Danielle Steel

Danielle Fernande Dominique Schuelein-Steel (born on August 14, 1947 in New York City, New York), is best known as Danielle Steel, and is one of the best selling authors in the United States and around the world.

Best known for her drama romance novels, Steel has sold more than 530 million copies of her books (as of 2005). Her novels have been on the New York Times bestseller list for over 390 consecutive weeks and 22 have been adapted for television. In 2001 she was named one of "The 30 Most Powerful Women in America" by Ladies' Home Journal.

Steel was born on August 14, 1947 in New York City, New York. Her parents were John Schulein Steel, a descendant of the founders of Lowenbrau beer and Norma Da Camara Stone Reis, the daughter of a Portuguese diplomat.Steel spent much of her early childhood in France, where from an early age she was included in her parents' dinner parties, giving her an opportunity to observe the habits and lives of the wealthy and famous. Her parents divorced when she was seven, however, and she was raised primarily in New York by her father, rarely seeing her mother, who had moved to Europe.
Steel started writing stories as a child, and by her late teens had begun writing poetry. A graduate of the Lycée Français de New York, class of 1965, she studied literature design and fashion design[4], first at Parsons School of Design in 1963 and then at New York University from 1963-1967.

In 1965, when she was only eighteen, Steel married banker Claude-Eric Lazard. While a young wife, and still attending New York University, Steel began writing, completing her first manuscript the following year, when she was nineteen. After the birth of their daughter, Beatrix in 1968, Steel became a copywriter for an advertising agency, then worked for a public relations agency in San Francisco. A client was highly impressed with her press releases and encouraged her to concentrate on writing books.

After nine years of marriage, Steel's relationship with Lazard ended. Shortly before their divorce was finalized her first novel, Going Home, was published. The novel contained many of the themes that her writing would become known for, including a focus on family issues and the impact of actions taken in the past on events of the present or future.