By 2000, Clark had over fifty million books in print and enjoyed bestseller status around the world.
From Adversity to Creativity
Perhaps part of the reason for Clark's ability to identify with the lowliest of characters, even with serial killers, is her difficulty-laden childhood. In many ways Clark is like the characters in her books, overcoming adversity. When she was ten, Clark's father died, leaving a family of three and a widow with mortgage payments to make. Her mother subsequently took in boarders to help pay the way, but still was unable to meet her mortgage payments, and lost her house. The family subsequently moved into an apartment; there her brother, Joe, was diagnosed with osteomyelitis. Overcoming this, he later died from spinal meningitis. Clark graduated from Villa Maria Academy and then went to secretarial school. For three years she worked in a travel agency, and then the lure of travel caught her and she became a stewardess for Pan American Airlines in 1949. "My run was Europe, Africa and Asia," she told Claire E.
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