Danielle Steel

Danielle Steel is known around the world for being the author of over sixty-five romance novels. But her creative talents don't end there. Before writing books that would set a place in the Guinness Book of World Records for remaining on the New York Times' Best Seller List for 381 consecutive weeks, she worked in advertising; first in PR, and later as a copywriter. Aside from the romance novels, she has also published poetry, children's books, and two non-fiction books as well.

Born Danielle Fernandes Schuelein-Steel in New York City, New York, on August 14, 1947, she developed an early interest in writing as a young child, and as a teenager had begun writing poetry. She completed her first novel, Going Home, at the age of nineteen, yet it wasn't published until 1973. She graduated at age fifteen from Lycée Français de New York, then attended New York University and the Parsons School of Design in New York.

Steel married early at eighteen, had a daughter, then got divorced and re-married to a man who was sent to prison as a rapist. While he was incarcerated, she divorced him and married another prison inmate, after becoming pregnant with a son, Nick. Divorcing her third husband in sixteen years, Steel married John Traina, who brought with him two of his own children, adopted Steel's two children, and together they went on to have five more children. Divorcing Traina after fifteen years together, she married Thomas J. Perkins two separate times.

So impressive are Steel's works of literature, they've actually spent longer on the New York Times' Best Seller List than what is noted in the Guinness Book of World Records, at a total of 390 consecutive weeks. Eighteen of Steel's novels have been turned to television movies, including Daddy, Jewels, Message from Nam, and A Perfect Stranger, with stars like Ben Affleck, Robert Urich, and Jaclyn Smith. Her novel Crossings was made into a TV mini-series starring Cheryl Ladd, while Now and Forever became a feature film, also starring Cheryl Ladd.

Steel is also the author of the collection of Max and Martha books, meant for children, with subjects such as a new baby in the family, attending a new school, and a parent going to the hospital. Similarly, she has authored the Freddie books, again for children, dealing with more subjects children might be dealing with in their own lives, such as the first night away from home. Clearly, parenting is big part of Steel's life. As the parent to nine children, seven of them her own biological children, she was led to co-authoring the non-fiction book, Having a Baby, with six other mothers.

Yet, perhaps Steel's most important literary work is her non-fiction book, His Bright Light: The Story of Nick Traina. This book details Steel's struggle to understand her son and his very short life. Dealing with mental illness and addiction, Traina survived two suicide attempts, but died after the third at the age of nineteen. More than just telling their story, Steel also brings up issues on children with mental illness and the relationship between a mother and her son.

Maintaining a home in France for more than half of each year, in 2002, Steel was awarded by the French Government, and designated as a Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters for her lifetime contribution. Making good with her early degrees in design, Steel has opened an art gallery in San Francisco.

YUDDY