When Flaubert wrote 'Madame Bovary,' 20 women in town said they were Emma.'Īll three novels were made into movies, with 'Once Is Not Enough' scheduled for release next spring. I have a good ear, I unconsciously pick up certain people. Then I start asking, what kind of a personality? And because 'They can keep calling it that-it will only make my books sell,' she once said of the roman ý clef element in her writing.

The book inspired fewer guessing games than its predecessors about the real-life persons on whom the characters were based, although Miss Susan always insisted that her characters were her own creations. People' with added overtones of incest and lesbianism. It continued the through-the-keyhole look-essentially disapproving, despite the four-letter words-at sex and drugs among the so-called 'beautiful Miss Susann's last novel, 'Once Is Not Enough,' was published last year. Described by Miss Susann as 'an attempt to get into men's ids,' the book displayed again her story-telling gift, which wasĪpplied this time to the career and sexual perversities of a power-hungry television executive. 'The Love Machine,' which followed in 1969, remained the No. The pills they took to pep themselves up, to go to sleep and to stay slim were nicknamed 'dolls' by the author herself, she said. In a style that combined soap-opera woes and details with fast-moving action and Broadway-Hollywood settings, the book was a juicy morality tale about the sex lives and aging problems of four 1945-vintage 'glamour girls' and theirĮventual dependence on alcohol and drugs. With more than 17 million copies sold, in hardcover and paperback, 'Valley of the Dolls' is recognized by the 'Guinness Book of Records' as the best-selling novel of all time surpassing 'Peyton Place.' With subsequent novels, the former actress and television performer became the first novelist to have three consecutive books ranked No. 'Valley of the Dolls' as the country's top-selling book for 22 weeks. She had surgery for breast cancer in 1962, he said, and 10 years later began cobalt radiation treatmentsĪnd chemotherapy when cancer was found in other areas. Her husband, Irving Mansfield, television and film producer, said yesterday that Miss Susann had last entered the hospital seven weeks ago. Jacqueline Susann Dead at 53 Novelist Wrote 'Valley of Dolls' By LAURIE JOHNSTON acqueline Susann, whose 1966 book, 'Valley of the Dolls,' became the world's best-selling novel and made her name a household word,ĭied of cancer Saturday night at doctors Hospital.

Jacqueline Susann Dead at 53 Novelist Wrote 'Valley of Dolls'

Jacqueline susann