Kathleen Woodiwiss Dies

Posted on July 10, 2007

Legendary romance author Kathleen Woodiwiss has died after a long battle with cancer.

Read by millions and loved by many, Kathleen Woodiwiss is credited for being one of the premier romance novelists of our time writing 13 novels over 35 years, all of them New York Times bestsellers. Her son, Heath, posted the following message at the KWoodiwiss forum at Forumwise online and the Simon & Schuster discussion board:
"Hello. I am very sorry to inform you all of the death of my mother Kathleen. She took the death of my brother a bit harder than we thought and the cancer came back with a vengeance. She passed away Friday morning at 0630 in Princeton, MN. I just want to thank you all for all of your support and being such great fans. My Mom was amazed at all of the people that supported her. Her final book is done, but not finished. We will be trying to polish it up for her. Her editor at Harper Collins has been a great source of stress for my Mom and the rest of us as well, so I am not sure how that will work out, but we are trying to get the book published as fast as possible. We all want this to be her greatest book ever. Thank you again for all of your support." - Heath.

Kathleen is widely credited as being the inventor of the long-form historical romance novel. Avon took a chance with her by publishing her 600 word novel, The Flame and the Flower which immediately became a runaway bestseller. Along with Shana, those two novels formed the basis for an entire industry. There are 36 million copies of her books in print. According to her son Heath, Kathleen's cancer came back shortly after the sudden death of one of her sons. She will be missed.