Danielle Steel

Based in California for most of her career, Steel has produced several books a year, often juggling up to five projects at once. Despite "a resounding lack of critical acclaim" (Publishers Weekly), all her novels have been bestsellers, including those issued in hardback. Her formula is fairly consistent, often involving rich families facing a crisis, threatened by dark elements such as prison, fraud, blackmail and suicide. Steel has also published children\'s fiction and poetry, as well as raising funds for the treatment of mental disorders. Her books have been translated into 43 languages, with 22 adapted for television, including two that have received Golden Globe nominations.\n', '

Steel was born Danielle Fernande Dominique Schuelein-Steel in New York City to a German father and a Portuguese mother. Her father, John Schulein-Steel, was a German-Jewish immigrant and a descendant of o…