Danielle Steel

Danielle Steel (born 1947) is an American novelist, best known for romance and family sagas, and the best-selling living author, with more than 800 million copies sold. She was born Danielle Fernandes Dominique Schuelein-Steel in New York City on 14 August 1947 and spent much of her childhood in France.

She attended the Lycée Français de New York, Parsons School of Design and New York University. Her first novel, Going Home, was published in 1973; Passion's Promise and Now and Forever established her career. By 2024 she had written 210 books, including more than 180 novels, translated into 43 languages. In 1999 Guinness World Records recognised her for 456 consecutive weeks on the New York Times best-seller list. Twenty-two of her books have been adapted for television, among them Crossings (1986), Jewels (1992) and Family Album (1994), and The Promise became a film in 1979. She also writes children's books and published Love: Poems (1984). France made her an Officier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2002, and Wikidata records the Légion d'honneur in 2014. After the death of her son Nick Traina in 1997 she founded the Nick Traina Foundation, which supports mental health organisations.

For collectors, Going Home (1973), her first novel, is the earliest Steel title; Wikipedia credits its first edition to Nelson Doubleday. Wikipedia names Passion's Promise and Now and Forever as the books that established her, so these early titles also attract collectors of her work.