Mary Higgins Clark was born in the Bronx, New York on December 24, 1927. After graduating from high school and before she got married, she worked as a secretary, a copy editor, and an airline stewardess. She supplemented the family's income by writing short stories. After her husband died in 1964, leaving her with five children, she worked for many years writing four-minute radio scripts before turning to novels. Her debut novel, Aspire to the Heavens, which is a fictionalized account of the life of George Washington, did not sell well. She decided to focus on writing mystery/suspense novels and in 1975 Where Are the Children? was published. She received a B.A. in philosophy from Fordham University in 1979. Her other works include While My Pretty One Sleeps, Let Me Call You Sweetheart, Moonlight Becomes You, Pretend You Don't See Her, No Place Like Home, and The Lost Years. She is also co-author, with her daughter Carol Higgins Clark, of Deck the Halls, He Sees You When You're Sleeping, and The Christmas Thief. She received numerous honors including the Grand Prix de Literature of France (1980), the Horatio Alger Award (1997), the Gold Medal of Honor from the American-Irish Historical Society, and the Spirit of Achievement Award from Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University.