Danielle Steel
Danielle Steel is a prolific American author known for being the best-selling living author, with an estimated 500 to 800 million copies of her books sold worldwide. Born in New York City in 1947, she has published over 120 novels, many of which have been adapted into television miniseries or films. Steel's writing typically centers on successful women navigating the complexities of career and family life, often drawing from her personal experiences, including themes of divorce, loss, and self-discovery. Her stories frequently address contemporary issues while incorporating historical elements, showcasing her diverse range of settings and characters. Though sometimes criticized for being formulaic, her novels are characterized by a magnetic style and often conclude with uplifting resolutions. In addition to her novels, Steel has written poetry and children’s books. She has maintained a significant presence in the literary world, continuing to publish new works into the 2020s, including notable titles such as *The Apartment* and *Lost and Found*.
On this Page
Danielle Steel
Writer
- Born: August 14, 1947
- Place of Birth: New York, New York
Biography
As of the early twenty-first century, Danielle Steel is the best-selling living author, with estimates of between 500 million and 800 million copies of her books sold. She has published more than 120 books and spent 390 consecutive weeks on the New York Times best-seller list. In one two-year period, she sold some thirteen million paperbacks. Probably more than 150 million copies of her books exist in print.
She was born Danielle Fernandes Dominique Schuelein-Steel in 1947 in New York City to John and Norma (Stone) Schulein-Steel. She received some of her education in France, in 1963 studying at the Paris School of Design, then returning to the United States to attend New York University, graduating in 1967. Although she had written poetry when young, she first sought a career in the fashion world, then in public relations and advertising, working for a company called Supergirls in the late 1960s.
Steel did submit some short stories to Good Housekeeping and Ladies Home Journal and the editors encouraged her to try writing. After five rejections, her first novel, Going Home, was accepted and published in 1973. She continued writing short stories, published in a number of magazines, until a second novel, Passion’s Promise, came out in 1976. After that, she published one or two novels every year, and later three per year, with more than twenty becoming TV miniseries or movies. During her writing career, she was married five times and has nine children, including two stepchildren.
The typical Steel plot involves a successful woman who has to balance the conflicting demands of career and family, or who suddenly finds her life’s direction or borders overturned, therefore needing to rediscover herself or find new resources within herself. As Steel grew older, her heroines typically aged, too. Her own life experiences were enshrined in some of the plot material: divorce, remarriage, and a child’s suicide, for example. Although often accused of being purely escapist, Steel sought to deal with topical or relevant issues: the sudden death of a spouse, accidents that profoundly affect the whole family, and infertility. Many novels are set in the contemporary world, but set back a generation or two in time.
For example, Jewels (1992) is set in pre–World War II Europe, describing the struggles of an American woman to find peace and raise her children. Mixed Blessings, written in the same year, deals with infertility. Vanished (1993) deals with kidnapped children in 1930s Manhattan, while Ransom (2004), also about kidnapping, is set in San Francisco in the present day. The House on Hope Street (2000), her forty-ninth novel, begins with the sudden death of the husband of a successful husband-and-wife law firm. The wife has to remain strong to look after a child with a learning disability and another son who is seriously injured, before finding new happiness with the surgeon who treats him.
Passion’s Promise deals with a rich young woman trying to find her identity through writing. Miracle (2005) deals with a selfless mother dealing with the suicide of her son, counseling other young people, some with mental illness;Impossible (2005) focuses on a wealthy and widowed gallery owner who gets caught up in an affair with a younger artist, she conservative, he a radical nonconformist. In addition to novels and short stories, Steel published a book of poetry, Love: Poems (1981); a book about her son Nicholas, who committed suicide at nineteen, His Bright Light; and books for young children, on mainly everyday issues such as reconstituted families, new schools, and going to the doctor.
Although in many ways formulaic, Steels’s novels have a magnetic style, a predictable happy ending for the selfless, idealized female protagonist, and simple moral choices, where everything can be justified in the name of love. In a world of popular fiction, where getting into hardback is seen as an accomplishment, Steel has succeeded in becoming a household name around the world, at least for countless women who would love to live as interesting a life as Steel’s heroines do. Steel continued regularly releasing novels into the 2020s. Some of her notable later novels include The Apartment (2016), Lost and Found (2019), and Resurrection (2024).
Bibliography
Angel, Karen. "Lonely Heart." The Age. Age, 19 Mar. 2006. Web. 7 apr. 2016.
Beard, Alison. "Life's Work: An Interview with Danielle Steel." Harvard Business Review, Nov. 2021, hbr.org/2021/11/lifes-work-an-interview-with-danielle-steel. Accessed 2 Oct. 2024.
Steel, Danielle. "Danielle Steel: By the Book." New York Times. New York Times, 11 Feb. 2016. Web. 7 Apr. 2016.
Steel, Danielle. Interview. Wall Street Journal. Dow Jones, 7 May 2011. Web. 7 Apr. 2016.