Marie Corelli

Mary Mackay (1 May 1855 – 21 April 1924), also called Minnie Mackey and known by her pseudonym Marie Corelli (also UK:, US:), was an English novelist.

From the appearance of her first novel A Romance of Two Worlds in 1886, she became a bestselling fiction-writer; her works were largely concerned with Christianity, reincarnation, astral projection and mysticism. Despite her many distinguished patrons, she was often ridiculed by critics. Corelli lived her later years in Stratford-upon-Avon, whose historic buildings she fought hard to preserve.

Early life

Mary Mills was born in London to Mary Elizabeth Mills, a servant of the Scottish poet and songwriter Dr Charles Mackay, her biological father, who was married to another woman at the time of young Mary's conception. After his first wife died, he married Mary Elizabeth, whereupon their daughter Mary took the "Mackay" surname. For the rest of her life, Mary / Marie would attempt to conceal her illegitimacy, and to that end disseminated a number of romantic falsehoods about her parentage and upbringing, including stories of adoption or descent from the Italian nobility. Her unreliability as a narrator complicates the task of reconstructing her biography. Recent research suggests that Corelli may even have been adopted by Mackay and Mills from another family, the Codys.

In 1866, eleven-year-old Mary was sent to a Parisian convent (or in some accounts, an English school staffed by nuns) to further her education. She returned home four years later in 1870.