It’s the birthday of Mary Higgins Clark (b. 1927), whose more than 50 books have sold more than 100 million copies in the U.S. alone and who is 91 years old today and still writing.

Clark was born in the Bronx in New York City and lost her father at a young age; her mother was left to raise Clark and her two siblings alone. Clark entered the work force at 15 as a telephone operator, went to secretarial school, and eventually became a flight attendant for Pan American World Airways. She married in 1949 and worked at raising their family of five children while writing short stories on the side.

Clark’s own husband then died unexpectedly and left her the breadwinner. Clark began writing radio scripts and got up at five a.m. to do her own writing before getting the kids ready for school. (Let’s pause to take in the enormity of that. My gosh. I need more coffee.) Her first book, Aspire to the Heavens (1968; reissued in 2000 as A Mount Vernon Love Story), was about George and Martha Washington. (*Yawn.*) Then she wrote her first suspense novel, Where Are the Children? (1975), a title about a zillion times creepier than Aspire to the Heavens, and Simon and Schuster immediately offered $1 million, which in publisher-speak means, “Hey. We believe in you.” All of Clark’s books have since been bestsellers. (Let’s pause again to take in the enormity of that.) In spite of her great success, Clark is not a diva and enjoys telling the story of the time she was walking in Palm Beach and was accosted by a fan who gushed with delight that she was actually meeting Danielle Steel.

Clark has worked with several co-authors over the years, including her daughter, Carol Higgins Clark, with whom she’s written a series of Christmas mysteries (Deck the Halls, 2000; The Christmas Thief, 2004; and like that). Along the way she got her B.A. in philosophy in order to be a good example to her children and prevent them from becoming wildly successful millionaire authors with no degree. (Two of her children became judges. I think if two fifths of your children become judges, the rest can slack off and you still get bragging rights, but all of her children are successful.)

Clark is a serious Roman Catholic and among the bazillion awards she’s received is one that’s new to me: she was named Dame of the Order of Saint Gregory the Great, a papal honor, and without looking it up I’m going to hazard a guess that this honor goes to the Catholic who writes the very creepiest story possibly involving an exorcism. Or not. I was raised Baptist.

Have a beautiful, snow-tinted holiday with your favorite people and butter-based cookies and stay scrupulously honest to the data.