Francine Pascal
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
May 13, 1932
Francine Pascal | |
|---|---|
| Born | Francine Paula Rubin May 13, 1932 New York City, U.S. |
| Died | July 28, 2024 (aged 92) New York City, U.S. |
| Occupation | Writer |
| Alma mater | New York University |
| Genre | Young adult fiction |
| Notable works | Sweet Valley High[1] |
| Spouse |
|
| Children | 3 |
| Relatives | Michael Stewart (brother) |
Francine Paula Pascal (née Rubin, May 13, 1932 – July 28, 2024) was an American author best known for her Sweet Valley series of young adult novels. Sweet Valley High, the backbone of the collection, was made into a television series,[2][3] which led to several spin-offs, including The Unicorn Club and Sweet Valley University. Although most of these books were published in the 1980s and 1990s, they remained so popular that several titles were re-released decades later.[4]
Francine Paula Rubin was born on May 13, 1932, in Manhattan, New York, and raised in Jamaica, Queens, New York.[5] She was the daughter of Kate (Dunitz) and William Rubin, an auctioneer.[6] Her family was Jewish.[7] She studied journalism at New York University and began her career writing for magazines, including Cosmopolitan, Ladies' Home Journal, Modern Screen, and True Confessions.[5]
In 1958, she married Jerome Offenberg until divorcing in 1963.[5] In 1964, she married John Pascal until his death in 1981.[5]
Writing career
Francine and John Pascal were hired as writers for the soap opera The Young Marrieds.[5] They left the show after being asked to leave New York for Los Angeles to continue working.[5] The couple later wrote a Broadway musical, George M!, with her brother Michael Stewart.[5]
Pascal's first novel, Hangin' Out With Cici (1977),[5] was later turned into an ABC Afterschool Special, My Mother Was Never a Kid. Around this time, she aspired to create a soap opera, but struggled to come up with an idea.[5] One day, a friend who worked in publishing gave her the idea for a series aimed at teenagers, which Pascal immediately responded to and developed as a book.[5] This became the successful Sweet Valley High series, set in the fictitious Southern California town of Sweet Valley.[5] After writing the first seven books herself, she oversaw a team of ghostwriters to expand the series.[5] Sweet Valley High continued in numerous iterations until 2003, and was briefly revived with the novel Sweet Valley Confidential in 2011.[5]
Pascal later developed other work, including the Fearless series, Save Johanna! (1981) and The Ruling Class.[5]
Personal life
Pascal had three children from her marriage to Offenberg.[5] Her daughter, Jamie Stewart Carmen, was an NBC producer who died in 2008.[5][6]
John Pascal died of lung cancer in 1981. Francine Pascal later wrote the novel If Wishes Were Horses (1994), a work of autofiction about her marriage and widowhood, in which the protagonist moves to France following the death of her husband.[5][8]
Pascal died of lymphoma at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital on July 28, 2024, at the age of 92.[5][9]
