Author Belva Plain Dies at 95

Posted on October 19, 2010

Author Belva Plain has died at age 95. She did not become a writer until age 59, when her first novel Evergreen was published. It spent 41 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. A New York Times obit notes that strong-willed women were popular character choices for author Belva Plain.

Strong-willed women, many of them Jewish and red-haired as well, appear again and again in Ms. Plain's fiction. Some of her novels use historical settings - "Crescent City," published in 1984, was set in the Jewish community of Civil War-era New Orleans. Other books tell stories about contemporary issues, sometimes inspired by the headlines - divorce ("Promises"), adoption ("Blessings"), child sexual abuse ("The Carousel") or babies accidentally switched at birth ("Daybreak"). All of them are full of passion, but there is very little explicit sex.

Belva Plain's publisher says 30 million copies of her books are in print today. Her books have been translated into 22 languages. Twenty of her novels have appeared on The New York Times bestseller list.

The L.A. Times says Belva Plain never owned a computer and wrote all of her novels long hand on yellow pads.