author
Mrs. E. Burke Collins
1848–1902
A prolific 19th-century American storyteller, she wrote sensation fiction, romance, and detective tales for newspapers and story papers, often under the name Mrs. E. Burke Collins. Her work helped bring fast-paced popular fiction to a wide audience in the late 1800s.
3 Audiobooks
A bitter reckoning; or, Violet Arleigh
by Mrs. E. Burke Collins
Her Dark Inheritance
by Mrs. E. Burke Collins
Lillian's vow : or, The mystery of Raleigh House
by Mrs. E. Burke Collins
About the author
Known in print as Mrs. E. Burke Collins, Emma Augusta Sharkey was a New York writer, journalist, and story-paper author born in Rochester in 1858. She also appears in sources under earlier married names, and that shifting identity is one reason her bibliography can look confusing today.
She was remarkably productive, writing novels, serials, short fiction, and journalism for a mass readership. Contemporary and reference sources describe her as part of the small group of women who made a strong mark in dime novels and story papers, with titles such as Her Dark Inheritance still remembered by readers of Victorian popular fiction.
Some modern listings give her dates as 1848–1902, but the biographical sources I found identify her as born on September 15, 1858, and dying on May 6, 1902. However the dates are listed, she stands out as a vivid, hardworking author whose stories mixed mystery, emotion, and suspense in ways that were built to keep readers turning pages.