Best-selling romance writer Johanna Lindsey has lost her battle with Stage 4 lung cancer, the New York Times reported Sunday.
The prolific novelist passed away on Oct. 27 in Nashua, NH, but her devastated family mourned privately until now. She was 67.
Lindsey authored nearly 60 titles in her 40-year-career. Her first, “Captive Bride,” was published by Avon in 1977 and her last, “Temptation’s Darling,” came out this July. Her characters ranged dramatically across space and time, with her books set everywhere from ninth-century England to a sci-fi series which took place on the planet Kystran.
Born Johanna Helen Howard in Frankfurt, Germany, on March 10, 1952, Lindsey was raised in Hawaii by her mother Wanda and her military dad Edwin. Before penning bodice rippers, Lindsey worked in data processing, which she stopped when she married Ralph Lindsey.
All 19 of her books had each sold at least 700,000 copies by 1990. In all, Lindsey has sold some 60 million titles, according to her second and final publisher, Simon & Schuster.
The publishing company’s marketing director Liz Perl recalls Lindsey as a shy and private individual who toured infrequently.
“On several occasions, her mother would accompany her, which was really sweet,” Perl tells the Times, “Her mother was quite outgoing, so Johanna would sign the books, and her mom would stand next to her and tell fans anecdotes about Johanna when she was young.”
Perl adds that Lindsey would often celebrate a publication — of which she had roughly two a year — by buying a video game and playing it for 12 hours before starting on another title.
Lindsey’s husband passed in 1994, but she is survived by three sons and four grandchildren.
“I don’t know what I’d be doing if I didn’t have my writing,” she told the Honolulu Star-Bulletin in 1981.
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