Skip to main content

Agatha Christie

  • Mary Westmacott
  • Lady Mallowan
  • Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie
  • Agatha Christie Mallowan
  • Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller
Sort Name
Christie, Agatha
Ratings
No reviews
Type
Person
Gender
Female
Date of birth
1890-09-15
Place of birth
Torquay
Date of death
1976-01-12
Place of death
Wallingford

Wikipedia

Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, Lady Mallowan, (née Miller; 15 September 1890 – 12 January 1976) was an English writer known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, particularly those revolving around fictional detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. She also wrote the world's longest-running play, the murder mystery The Mousetrap, which has been performed in the West End of London since 1952. A writer during the "Golden Age of Detective Fiction", Christie has been called the "Queen of Crime"—a moniker which is now trademarked by her estate—or the "Queen of Mystery". She also wrote six novels under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott. In 1971, she was made a Dame (DBE) by Queen Elizabeth II for her contributions to literature. Guinness World Records lists Christie as the best-selling fiction writer of all time, her novels having sold more than two billion copies.

Christie was born into a wealthy upper-middle-class family in Torquay, Devon, and was largely home-schooled. She was initially an unsuccessful writer with six consecutive rejections, but this changed in 1920 when The Mysterious Affair at Styles, featuring detective Hercule Poirot, was published. Her first husband was Archibald Christie; they married in 1914 and had one child before divorcing in 1928. Following the breakdown of her marriage and the death of her mother in 1926 she made international headlines by going missing for eleven days. During both World Wars, she served in hospital dispensaries, acquiring a thorough knowledge of the poisons that featured in many of her novels, short stories, and plays. Following her marriage to archaeologist Max Mallowan in 1930, she spent several months each year on digs in the Middle East and used her first-hand knowledge of this profession in her fiction.

According to UNESCO's Index Translationum, she remains the most-translated individual author. Her novel And Then There Were None is one of the top-selling books of all time, with approximately 100 million copies sold. Christie's stage play The Mousetrap holds the world record for the longest initial run. It opened at the Ambassadors Theatre in the West End on 25 November 1952, and by 2018 there had been more than 27,500 performances. The play was temporarily closed in 2020 because of COVID-19 lockdowns in London before it reopened in 2021.

In 1955, Christie was the first recipient of the Mystery Writers of America's Grand Master Award. Later that year, Witness for the Prosecution received an Edgar Award for best play. In 2013, she was voted the best crime writer and The Murder of Roger Ackroyd the best crime novel ever by 600 professional novelists of the Crime Writers' Association. In 2015, And Then There Were None was named the "World's Favourite Christie" in a vote sponsored by the author's estate. Many of Christie's books and short stories have been adapted for television, radio, video games, and graphic novels. More than 30 feature films are based on her work.

Continue reading at Wikipedia... Wikipedia content provided under the terms of the Creative Commons BY-SA license

Annotation

English crime novelist, short story writer and playwright.

Series:
Ariadne Oliver
Colonel Race
Harley Quin
Hercule Poirot
Miss Marple
Parker Pyne
Superintendent Battle
Tommy & Tuppence

Last modified: 2022-03-31 (revision #88064)

Editions

NameFormatISBNRelease Date
Das Haus an der DünePaperback?1960
Das Schicksal in PersonPaperback3-502-50680-91991
Der WachsblumenstraußPaperback?1963
Fata Morgana (Scherz Krimi)Paperback3-502-50665-51987
Dummheit ist gefährlichPaperback?1970
Ein Schritt ins LeerePaperback?1955
Das fahle PferdPaperback3-502-50578-01987
An Autobiography (Agatha Christie)Hardcover97800073142872010-06-01
Das EulenhausPaperback3-502-50425-31982
AlibiPaperback3-442-00012-2?
Mord auf dem GolfplatzPaperback3-442-00009-21986-01
BlausäurePaperback3-502-50220-X1979
The Mysterious Affair at StyleseBook?2014-05-25
Die Katze im TaubenschlagPaperback3-502-51061-X1989
Villa Nachtigall: Sieben KriminalgeschichtenPaperback3-257-20825-11987
Fata Morgana (Die schwarzen Kriminalromane)Paperback?1958
Ein Mord wird angekündigtPaperback?1975
Rätsel um ArlenaPaperback?1975
Der ballspielende HundPaperback3-502-50689-21983
The Secret AdversaryeBook?2017-03-15
The Man in the Brown SuiteBook?2020-09-09
Dreizehn bei TischPaperback3-442-00066-1?
Der letzte JokerPaperback3-502-51975-72004-01
The Big FoureBook?2023-01-01
Der Dienstagabend-Klub: 13 Kriminalgeschichten (short story collection by Agatha Christie)Paperback3-548-01584-01975
Alter schützt vor Scharfsinn nichtPaperback3-502-50817-81982
Poirot InvestigateseBook?2020-03-17
Die Tote in der Bibliothek: Ein Miss-Marple-KrimiPaperback3-502-51468-21996
Mit offenen Karten: Ein Hercule-Poirot-KrimiPaperback3-502-51353-81994
Die vergessliche MörderinPaperback3-502-50809-72001
Zeugin der Anklage: KriminalromanHardcover??
Mord im Spiegel oder Dummheit ist gefährlichPaperback3-502-50957-31984
The Murder of Roger AckroydeBook?2022-01-06
The Murder on the LinkseBook?2019-02-10
MördergarnPaperback3-502-50936-01987
Ein gefährlicher GegnerPaperback?1977
Add Edition

Relationships

Identifiers

Goodreads Author ID
123715
ISNI
0000 0001 2102 2127
0000 0003 6613 0900
LibraryThing Author
christieagatha
MusicBrainz Artist ID
46a098f3-272d-4bec-9746-67e8ab48ed40
OpenLibrary Author ID
OL27695A
ORCID
0000-0003-2108-2482
VIAF
71388952
231196728
Wikidata ID
Q35064

Related Collections

This entity does not appear in any public collection.
Click the "Add to collection" button below to add it to an existing collection or create a new one.

Add Work

Reviews No reviews

No reviews yet.


Last Modified
2024-03-03