Francine Pascal, author of the Sweet Valley High series, died on July 28, at the age of 92. Sweet Valley High (which was largely ghostwritten by hired hands) became a huge success in 1983, spawning a popular TV series, and a total of an amazing 181 books. Pascal got her start writing for the soap The Young Marrieds, with her husband, John Pascal (who died in 1981). Francine cowrote the Broadway musical George M!, and such books as My First Love and Other Disasters, Love and Betrayal & Hold the Mayo, The Hand-Me-Down Kid, The Ruling Class, and the Fearless series. Pascal told Entertainment Weekly of the birth of Sweet Valley High: “A friend of mine had lunch with an editor, who said, ‘Why isn’t there a Dallas for young people?' I sat down and I wrote a bible and the first 12 stories. It went quickly because it was such a fertile idea. Bantam Books loved it. They ordered all 12.”
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