Beverly Swerling (1938 – 3 December 2018)
[https://www.facebook.com/BeverlySwerling/photos/beverly-swerling-martin-died-on-december-3rd-after-a-diagnosis-of-advanced-pancr/2040290839350373/ ] was an American writer of
historical fiction
Historical fiction is a literary genre in which a fictional plot takes place in the Setting (narrative), setting of particular real past events, historical events. Although the term is commonly used as a synonym for historical fiction literatur ...
.
Biography
Born in
Boston
Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...
, Beverly Swerling grew up in nearby
Revere, Massachusetts
Revere (, ) is a city in Suffolk County, Massachusetts. Located approximately northeast of Downtown Boston, Revere is the terminus of the Blue Line (MBTA), MBTA Blue Line, with three stations located within the city: Wonderland station, Wonderla ...
living with her parents in the
boarding house
A boarding house is a house (frequently a family home) in which lodging, lodgers renting, rent one or more rooms on a nightly basis and sometimes for extended periods of weeks, months, or years. The common parts of the house are maintained, and ...
they ran.
[''Dayton Daily News'' 14 October 1990 "Footnotes: Danielle Steele finds success with hard work" by Betty Dietz-Krebbs p.7-c] After attending college in
Kansas City (MO) Swerling relocated to
New York City
New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
to pursue a writing career, working at an
insurance agency until established as a
freelance journalist
''Freelance'' (sometimes spelled ''free-lance'' or ''free lance''), ''freelancer'', or ''freelance worker'', are terms commonly used for a person who is self-employed and not necessarily committed to a particular employer long-term. Freelance w ...
.
For a time Swerling was the director of a Boston-area
halfway house
A halfway house is a type of prison or institute intended to teach (or reteach) the necessary skills for people to re-integrate into society and better support and care for themselves. Halfway houses are typically either state sponsored for those ...
for female
ex-con
A convict is "a person found guilty of a crime and sentenced by a court" or "a person serving a sentence in prison". Convicts are often also known as "prisoners" or "inmates" or by the slang term "con", while a common label for former convicts ...
s, an experience which formed the basis of her first published book: ''The Love Seekers'', a work of non-fiction published in 1966. ''The Love Seekers'' was credited to Beverly Byrne, which name was also utilized in Swerling's journalistic bylines, Byrne having become Swerling's surname via a brief marriage during a European sojourn.
In 1978, Swerling emigrated, accompanied by William F Martin (born 27 August 1926) of Manhattan whom she had recently married:
the couple would live abroad for some twenty-five years,
originally on the
Isle of Wight
The Isle of Wight (Help:IPA/English, /waɪt/ Help:Pronunciation respelling key, ''WYTE'') is an island off the south coast of England which, together with its surrounding uninhabited islets and Skerry, skerries, is also a ceremonial county. T ...
and eventually on
Lanzarote
Lanzarote (, , ) is a Spanish island, the easternmost of the Canary Islands, off the north coast of Africa and from the Iberian Peninsula.
Covering , Lanzarote is the fourth-largest of the islands in the archipelago. With 163,230 inhabi ...
and on a
houseboat
A houseboat is a boat that has been designed or modified to be used primarily for regular dwelling. Most houseboats are not motorized, as they are usually moored or kept stationary, fixed at a Berth (moorings), berth, and often tethered to ...
in France.
It was during this period that Swerling became a published novelist with her debut novel: the
whodunit
A ''whodunit'' (less commonly spelled as ''whodunnit''; a colloquial elision of "Who asdone it?") is a complex plot-driven variety of detective fiction
Detective fiction is a subgenre of crime fiction and mystery fiction in which an criminal ...
''Murder on the Menu'', being issued in 1980 as was ''Jemma'', the last-named moving Swerling into the historical fiction genre which would be the mainstay of her novelistic output. These first two novels were both
softcover originals credited to Beverly Byrne: among eight subsequent softcovers "Beverly Byrne" had two novels published in
hardcover
A hardcover, hard cover, or hardback (also known as hardbound, and sometimes as casebound (At p. 247.)) book is one bookbinding, bound with rigid protective covers (typically of binder's board or heavy paperboard covered with buckram or other clo ...
: ''Women's Rites'' (1985) and ''A Matter of Time'' (1987), and in 1989 Swerling had a third hardcover novel: ''Juffie Kane'' published, that book being credited to Beverly S. Martin. A second Beverly S. Martin novel: ''Mollie Pride'', was published in softcover in 1991.
Almost ten years after the 1992 publication of her final novel as Beverly Byrne, Swerling - now returned to New York City with her husband - had her first novel written as Beverly Swerling appear in 2001, that being ''City of Dreams'', the first of four novels set in New York City from its 17th century founding til the "
Gilded Age
In History of the United States, United States history, the Gilded Age is the period from about the late 1870s to the late 1890s, which occurred between the Reconstruction era and the Progressive Era. It was named by 1920s historians after Mar ...
": all four novels were originally published as hardcovers, as were two other Beverly Swerling novels.
Having moved from New York City to Philadelphia with her husband,
Swerling subsequent to her husband's 29 January 2015 demise spent her final years in
Woodbury (CT), where she died 3 December 2018 due to
pancreatic cancer
Pancreatic cancer arises when cell (biology), cells in the pancreas, a glandular organ behind the stomach, begin to multiply out of control and form a Neoplasm, mass. These cancerous cells have the malignant, ability to invade other parts of ...
.
Publications
;as Beverly Byrne
''ALL TITLES ARE ORIGINAL SOFTCOVERS IF NOT OTHERWISE NOTED''
*''The Love Seekers'' (1966) (hardcover)
*''Murder on the Menu'' (1980)
*''Jemma'' (1980)
*''The Outcast: The Griffin Saga Vol 1'' (1981)
*''The Adventurer: The Griffin Saga Vol 2'' (1982) (aka ''Fiery Splendor'')
*''Women's Rites'' (1985) hardcover : softcover
*''Jason's People'' (1985)
*''A Matter of Time'' (1987) hardcover : softcover
*''Come Sunrise'' (1987)
*''The Morgan Women'' (1990)
*''A Lasting Fire'' (1991) (UK edition in hardcover with )
*''The Flames of Vengeance'' (1991) (UK edition in hardcover with )
*''The Firebirds'' (1991) (UK edition in hardcover with )
;as Beverly S. Martin
*''Juffie Kane'' (1989) hardcover : softcover
*''Mollie Pride'' (1991)
;as Beverly Swerling
''ALL TITLES ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN HARDCOVER''
* trade paperback edition ( ) issued 2002 According to WorldCat, the book is held in 798 libraries
[ WorldCat item record](_blank)
/ref>
* (connected with series) trade paperback edition ( ) issued 2005
* trade paperback edition ( ) issued 2008
*
*
*2013 ''Bristol House'' (NL, ''Tempelcode'')
* According to WorldCat, the book is held in 798 libraries
References
External links
Beverly Swerling's official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Swerling, Beverly
1938 births
2018 deaths
American historical novelists
American women historical novelists
20th-century American novelists
20th-century American women writers
21st-century American women