Danielle Steel is an American author who is best known for writing family-based romance novels. Till date, she has written over 192 books, out of which 163 are novels and the rest are children’s books, poetry books, and non-fiction books. She has even written the lyrics for a music album.
Steel is the top bestselling author of all time who is alive. She is the fourth bestselling author in history. She has sold over 650 copies of her books worldwide, and almost all her books have been best sellers, even though she has not had abundant critical acclaim. She is known for releasing several books a year, often juggling with the storyline and concepts of 4 to 5 (future releasing) books each year. Her books have been published in 69 nations with translations in 43 languages. More than 20 books of Danielle have been adapted for TV; two of those adaptations have received Golden Globe nominations.
In 2020, she released the book ‘All That Glitters’ among 6 others. This book was a New York Times bestseller as well. In 2021, she is expected to release 5 books, ‘Neighbors’ being the first of them.
Table of Contents
Danielle Steel – Net Worth
As of 2021, the petite 5 ft 1 inches writer has an estimated net worth of $400 million
Danielle Steele – Early Life and Education
Danielle Fernandes Dominique Schuelein-Steel was born on August 14, 1947 in New York city. Her mother was Portuguese and a diplomat’s daughter. Her father was a German-Jewish immigrant whose family owned “Löwenbräu beer”. Her parents divorced when she was 8 years old.
Danielle primary grew up in France. She used to attend the dinner parties thrown by her parents; this was where she became acquainted with the lives of the rich and the famous. She was raised a Catholic and as a kid wanted to become a nun.
She graduated from Lycée Français de New York in 1965. She attended Parsons School of Design and later New York University where she studied fashion designing and literature design.
How Danielle Steele became an author
Steel had begun writing stories when she was just a child. She commenced writing poetry in her teen years.
She began writing when she was still attending NYU and finished her first manuscript at the age of 19 years. Then she began working for a public-relations agency called ‘Supergirls’ in New York. Later she relocated to San Francisco and began working at Grey Advertising as a copywriter.
Danielle published her first novel titled ‘Going Home’ in 1972. The novel focused on themes like human relationships and family issues, something that her style of writing would become famous for in the coming years. Most of her novels have featured stories of rich families in crisis and vulnerable to fraud, prison, suicide, blackmail, and other such dark elements.
She then wrote two novels “Now and Forever” and “Passion’s Promise” which were instrumental in launching her career as a novelist and writer. From thereon, she did not look back and kept on writing bestselling books. Since then all her paperback books and hardback novels have been paperback and hardback bestsellers respectively. She published her first non-fiction book ‘Having a Baby’ in 1984 where she talks about suffering a miscarriage in one of the chapters. The same year she also released ‘Love: Poems’ a book of amazing poetries.
In the later years, she wrote illustrated books and children’s stories such as the ‘Max and Martha’ and the ‘Freddie’ book series. The books enumerate real life issues and assist children in effectively addressing them.
In 2003, she opened an art gallery ‘Steel Gallery’ in San Francisco. It exhibited contemporary works and the sculptures and paintings of budding artists. It shutdown shop in 2007, but Steel continues to curate art shows a few times per year at Frisco’s Andrea Schwartz Gallery. In 2006, she launched a perfume called “Danielle by Danielle Steel” in partnership with Elizabeth Arden.
Danielle Steele – Spouse (Husband and Ex Husbands) and Children
- Steel has been married and divorced 5 times. Her first marriage was to Claude-Eric Lazard, a French-American banker, when she was only 18 years old. She then married Danny Zugelder (1975–1978; divorced); William George Toth (1978–1981; divorced); John Traina (1981–1998; divorced); and Thomas Perkins (1998–2002; divorced). She is mother to 9 children.
Danielle Steele – Trivia
- She was listed in the Guinness Book of World Records in 1989 for writing a book that featured on the New York Times Bestseller List for most (381 consecutive weeks) successive weeks in history.
- She often wrote at night because she wanted to spend most of her time with her kids. Hence, she did not get much sleep at night.
- She had a fear of flying and hence undertook an 8-week course to overcome it.
- In 2002, the government of France decorated her with the ‘Officier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres’ title. In 2014, she was honored as a “Chevalier (Knight) of the Order of the Legion d’Honneur”.
- She took a writer to court in 1993 as he was going to disclose that her son Nick Traina was adopted by her then spouse. She lost the case. Nick, who was a lead singer of ‘Knowledge’ and ‘Link 80’ punk bands, committed suicide in the year 1997. In his memory she founded the organization ‘Nick Traina Foundation’ which works in the field of mental illness, suicide prevention, and child abuse. She also wrote the book ‘His Bright Light’ which talked about her son’s life and death.
- Despite being a public figure Steel is a shy person. She rarely makes appearances in public or gives interviews. This is primarily to protect her children from tabloids and the media glare.
Danielle Steel – House
- Danielle spends her time between Paris and San Francisco. When in Frisco, she lives at her 55-room residence ‘Spreckels Mansion’ which was built by sugar baron Adolph B. Spreckels in 1913 as their home. The mansion is worth around $50 million at current market price. She previously used to own 2 homes at Stinson Beach, California, which she has sold off.
Danielle Steel -Pictures
Danielle Steel-Young Pictures
