CHRISTIE,
AGATHA, DAME

(September 15, 1891–January 12, 1975), was an acclaimed British playwright and author of popular detective fiction. She was educated at home by her mother and served as a volunteer nurse during World War I. The Mysterious Affair at Styles, her first manuscript, was rejected over 6 times by publishers until it was finally published in 1920. She created the well-known fictional detectives, Miss Jane Marple and Hercule Poirot. One of the foremost writers in the 20th century, Agatha Christie’s works include: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, 1926; Murder on the Orient Express, 1934; Death on the Nile, 1937; and The Mousetrap, 1952, which, when performed as a play, set a world record for the longest run at one theater.

In An Autobiography, published in 1977, Agatha Christie wrote in Part III, Growing Up:

If you love, you will suffer, and if you do not love, you do not know the meaning of a Christian life.3480