather was the Scottish artist Andrew Geddes; he was called after another Scottish artist, David Wilkie. For this reason I have added him to the category "English people of Scottish descent". — Preceding unsigned comment added by 79.78.254.144 (talk) 19:37, 6 October 2012 (UTC)

Man and Wife
As one of Collins' more successful novels, shouldn't this have its own page? I don't mind drafting one. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 121.99.80.190 (talk) 03:25, 15 June 2013 (UTC)

I Say No (1884)
This novel has been missed out of the list at the end of the article. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.157.159.60 (talk) 20:00, 30 September 2015 (UTC)

1868 or 1864?
"In 1868, Collins met Martha Rudd in Winterton-on-Sea and the two began a liaison......She moved to London to be closer to him a few years later. Their daughter Marian was born in 1869..." Inconsistent dates. I think The Secret Life Of Wilkie Collins says he met her in 1864. 92.29.117.77 (talk) 20:28, 13 July 2016 (UTC)
 * The Cambridge Companion to Wilkie Collins says in its timeline of Collins's life: "1868 - Forms liaison with Martha Rudd (‘Mrs Dawson’), and attends the marriage of Caroline Graves and Joseph Clow." It only mentions his moving to "9 Melcombe Place" in 1864, and doesn't mention Martha Rudd. Oxford World's Classics gives the same entries in it's chronology, listing 1868 for the beginning of the Rudd relationship. I only have the CC and 10 volumes of his works in Oxford; I donated the Klimaszewski bio to our local library. Cambridge and Oxford don't mention the date of meeting, but it seems unlikely they went four years after meeting before beginning a relationship. It seems pretty consistent that they would've started a relationship in 1868, he would've fathered a child by her around that time, and that within a few years he would've found a way of quietly moving her to London so as not to create problems for himself publicly.  INeverCry   06:57, 14 July 2016 (UTC)

This http://www.wilkie-collins.info/family_martha%20rudd.htm says "almost certainly" the summer of 1864. They may have formed a liaison in 1868, but they met in 1864 as far as I can see. He went to Martha Rudd's home village to research writing Armadale (novel) which was published in 1866. So it is unlikely that he only met her afterwards. 92.24.191.171 (talk) 08:45, 14 July 2016 (UTC)
 * Interesting. I wish there was more certainty, but it does look likely they met before 1868. Collins would've had to have been especially careful around 1864, as he wouldn't have wanted a public scandal to occur when he was enjoying the great popularity of The Woman in White and No Name, and making a lot of money.  INeverCry   17:18, 14 July 2016 (UTC)

Looking more closely at the article for Armadale, I see the novel was published as a serial from 1864. So if he met Martha Rudd doing research before beginning the novel, then he would have met her no later than 1864. Martha Rudd was nineteen years old and was a village girl with poor illiterate parents, Wilkie Collins was aged 40 and wealthy and successful, and it was Victorian times, so it is consistent with them meeting in 1864, moving to London to be with him a few years after their initial meeting when she had grown up a bit, obviously becoming intimate with him at some point, and having a baby in 1869. Wilkie Collins already had another common law wife called Caroline Graves, and maintained the two households in separate houses. When he was with Martha Rudd he called himself William Dawson. Having one, let alone two, unmarried relationships was I presume shocking and scandalous among respectable society in Victorian times, so as you suggest kept secret. 92.29.123.190 (talk) 07:26, 17 July 2016 (UTC)