Kathleen E. Woodiwiss

Kathleen E. Woodiwiss was an American novelist, born Kathleen Erin Hogg on 3 June 1939 in Alexandria, Louisiana, who died in 2007. Her first novel, The Flame and the Flower, was bought by Avon after hardcover publishers turned down the 600-page manuscript as too long, and it was published in 1972. It sold more than 2.3 million copies in its first four years and is credited with launching the modern historical romance, with a strong heroine and intimate scenes written openly. She published twelve romance novels and two novellas over thirty-three years, often taking four or five years over one book, and her books have more than thirty-six million copies in print. Open Library adds that she helped LaVyrle Spencer reach print and that many later romance novelists cite her as an inspiration.