13 Facts About Marie Corelli

Mary Mackay, called Minnie Mackey and known by her pseudonym Marie Corelli, was an English novelist.

Marie Corelli's works were collected by Winston Churchill, Randolph Churchill, and members of the British Royal Family, among others.

Marie Corelli faced criticism from the literary elite for her allegedly melodramatic writing.

Marie Corelli was associated at some point with the Fraternitas Rosae Crucis; a Rosicrucian and mystical organization, and her books were a part of the foundation of today's corpus of esoteric philosophy.

Marie Corelli claimed that she had warned George Herbert, 5th Earl of Carnarvon about the "dire punishment" likely to occur to those who rifle Egyptian tombs, claiming to cite an ancient book that indicated that poisons had been left after burials.

For over forty years, Marie Corelli lived with her companion, Bertha Vyver, to whom she left everything when she died.

Marie Corelli did not identify herself as a lesbian, but several biographers and critics have noted the frequent erotic descriptions of female beauty that appear in her novels, although they are expressed by men.

Marie Corelli was known to have expressed a genuine passion for the artist Arthur Severn, to whom she wrote daily letters from 1906 to 1917.

Marie Corelli died in Stratford and is buried there in the Evesham Road cemetery.

Marie Corelli was known to fabricate or exaggerate many details of her life.

Marie Corelli avoided being seen in public, and according to biographer Brian Masters, was possessed of a "positive terror of being photographed".

Marie Corelli finally allowed a photograph of herself to be published as the frontispiece of her 1906 novel Treasure of Heaven, though it was apparently airbrushed to depict her as "a sweet young lady in her early twenties".

Marie Corelli was one of the first writers to become a star, writing bestsellers for an adoring public.