Background
So far as is known she was born in London about May 1, 1855. She was the illegitimate daughter of editor and songwriter Dr. Charles Mackay and Mrs. Mary Elizabeth Mills, who became his second wife in 1861. The uncertainty about her birthday and parentage arose from the mystery Corelli made of them. Her real name, Mary Mackay, displeased her, and she wove romances around her birth, claiming sometimes that she was an Italian countess, and sometimes that she was a foundling whom Dr. Mackay found on his doorstep and adopted. A fanciful child, she was a favorite of the novelist George Meredith, who was a neighbor of the Mackays at Box Hill, Surrey.
Career
In her early twenties Corelli made her debut as a "musical improviser," but her concerts were unsuccessful.
Her first novel, Romance of Two Worlds, was published in 1886, but it was with Thelma that she made her name in the following year. From then until the early years of the 20th century she was England's most popular novelist and her sales were huge. This succession of romantic novels included Ardath (1889), The Soul of Lilith (1892), and Barabbas (1893). The Sorrows of Satan (1893) even had sermons preached about it by admiring clergymen, and she was greatly sought after by London's leading hostesses. Her industriousness was remarkable, and she produced more than 30 three-volume novels. Her popularity waned, however, and in 1900 she retired to Stratford-on-Avon, where she died, lonely and bereft of most of her friends, on Apr. 21, 1924.