Her books are known around the globe, and her own life often formed the inspiration behind her stories. She's seen many romances and failed relationships herself.
Danielle Steel is one of the best-known and best-selling authors in the United States, and around the world. Her books have been translated into more than 28 languages and have sold more than 550 million copies.
Her Early Years
She was born in 1947, in New York City as Danielle Fernande Dominique Schuelein-Steel. Her parents were John Schulein Steel and Norma da Camara Stone Reis. Danielle grew up in France, but moved to New York permanently when her parents divorced when she was seven years old.
As she grew up, she began to write poetry as a teenager. Later, she studied literature and fashion design at Parsons School of Design, and also at New York University.
She married for the first time when she was only 18, and still attending university. Her husband was Claude-Eric Lazard and the marriage lasted for 9 years. During that time she worked as a copywriter and she published her first of many novels, titled “Going Home”.
Her Own Rocky Romances
Over the years, Danielle would marry a number of times. After her divorce from her first husband, her next wedding was held in prison. Her marriage to Danny Zugelder didn't last. She quickly moved on to husband #3, William Toth. That realtionship only lasted 2 years. As all good authors do, she drew on her experiences in both cases and wrote “Passions Promise” and “Remembrance”. Both novels mirror her situations in these marriages.
Her next husband was John Traina, and the two of them had 5 children together, in addition to the children each had from previous relationships. Her life was turned upside-down with other writers intended to publish a book that included details about Steel's life, including the fact that her son Nicholas was not Traina's biological son (he was William Toth's son). A fact that had been kept from the rest of their children. The strain of the subsequent lawsuits broke up the marriage, and Nicholas Traina committee suicide in 1997. Steel has written a non-fiction book about his life, called “His Bright Light”.
She has been married just once more, to Tom Perkins in 1997. They divorced in 1999 and she is currently not married and living a very quiet life.
Her Writing
Overall, Danielle Steel has written over 70 novels and every one of them has spent time on the New York Times bestseller list. Twenty-one of them have been adapted for television. Her novels portray family lives and romances, with the characters usually overcoming great obstacles. Most of her stories involve people of wealth and fame, and could be considered “larger than life”. It's reported that she usually works on 5 books at once, with each one taking 2 to 3 years to complete.
She has also written 2 series of children's books, the Max and Martha books, and 4 books in the Freddie series.
Other Projects
After the death of her son, she founded the Nick Traina Foundation, dedicated to improving the treatment and diagnosis of young people with mental illness. Her son had bipolar disorder, which likely led to his suicide.
In 2003, she opened a San Francisco art gallery that featured the work of new artists in the area. Unfortunately, the gallery closed its doors in 2006 though Danielle is still very much involved in the art community of the area.
Sources:
Articles on wikipedia.org, Danielle Steel's personal website, the International Movie Database and a number of San Francisco Chronical newspaper stories.
