Mary Higgins Clark Net Worth: What Was Their Life Journey Like?

Mary Higgins Clark Net Worth: In the United States alone, Mary Higgins Clark amassed lifetime sales of over 100 million copies. Each of Mary’s 51 books was a New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller in the United States and Europe. Higgins Clark earned hundreds of millions of dollars in royalties and advances during her career and was frequently one of the highest-paid authors in the world. In 2011, Mary received a $64 million advance covering her next four books, equaling $16 million per book. Where Are the Children? her second book and first suspense novel were a hit with readers and was made into a movie in 1986.

The novels “The Cradle Will Fall” (1980), “A Cry in the Night” (1982), “While My Pretty One Sleeps” (1989), and “You Belong to Me” (1998) have all been adapted into TV movies. In 2001, she released the memoir Kitchen Privileges, and in collaboration with crime writer Alafair Burke, they penned the “Under Suspicion” series. Mary also produced the 2003 TV movie “A Crime of Passion” and was a minority owner of the New Jersey Nets. She was recognized for her contributions to Irish America and was inducted into the hall of fame that year (2011). On January 31, 2020, at the age of 92, Higgins Clark passed away due to unavoidable causes of death.

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Mary Higgins Clark Early Life

Mary Higgins Clark Net Worth: Clark was born Mary Theresa Eleanor Higgins on December 24, 1927, in the Bronx, New York. Her father, Luke Joseph Higgins, was an Irish immigrant, and her mother, Nora C. Durkin, was from the United States. Mary’s two brothers were named Joseph and John. Sadly, Joseph passed away soon after high school graduation due to spinal meningitis he contracted while serving in the Navy.

At age seven, Higgins Clark penned her first poem, and she frequently penned short plays throughout her childhood. When the Great Depression hit in the late 1930s, many customers of the family’s Irish pub stopped paying their bills and the pub’s owners lost their Bronx home and Long Island Sound cottage.

After Mary’s dad passed away peacefully in bed in 1939, her mom had to kick Higgins Clark out of the guest room so she could rent it out to paying boarders. Mary received her early education at Saint Francis Xavier Grammar School and later attended Villa Maria Academy on scholarship, where she was inspired to pursue her passion for writing.

To contribute to the household budget, she began working as a switchboard operator at the Shelton Hotel. After losing their home, the family had no choice but to relocate to an apartment. The Navy promised Nora a lifetime pension after Joseph passed away, so Mary was relieved of her financial responsibilities toward her.

Mary Higgins Clark Career

Higgins Clark started working for Remington Rand’s internal advertising department after she graduated from Wood Secretarial School. She studied advertising and marketing at night, and then began working for Remington Rand, where she did promotional writing and modeling with the future Hollywood actress Grace Kelly. Later in life, Mary became a flight attendant for Pan American Airlines; however, she left her position in December 1949 to wed Warren Clark.

She went on to study writing at New York University and had her first short story, “Stowaway,” published in 1956 in “Extension Magazine.” Higgins Clark’s mother passed away after learning that her son had died of a heart attack on the same day that Higgins Clark accepted a job writing radio scripts in 1964.

Mary was requested to pen two more radio shows after penning the four-minute scripts for the “Portrait of a Patriot” part. Since publications weren’t buying short stories like they used to, Higgins Clark’s agency suggested she try her hand at a novel in the late 1960s.

This effort resulted in “Aspire to the Heavens,” a dramatized portrayal of George and Martha Washington’s marriage. The book “remaindered as it came off the press” in 1968, despite its widespread anticipation. Mary began her studies at Fordham University in 1971 and received a baccalaureate degree with honors in 1979.