Product Description

In her long-awaited memoir, Mary Higgins Clark, America's beloved and bestselling Queen of Suspense, recounts the early experiences that shaped her as a person and influenced her as a writer.

Even as a young girl, growing up in the Bronx, Mary Higgins Clark knew she wanted to be a writer. The gift of storytelling was a part of her Irish ancestry, so it followed naturally that she would later use her sharp eye, keen intelligence, and inquisitive nature to create stories about the people and things she observed.

Along with all Americans, those who lived in New York City's borough of the Bronx suffered during the Depression. So it followed that when Mary's father died, her mother, deciding to open the family home to boarders, placed a discreet sign next to the front door that read, FURNISHED ROOMS. KITCHEN PRIVILEGES. Very shortly the first in a succession of tenants arrived: a couple dodging bankruptcy who moved in with their wild-eyed boxer; a teacher who wept endlessly over her lost love; a deadbeat who tripped over a lamp while trying to sneak out in the middle of the night...

The family's struggle to make ends meet; her days as a scholarship student in an exclusive girls' academy; her after-school employment as a hotel switchboard operator (happily listening in on the guests' conversations); the death of her beloved older brother in World War II; her brief career as a flight attendant for Pan Am (a job taken after a friend who flew with the airline said ever so casually, "God, it was beastly hot in Calcutta"); her marriage to Warren Clark, on whom she'd had a crush for many years; sitting at the kitchen table, writing stories, and finally selling the first one for one hundred dollars (after six years and some forty rejections!) -- all these experiences figure into Kitchen Privileges, as does her husband's untimely death, which left her a widowed mother of five young children.

Determined to care for her family and to make a career for herself, she went to work writing scripts for a radio show, but in her spare time she began writing novels. Her first, a biographical novel about the life of George Washington titled Aspire to the Heavens, found a publisher but disappeared without a trace when the publisher folded. (Recently it was rediscovered by a descendant of the Washington family and was reissued under the title Mount Vernon Love Story.) The experience, however, gave her the background and the preparation for writing Where Are the Children? which went on to become an international bestseller. That novel launched her career and was the first of twenty-seven (and still counting!) bestselling books of suspense.

As Mary Higgins Clark has said when asked if she might consider giving up writing for a life of leisure, "Never! To be happy for a year, win the lottery. To be happy for life, love what you do."

In Kitchen Privileges, she reflects on the joy that her life as a writer has brought her, and shares with readers the love that she has found.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #780069 in Books
• Published on: 2002-11-19
• Released on: 2002-11-19
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 224 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Clark, author of 27 bestselling novels, has shifted gears and written a memoir that speaks directly to readers. The touching collection of anecdotes begins with a Depression-era childhood in the Bronx lacking in money but rich with love. The author's mother, who told everyone, "Mary is very gifted... [she's] going to be a successful writer," supplemented her income by renting out rooms with "kitchen privileges," and raised her children with selfless heroism, proving a shining example when Clark became a young widow, left to bring up five children on her own. The book proves particularly engaging when Clark tells of her writing group and the professor, William Byron Mowery, who taught her to think "what if" and "suppose" as a way of devising interesting plots. She conveys her courtship with her first husband sensitively and humorously, and writes of his death in honest, understated prose. Clark charts her literary road frankly, pointing out the numerous rejection slips and the failure of her first book, Aspire to the Heavens-the love story of George and Martha Washington-due to a misleading, uncommercial title. It's typical of her optimism that she considered it a triumph ("I knew... I had what it took to actually write a book"). Ranging from stories of illness and struggle to her happy 1996 marriage to Merrill Lynch CEO John Conheeney, this memoir shows what can be done when someone pursues her dreams, remains action-oriented and fights to overcome enormous obstacles. Photos.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Popular thriller writer Clark once struggled like many other writers to get her work noticed and published, and in her memoir, she shares both her story of this and other trials. Growing up during the Depression in New York, Mary was doted on by her loving parents and was often found playing with her two brothers, Joseph and John. Her father's death at 54 was the first tragedy of young Mary's life. Her mother was forced to take in lodgers to make ends meet, and a variety of eccentrics traipsed through the Higgins household. Mary opted for secretarial school over college, knowing that money was a constant concern for her family. After a few years as a secretary, Mary daringly decided to apply to be a flight attendant, and she spent a year flying around the world. She returned to marry Warren Clark, a dashing family friend who had captured her heart long ago. Together the pair had five children, and while caring for them, Mary diligently worked on her writing. She sent out story after story, facing the rejection that deters so many writers. Mary persevered, eventually getting a story accepted. But Warren's health was failing, and he died of a heart attack in 1964. Following his death, Mary took a job writing for a radio program, and eventually began working on the novels that brought her so much success. Clark's many fans will find her life just as interesting as her many novels. Kristine Huntley
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About the Author
Mary Higgins Clark's books are world-wide bestsellers. In the U.S. alone, her books have sold over 85 million copies.

She is the author of twenty-seven previous suspense novels. Her first book, a biographical novel about George Washington, was re-issued with the title, Mount Vernon Love Story, in June 2002. Her memoir, Kitchen Privileges, was published by Simon & Schuster in November 2002. Her first children's book, Ghost Ship, illustrated by Wendell Minor, was published in April 2007 as a Paula Wiseman Book/Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers.

She is co-author, with her daughter Carol Higgins Clark, of four holiday suspense novels Deck the Halls (2000), He Sees You When You're Sleeping (2001), The Christmas Thief (2004) and Santa Cruise (2006).

Mary Higgins Clark was chosen by Mystery Writers of America as Grand Master of the 2000 Edgar Awards. An annual Mary Higgins Clark Award sponsored by Simon & Schuster, to be given to authors of suspense fiction writing in the Mary Higgins Clark tradition, was launched by Mystery Writers of America during Edgars week in April 2001. She was the 1987 president of Mystery Writers of America and, for many years, served on their Board of Directors. In May 1988, she was Chairman of the International Crime Congress.

Customer Reviews

great autobiography
Mary Higgins Clark has been a best selling author of suspense for what seems forever though her first book was a bio of George and Martha Washington. Ms. Clark returns to the world of non-fiction with an autobiography that may be her best work to date. Ms. Clark warmly discusses her life growing up in the Bronx, a very harsh one due the Depression. Even more heartwarming is her "courtship" and first marriage that should have turned Ms. Clark into a romance writer instead of the queen of suspense. She follows this up with the tragedy of suddenly raising children, as a widow with income problems until her first sale brings in needed cash. Finally, she discusses her second chance at love with her second marriage.

Throughout the book, Ms. Clark displays her love for writing without padding fluff or an outrageous scandal. Instead the author's myriad of fans and readers who enjoy a well written insightful biography will take delight with this encouraging story that does not apologize for Ms. Clark following her dreams and encourages others to do likewise. For attaining one's dreams is how to attain happiness.

Harriet Klausner

3 and 1/2 Stars...Short, Sweet, Shallow
As a young teenager, I discovered Mary Higgins Clark's first thriller "Where are the Children?" I was hooked. Although Clark has never been exceptionally deep or thought-provoking in her novels, she never fails to entertain. Her writing is concise and quick-moving, her plots full of intrigue and suspense.

I picked up "Kitchen Privileges" hoping for insight into Clark's background and the foundations of her writing career. In typical fashion, she skims through the decades of her long and rich life with entertaining anecdotes and brief glimpses of grief. She never fails to keep the pages moving, but she left me feeling like I'd waited for a five-course meal and discovered some tasty appetizers instead.

If you are a diehard Clark fan, you'll enjoy this opportunity to understand her a bit more. She gives us her life story in the same manner she gives us a fictional work--short, sweet, and not particularly filling. I was hoping for something deeper.

You will want to cheer Clark's resilience and success!
When an author achieves the success of Mary Higgins Clark, readers might assume her own personal story came wrapped in a neat package like one of her mysteries. But as all of Mary Higgins Clark's devoted fans know, she was not published till long after she was widowed with five young children. In KITCHEN PRIVILEGES, her memoir, she tells her remarkable story. We are often skeptical (and rightly so) about success stories; they can be a little too good to be true. But when confronted with Mary Higgins Clark's resilience, drive and determination, you will want to jump up from your chair --- and cheer her success.

Clark's writing here has the same honest, breezy style that makes her books such fun to read. Mary grew up in an Irish neighborhood in the Bronx where family was everything. Her dad died when she was still in grammar school, forcing the family to change its lifestyle quickly. Her mom took in boarders, offering them "Kitchen Privileges," which is where the book got its title. Life in the Bronx for Mary meant hours at the kitchen table listening to her aunts talk about family stories. Many of these became the characters and grist for her later stories.

Later in life she moved to New Jersey with her husband and young family. Both the Bronx and New Jersey have given comedians and jokesters plenty of material. As Mary says, "It has always amused me that I've had to defend the two places where I've spent most of my life, the Bronx and New Jersey."

Mary loved to write and she loved to read, and she approached life with a jaunty style that kept her striving for success --- and achieving it.

She also loved to act and, for a while, subsidized her family's income with appearances in television commercials. The highlight was a commercial for Fab laundry detergent that ran on I Love Lucy and several daytime soap operas. It was quite an achievement for the girl who never got a speaking part in the grammar school school play! Wouldn't you love to see that commercial today?

Her husband Warren was a man with whom she shared both love and laughter. Though they had known each other their entire childhood, their courtship was nothing short of whirlwind. Their first date came soon after Pan Am hired her as a stewardess. Hungry for travel, she knew this was a way to see the world. On their first date he told her he knew they were going to be married, "Fly for a year. Get it out of your system. I'll take my mother to drive-in movies when you're away. We'll get married at Christmas."

Mary and Warren bottled up a lot of wonderful times into their short years together. Sadly he died of a heart condition in his early 40s, leaving her with five small children. The love and respect they had for one another got her through many a dark day in the years ahead. Working at a job writing radio shows, commuting, attending night school at Fordham and trying to keep her young family happy and worry-free required a lot of energy.

Recognizing that writing was something she always wanted to pursue, she began to rise at 5AM to write before her children awoke. Her first book, ASPIRE TO THE HEAVENS, which was re-published earlier this year as MOUNT VERNON LOVE STORY earned her $1,500, less the 10% commission. Her next book WHERE ARE THE CHILDREN brought her success --- the paperback was published and landed on The New York Times bestseller list. Her career as a novelist was on her way.

My favorite story in the book came the day her second book deal was made. I am not going to share it here lest I spoil it for readers. I read those pages and imagined how she felt when she finally hit the place she had hoped to get to. For anyone who has ever worked hard for success, I dare you to read that section dry-eyed.

I have had the pleasure to meet Mary Higgins Clark on more than one occasion. Each time she has been wonderful company and our conversation has been filled with her great humor. She is as good as listener as she is a storyteller, a skill honed at the kitchen table so many years ago. She is the kind of person to whom you wish endless good things and happiness for all that she has given to people.

--- Reviewed by Carol Fitzgerald