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Strong-willed women, many of them Jewish and red-haired as well, appear again and again in Ms. Plain’s fiction. Some of her novels use historical settings — “Crescent City,” published in 1984, was set in the Jewish community of Civil War-era New
Orleans. Other books tell stories about contemporary
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issues, sometimes inspired by the headlines — divorce (“Promises”), adoption (“Blessings”), child sexual abuse (“The
Carousel”) or babies accidentally switched at birth (“Daybreak”). All of them are full of passion, but there is very little explicit sex.
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bestseller list. Plain did not own a computer, and wrote all of her novels long-hand on a yellow pad. "A disciplined worker, she wrote for several hours in the morning five days a week. She produced a 500- or 600-page novel every year or so."
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followed the character Anna, "a feisty, redheaded Jewish immigrant girl from Poland in turn-of-the-century New York, whose family story continues through several decades and four more books.".
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At her death, there were over 30 million copies of her twenty-plus novels in print in 22 languages. Twenty-one of her novels appeared on the
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Before breaking into publishing, Belva Plain wrote short stories for magazines while raising her three children. She sold her first story to
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at age 25 and "contributed several dozen to various women's magazines until she had three children in rapid succession." Her first novel,
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Plain was married to her husband, Irving Plain, for more than forty years. He died in 1982. She died on
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of Saddle River, Belva Plain of Short Hills, Wende and Harry Devlin of
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Belva
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526:"Belva Plain, Novelist of Jewish-American Life, Dies at 95"
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115:(October 9, 1915 – October 12, 2010),
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419:from the original on 18 October 2010
605:21st-century American women writers
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444:"A Conversation With Belva Plain"
407:Dixler, Elsa (October 17, 2010).
630:People from Millburn, New Jersey
446:. Belva Plain Official Website.
600:21st-century American novelists
173:New York Times Bestseller List
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561:Belva Plain Official Website
524:Dixler, Elsa (2010-10-17).
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640:Writers from New York City
595:21st-century American Jews
620:Jewish American novelists
145:in 1939 with a degree in
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635:Writers from New Jersey
212:Short Hills, New Jersey
129:of mainstream fiction.
66:Short Hills, New Jersey
615:Barnard College alumni
485:of Highland Park, and
368:The Sight of the Stars
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625:Jewish women writers
155:Millburn, New Jersey
530:The New York Times
479:Mary Higgins Clark
474:The New York Times
413:The New York Times
361:Her Father's House
223:Werner Family Saga
185:The New York Times
467:Horner, Shirley.
336:Legacy of Silence
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469:"ABOUT BOOKS"
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541:. Retrieved
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508:. Retrieved
500:"Author Bio"
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483:Arno Penzias
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452:. Retrieved
421:. Retrieved
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354:Looking Back
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92:Notable work
60:(2010-10-12)
590:2010 deaths
585:1915 births
566:Belva Plain
423:October 18,
153:section of
151:Short Hills
113:Belva Plain
20:Belva Plain
579:Categories
543:2022-07-14
510:2007-01-30
487:Gay Talese
454:2007-01-30
381:References
374:Crossroads
330:Homecoming
235:Golden Cup
83:Occupation
36:1915-10-09
538:0362-4331
290:Treasures
284:Blessings
253:Heartwood
229:Evergreen
178:Evergreen
168:Evergreen
133:Biography
73:Education
504:Archived
448:Archived
417:Archived
316:Promises
304:Daybreak
297:Whispers
241:Tapestry
124:American
119:, was a
98:Whispers
48:New York
323:Secrecy
247:Harvest
147:history
104:Secrecy
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376:(2004)
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286:(1989)
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268:(1980)
260:Novels
255:(2011)
249:(1990)
243:(1988)
237:(1986)
231:(1978)
127:author
86:Writer
570:IMDb
534:ISSN
425:2010
101:and
55:Died
26:Born
568:at
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