Belva Plain, who wrote more than 20 best-selling novels during a literary career that spanned several decades, has died. She was 95.
Plain’s daughter, Barbara, said the author died in her sleep Tuesday at her home in New Jersey. A cause of death was not disclosed.
Plain, known for epic novels of family and forgiveness, never owned a computer and wrote her novels longhand on a yellow pad. And while she had written short fiction for women’s magazines in her younger days, Plain put her pen on hold and instead focused on raising her three children.
She didn’t start writing novels until after she became a grandmother.
Her first novel, "Evergreen," was published in 1978. It follows the saga of a young girl who trades the desperate squalor of rural Poland for the teeming slums of New York, where she is torn between the love and ambitions of two men. It went on to spend more than 40 weeks on The New York Times best-seller list and was developed into a TV miniseries.
Shortly before her death, Plain completed a sequel to "Evergreen," which will be published in February. Plain had previously revived some of the "Evergeen" characters for three other novels: "The Golden Cup," ”Tapestry" and "Harvest."
At the time of her death, there were more than 28 million copies of Plain’s books in print.
A New York City native, Plain was an only child who wrote poetry as a teenager and graduated with a history degree from Barnard College.
A few years later, she was at a dinner party when she met Irving Plain, an aspiring doctor who became a prominent Newark-based ophthalmologist. They were married in 1939 and settled in South Orange, where they lived for many years until Irving’s death in 1982. She then moved to Short Hills.
Besides her children, Plain is also survived by six grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
