Nora Roberts (born Eleanor Marie Robertson on October 10, 1950) is an American author of more than 225 romance novels.
She writes as J. D. Robb for the ''
in Death'' series and has also written under the pseudonyms Jill March and for publications in the U.K. as Sarah Hardesty.
Roberts was the first author to be inducted into the
Romance Writers of America
Romance Writers of America (RWA) is an American non-profit writers' association founded in 1980. Its mission is to "advance the professional and common business interests of career-focused romance writers through networking and advocacy and by inc ...
Hall of Fame. As of 2011, her novels had spent a combined 861 weeks on
''The New York Times'' Best Seller list, including 176 weeks in the number-one spot.
Life and career
Personal life
Early years
Roberts was born on October 10, 1950, in
Silver Spring, Maryland
Silver Spring is a census-designated place (CDP) in southeastern Montgomery County, Maryland, United States, near Washington, D.C. Although officially unincorporated, in practice it is an edge city, with a population of 81,015 at the 2020 ce ...
, the youngest of five children.
Both of her parents have Irish ancestors, and she has described herself as "an Irishwoman through and through". Her family were avid readers, so books were always important in her life.
Although she had always made up stories in her head, Roberts did not write as a child, other than essays for school. She does claim to have "told lies. Really good ones—some of which my mother still believes."
She attended a Catholic school and credits the nuns with instilling in her a sense of discipline.
During her second year in high school, Roberts transferred to a local public school,
Montgomery Blair High School
Montgomery Blair High School (MBHS) is a public high school located in Four Corners, Maryland, United States, operated by Montgomery County Public Schools. The school's total enrollment of 3,600 makes it the largest public high school in Montgo ...
, where she met her first husband, Ronald Aufdem-Brinke. They married, against her parents' wishes, in 1968, as soon as she had graduated from high school.
The newly married couple settled in Boonsboro, Maryland. Roberts' husband worked at his father's sheet-metal business before joining her parents in their lighting company. She gave birth to two sons, Dan and Jason. Roberts became a homemaker and would later refer to this time period as her "Earth Mother" years. Roberts spent much of her time doing crafts, including ceramics and sewing her children's clothes.
Their marriage ended in divorce in 1983.
Present
Roberts met her second husband, Bruce Wilder, a carpenter, when she hired him to build bookshelves in July 1985. Her husband owns and operates a bookstore in
Boonsboro, Maryland called Turn the Page Books. He also works as an adult content photographer and videographer.
The Wilders also owned the nearby historic Boone Hotel, which was undergoing renovations when it was destroyed by a fire in February 2008. It opened as the Inn BoonsBoro in 2009; the suites were inspired by and named for literary romantic couples with happy endings.
Roberts once stated: "You're going to be unemployed if you really think you just have to sit around and wait for the muse to land on your shoulder."
She concentrates on one novel at a time,
writing eight hours a day, every day, even while on vacation.
Rather than begin with an outline or plot summary, Roberts instead envisions a key incident, character, or setting.
She then writes a short first draft that has the basic elements of a story. After finishing the first draft, Roberts goes back to the beginning of the novel. The second draft usually sees the addition of details, the "texture and color" of the work, as well as a more in-depth study of the characters. She then does a final pass to polish the novel before sending it to her agent, Amy Berkower.
She often writes trilogies, finishing the three books in a row so that she can remain with the same characters. When possible, she does the same with the ''in Death'' books, writing three in a row before returning to contemporary romances.
Her trilogies are all released in paperback, as Roberts believes the wait for hardcover editions is too long for the reader.
Roberts does much of her research over the Internet, as she has an
aversion to flying.
She is an ardent baseball fan, having been honored by the local
minor league baseball team
Hagerstown Suns
The Hagerstown Suns were a Minor League Baseball team based in Hagerstown, Maryland. They were a member of the South Atlantic League and, from 2007 through 2020, were the Class A affiliate of the Washington Nationals. They played their home ga ...
several times.
Writing career
Beginning
She began to write during a blizzard in February 1979 while housebound with her two small boys. Roberts states that with three feet of snow, a dwindling supply of chocolate, and no morning kindergarten, she had little else to do.
While writing down her ideas for the first time, she fell in love with the writing process, and quickly produced six manuscripts.
She submitted her manuscripts to
Harlequin
Harlequin (; it, Arlecchino ; lmo, Arlechin, Bergamasque pronunciation ) is the best-known of the '' zanni'' or comic servant characters from the Italian '' commedia dell'arte'', associated with the city of Bergamo. The role is traditional ...
, the leading publisher of
romance novels, but was repeatedly rejected. Roberts says,
I got the standard rejection for the first couple of tries, then my favorite rejection of all time. I received my manuscript back with a nice little note which said that my work showed promise, and the story had been very entertaining and well done. But that they already had their American writer. That would have been Janet Dailey.[Regis, pages 183–184]
Dailey would go on to be embroiled in a plagiarism scandal in which she eventually confessed to stealing some of Roberts' work.
Pseudonyms
Nora Roberts
In 1980, a new publisher, Silhouette books, formed to take advantage of the pool of manuscripts from the many American writers that Harlequin had snubbed.
[Regis, p 159] Roberts found a home at Silhouette, where her first novel, ''
Irish Thoroughbred'', was published in 1981. She used the pseudonym Nora Roberts, a shortened form of her birth name Eleanor Marie Robertson because she assumed that all romance authors had pen names.
Between 1982 and 1984, Roberts wrote 23 novels for Silhouette.
They were published under various Silhouette imprints: Silhouette Sensation, Silhouette Special Edition and Silhouette Desire, as well as Silhouette Intrigue, and MIRA's reissue program. In 1985, ''Playing the Odds,'' the first novel in the MacGregor family series, was published. The book was an immediate bestseller.
In 1987, she began writing single title books for Bantam. Five years later she moved to
Putnam to write single title hardcovers as well as original paperbacks.
She reached the hardcover bestseller lists with her fourth hardcover release, 1996's ''Montana Sky''. Roberts has continued to release single-title novels in paperback. She still occasionally writes shorter category romances. Her attachment to the shorter category books stems from her years as a young mother of two boys without much time to read, as she "
emembersexactly what it felt like to want to read and not have time to read 200,000 words."
Roberts and her career were featured in Pamela Regis' ''A Natural History of the Romance Novel.'' Regis calls Roberts "a master of the romance novel form, because she "has a keen ear for dialogue, constructs deft scenes, maintains a page-turning pace, and provides compelling characterization."
''Publishers Weekly'' once talked about her "wry humor and the use of different narrators, two devices that were once rarities" in the romance novel genre.
J. D. Robb
Roberts had long wanted to write romantic suspense novels in the vein of
Mary Stewart, but, at the urging of her agent, she concentrated on classic contemporary romance novels while she built a following of readers.
After moving to Putnam in 1992, the publishing company quickly realized that they were unable to keep up with Roberts's prolific output. They suggested that she adopt a second pseudonym so that they would be able to publish more of her work each year.
Her agent, Amy Berkover, convinced the publishers to allow Roberts to write romantic suspense novels under the new name.
Her first romantic suspense novel was published in 1995 under the pseudonym J. D. Robb. The initials "J. D." were taken from her sons, Jason and Dan, while "Robb" is a shortened form of Roberts. She first decided to use the pseudonym D. J. MacGregor, but right before publication, she discovered that this pseudonym was used by another author.
As J. D. Robb, Roberts has published a series of futuristic science fiction
police procedurals. These books, all part of the ''
in Death'' series, feature NYPSD detective
Eve Dallas and her husband
Roarke and are set in a mid-21st century New York City. Despite the emphasis on solving a crime in each of the books, the overall theme of the series is the development of the relationship between Eve and Roarke.
When the ''in Death'' series began, neither Roberts nor her publisher acknowledged that she was in fact the author. They hoped to allow the series to stand on its own merits and build its own following.
After publishing 18 novels in the ''in Death'' series, Putnam published the nineteenth, ''Divided in Death'', first in hardcover. The book became Roberts' first bestselling novel of 2004.
As of March 2022, Roberts has published 54 novels plus ten novellas in the ''in Death'' series.
Other pseudonyms
Roberts wrote a story for a magazine titled "Melodies of Love" under the pseudonym Jill March.
She has also been known as Sarah Hardesty. When the ''Born In'' series was released in Britain it carried that name instead of Nora Roberts. She has since changed publishers.
Success
In 1996, Roberts passed the hundred-novel mark with ''Montana Sky'' and, in 2012, doubled that with ''The Witness''. In both 1999 and 2000, four of the five novels that ''
USA Today
''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virgini ...
'' listed as the best-selling romance novels of the year were written by Roberts. Her first appearance on
''The New York Times'' Bestseller List came in 1991,
and between 1991 and 2001, she had 68 New York Times Bestsellers, counting hardbacks and paperbacks. ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' did not review any of those novels.
[Regis, p 184.] In 2001, Roberts had 10 best-selling mass-market paperbacks, according to ''Publishers Weekly'', not counting those books written under the J.D. Robb name. In September 2001, for the first time Roberts took the numbers 1 and 2 spots on the ''Publishers Weekly'' bestseller list, as her romance ''Time and Again'' was number one, and her J.D. Robb release ''Seduction in Death'' was number two.
Since 1999, every one of Roberts's novels has been a
''New York Times'' bestseller, and 124 of her novels have ranked on the ''Times'' bestseller list, including 29 that debuted in the number-one spot. As of January 24, 2013, Roberts's novels had spent a combined 948 weeks on ''The New York Times'' Bestseller List, including 148 weeks in the number-one spot. As of January 9, 2009, 400 million copies of her books are in print, including 12 million copies sold in 2005 alone. Her novels have been published in 35 countries.
A founding member of the
Romance Writers of America
Romance Writers of America (RWA) is an American non-profit writers' association founded in 1980. Its mission is to "advance the professional and common business interests of career-focused romance writers through networking and advocacy and by inc ...
(RWA), Roberts was the first inductee in the organization's Hall of Fame.
In 1997 she was awarded the RWA Lifetime Achievement Award, which in 2008 was renamed the RWA Nora Roberts Lifetime Achievement Award. As of 2012, she has won an unprecedented 21 of the RWA's
RITA Awards, the highest honor given in the romance genre.
Two of Roberts' novels, ''Sanctuary'' and ''Magic Moments'', had previously been made into TV movies. In 2007,
Lifetime Television
Lifetime is an American basic cable channel that is part of Lifetime Entertainment Services, a subsidiary of A&E Networks, which is jointly owned by Hearst Communications and The Walt Disney Company. It features programming that is geared toward ...
adapted four Nora Roberts novels into TV movies: ''
Angels Fall'' starring
Heather Locklear, ''
Montana Sky'' starring
Ashley Williams, ''
Blue Smoke'' starring
Alicia Witt
Alicia Roanne Witt (born August 21, 1975) is an American actress, singer and pianist. She first came to fame as a child actress after being discovered by David Lynch, who cast her in '' Dune'' (1984) and '' Twin Peaks'' (1990). Witt had a critic ...
, and ''
Carolina Moon'' starring
Claire Forlani
Claire Antonia Forlani (born 17 December 1971) is an English actress. She became known in the mid-1990s for her leading role in the film '' Mallrats'', and in the Jean-Michel Basquiat 1996 biopic, '' Basquiat''. In 1998, she achieved wide re ...
. This was the first time that Lifetime had adapted multiple works by the same author.
Four more films were released on four consecutive Saturdays in March and April 2009. The 2009 collection included ''
Northern Lights'' starring
LeAnn Rimes
Margaret LeAnn Rimes Cibrian (born August 28, 1982) is an American singer, songwriter and actress. She originally rose to success as a country music artist at age 13 with 1996's "Blue". She has since crossed over into pop, contemporary Chri ...
and
Eddie Cibrian
Edward Carl Cibrian ( ; born June 16, 1973) is an American actor. He is best known for his roles as Cole Deschanel on the television series '' Sunset Beach'' and Jimmy Doherty on ''Third Watch''.
His other notable television roles include Matt ...
, ''
Midnight Bayou'' starring
Jerry O'Connell
Jerry O'Connell (born February 17, 1974) is an American actor and television host. He is known for his roles as Quinn Mallory in the television series ''Sliders'', Andrew Clements in ''My Secret Identity'', Vern Tessio in the film '' Stand by M ...
, ''
High Noon
''High Noon'' is a 1952 American Western film produced by Stanley Kramer from a screenplay by Carl Foreman, directed by Fred Zinnemann, and starring Gary Cooper. The plot, which occurs in real time, centers on a town marshal whose sense ...
'' starring
Emilie de Ravin
Emilie de Ravin (; born 27 December 1981) is an Australian actress. She starred as Tess Harding on '' Roswell'' (2000–2002), Claire Littleton on the ABC drama ''Lost'' (2004–2008, 2010), and as Belle on the ABC drama '' Once Upon a Tim ...
, and ''
Tribute
A tribute (; from Latin ''tributum'', "contribution") is wealth, often in kind, that a party gives to another as a sign of submission, allegiance or respect. Various ancient states exacted tribute from the rulers of land which the state conq ...
'' starring
Brittany Murphy
Brittany Anne Murphy-Monjack (; November 10, 1977 – December 20, 2009) was an American actress and singer. Born in Atlanta, Murphy moved to Los Angeles as a teenager and pursued a career in acting. Her breakthrough role was as Tai Fras ...
.
''
TIME
Time is the continued sequence of existence and event (philosophy), events that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various me ...
'' named Roberts one of their 100 Most Influential People in 2007, saying she "has inspected, dissected, deconstructed, explored, explained and extolled the passions of the human heart."
Roberts was one of only two authors on the list, the other being
David Mitchell.
Victim of plagiarism
In 1997, another best-selling romance writer,
Janet Dailey, admitted to repeatedly plagiarizing Roberts' work. The practice came to light after a reader read Roberts' ''Sweet Revenge'' and Dailey's ''Notorious'' back-to-back; she noticed several similarities and posted the comparable passages on the Internet. Calling the plagiarism "mind-boggling", Roberts sued Dailey.
Dailey acknowledged the plagiarism and attributed it to a psychological disorder. She admitted that both ''Aspen Gold'' and ''Notorious'' lifted heavily from Roberts' work. Both of those novels were pulled from print after Dailey's admission.
In April 1998, Dailey settled the case. Roberts donated the settlement to various literary causes including the
Literacy Volunteers of America (now ProLiteracy).
Roberts joined the chorus strongly criticizing fellow romance writer
Cassie Edwards
Cassie Edwards is a best-selling American author of over 100 historical romance novels. She has been published by Dorchester Publishing, Signet Books, Kensington Publishing and Harlequin.
Biography
Edwards began writing romances in 1982 an ...
, who had lifted many passages from much older sources (many in the
public domain
The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly waived, or may be inapplicable. Because those rights have expired ...
) without giving credit, forcing Edwards out of the business.
In 2019 Roberts, along with other authors, was a victim of plagiarism by
Cristiane Serruya.
Charity
Roberts has been included repeatedly on the Giving Back Fund's annual lists of the most philanthropic celebrities, with the bulk of her donations going to the Nora Roberts Foundation. The foundation financially supports organizations that promote literacy and the arts, assist children and engage in humanitarian efforts. The Foundation also endowed the Nora Roberts Center for American Romance at
McDaniel College
McDaniel College is a private college in Westminster, Maryland. Established in 1867, it was known as Western Maryland College until 2002 when it was renamed McDaniel College in honor of an alumnus who gave a lifetime of service to the college. ...
, which supports academic scholarship on the American romance novel, with special emphasis on the literary qualities and significance of the romance. Roberts has made other charitable efforts such as auctioning her jewelry.
Works
Bibliography
Screen adaptations
*''Magic Moments'' (1989)
*''
Sanctuary
A sanctuary, in its original meaning, is a sacred place, such as a shrine. By the use of such places as a haven, by extension the term has come to be used for any place of safety. This secondary use can be categorized into human sanctuary, a sa ...
'' (2001)
*''
Angels Fall'' (2007)
*''
Montana Sky'' (2007)
*''
Blue Smoke'' (2007)
*''
Carolina Moon'' (2007)
*''
Northern Lights'' (2009)
*''
Midnight Bayou'' (2009)
*''
High Noon
''High Noon'' is a 1952 American Western film produced by Stanley Kramer from a screenplay by Carl Foreman, directed by Fred Zinnemann, and starring Gary Cooper. The plot, which occurs in real time, centers on a town marshal whose sense ...
'' (2009)
*''
Tribute
A tribute (; from Latin ''tributum'', "contribution") is wealth, often in kind, that a party gives to another as a sign of submission, allegiance or respect. Various ancient states exacted tribute from the rulers of land which the state conq ...
'' (2009)
*''Carnal Innocence'' (2011)
*''Brazen'' (2022)
Lifetime Movie Channel
Several of Roberts' books have been adapted into made-for-TV movies and aired on
Lifetime.
The 2007 Collection featured:
*''
Angels Fall''
*''
Montana Sky''
*''
Carolina Moon''
*''
Blue Smoke''
The 2009 Collection featured:
*'' Northern Lights''
*'' Midnight Bayou''
*''High Noon
''High Noon'' is a 1952 American Western film produced by Stanley Kramer from a screenplay by Carl Foreman, directed by Fred Zinnemann, and starring Gary Cooper. The plot, which occurs in real time, centers on a town marshal whose sense ...
''
*''Tribute
A tribute (; from Latin ''tributum'', "contribution") is wealth, often in kind, that a party gives to another as a sign of submission, allegiance or respect. Various ancient states exacted tribute from the rulers of land which the state conq ...
''
Peter Guber's Mandalay TV and Stephanie Germain Prods. produced the eight adaptations.
Awards
As Nora Roberts
=Golden Medallion awards
=
Golden Medallion awards were awarded by the Romance Writers of America.
=RITA Awards
=
RITA Awards are awarded by the Romance Writers of America.
=Quill awards
=
Quill award
The Quill Award was an American literary award that ran for three years in 2005-2007. It was a " consumer-driven award created to inspire reading while promoting literacy." The Quills Foundation, the organization behind the Quill Award, was supp ...
s are awarded by the Quills Foundation.
As J.D. Robb
*''Survivor in Death'': 2006 RITA Awards Romantic Suspense winner
Citations
General sources
* Little, Denise and Laura Hayden, ''The Official Nora Roberts Companion'', Berkley Books
Berkley Books is an imprint of the Penguin Group.
History
Berkley Books began as an independent company in 1955. It was founded as "Chic News Company" by Charles Byrne and Frederick Klein, who had worked for Avon; they quickly renamed it Berkl ...
, 2003, .
* Lennard, John, "Of Pseudonyms and Sentiment: Nora Roberts, J. D. Robb, and the Imperative Mood", in ''Of Modern Dragons and other essays on Genre Fiction'' (Tirril: Humanities-Ebooks, 2007), pp. 56–86.
*
External links
Official website
Official UK website
Official J.D. Robb website
Official blog
Forum in Death
€”J.D. Robb Fan Forum
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Roberts, Nora
1950 births
20th-century American novelists
20th-century American women writers
21st-century American novelists
21st-century American women writers
American expatriates in Ireland
American paranormal romance writers
American people of Irish descent
American romantic fiction writers
American science fiction writers
American women novelists
Living people
Novelists from Maryland
People from Silver Spring, Maryland
People from Washington County, Maryland
People involved in plagiarism controversies
Pseudonymous women writers
RITA Award winners
Women mystery writers
Women romantic fiction writers
Women science fiction and fantasy writers
20th-century pseudonymous writers
21st-century pseudonymous writers