Belva Plain Books

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Belva Plain was an American author that passed away in her sleep in 2010. Her grandparents left Germany for the United States in 1875. So, she was a third-generation Jewish American. Born in 1915, the author’s career attracts a lot of interest because she was already a grandmother when she started writing novels.

At a time when she should have been thinking about retirement, Belva was taking her very first steps as a novelist. A former student at Barnard College from where she graduated with a history degree, her father was a real estate developer and a successful one at that.

An only child, she loved poetry and she spent her teenage years writing it. The summer typically found her in New Canaan from where she would enjoy playing with her dog when she wasn’t milking the cows.

She met Irving Plain, her husband, in the 1930s at a dinner party. Irving wanted to become a doctor but he still had a way to go. And once they were married, it fell on the shoulders of Belva to pay the bills while Irving pursued his studies. They were living in Philadephia at the time, having moved there so that Irving could study ophthalmology.

Already a talented writer, Belva was able to keep the family afloat by writing short romance stories and selling them to publications like ‘Ladies’ Home Journal’. She was 25 when she got started.

She wrote a story that ‘Cosmopolitan’ purchased. This paved the way for the author to write more stories in the years that it took her to give birth to her three children. Things were easier once Irving’s school days came to an end and the family settled down in South Orange.

Belva never stopped writing her short stories. In the years that followed, her children grew up and gave birth to children of their own, Belva Plain’s grandchildren. It was around that time that she finally sat down to write her first novel.

It was called ‘Evergreen’ and it came out in 1978. It chronicled the life of a Jewish immigrant who left rural Poland for New York. There, she attracted the attention of two men. Not only did the book reach the top of the New York Times Bestseller List but it stayed there for 41 weeks.

The book was not about Belva’s family but it was relevant to people like her family members who had to assimilate into American culture when they left Germany. In the years that followed, Belva revived the characters from ‘Evergreen’, using them in novels like ‘Tapestry’.

She even wrote a sequel that was completed before her passing. However, no other novel in her bibliography ever reached the heights of success that ‘Evergreen’ attracted. It was praised for its sweeping plot and prose. It was the sort of debut that rarely happens in the genre and it propelled Belva’s career forward.

By the time she died at the age of 95, she had nearly two dozen bestsellers and 30 million copies sold.

Belva Plain Books into Movies

‘Evergreen’ became a 3-part miniseries. NBC aired it in 1985.

Best Belva Plain

Considering the era in which she was raised, it shouldn’t come as a surprise to learn that Belva did not use a computer; she wrote her novels on a pad; some of the best titles in her bibliography include:

Evergreen: Anna wanted to change her narrative. She wanted to alter her destiny. So, she abandoned Poland. This was the only way to escape poverty and fear. But New York, her new home, brought with it a whole slew of new challenges. It wasn’t just the cramped slum and the sweatshop. Anna found herself in the middle of two men who wanted her love.

Homecoming: The holidays are fast approaching and Annette Byrne’s family will soon assemble at her country estate. They haven’t come together like that in several years and she knows that the bitterness between them is going to make the rift in the family even wider.

Annette has a strong will but, even as she drops five envelopes in the mailbox on a crisp December day, she understands that it won’t be enough to bring peace or to maintain it. It will take a shattering event to change things.

When Does The Next Belva Plain book come out?

Belva Plain doesn't seem to have an upcoming book. Their newest book is Heartwood and was released on May, 29th 2012. It is the newest book in the Werner Family Saga Series.

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