Cassie Edwards is an American author of over 100

historical History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some theorists categ ...

romance novels A romance or romantic novel is a genre fiction novel that primarily focuses on the relationship and romantic love between two people, typically with an emotionally satisfying and optimistic ending. Authors who have contributed to the developme ...

published between 1982 and 2009. She has been published by Dorchester Publishing,

Signet Books The New American Library (also known as NAL) is an American publisher based in New York, founded in 1948. Its initial focus was affordable paperback reprints of classics and scholarly works as well as popular and pulp fiction, but it now publis ...

Kensington Publishing Kensington Publishing Corp. is an American, New Yorkbased publishing house founded in 1974 by Walter Zacharius (1923–2011)Grimes, William''New York Times'' (MARCH 7, 2011). and Roberta Bender Grossman (1946–1992). Kensington is known as "Am ...

and

Harlequin Harlequin (, , ; , ) is the best-known of the comic servant characters (Zanni) from the Italian commedia dell'arte, associated with the city of Bergamo. The role is traditionally believed to have been introduced by the Italian actor-manager Zan ...

. Edwards stopped publishing after it was discovered she widely

plagiarized Plagiarism is the representation of another person's language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions as one's own original work.From the 1995 '' Random House Compact Unabridged Dictionary'': use or close imitation of the language and thoughts of anothe ...

works by other authors for her own novels.

Biography

Edwards began writing romances in 1982 and released her 100th novel, ''Savage Skies'', on August 28, 2007. Although her earlier books were classic historical romances, the vast majority of her novels involve Native American tribes. Edwards's grandmother was

Cheyenne The Cheyenne ( ) are an Indigenous people of the Great Plains. The Cheyenne comprise two Native American tribes, the Só'taeo'o or Só'taétaneo'o (more commonly spelled as Suhtai or Sutaio) and the (also spelled Tsitsistas, The term for th ...

. Her first 99 books sold a combined 10 million copies as of August 2007, with her more recent novels averaging sales of 250,000–350,000 copies. Edwards has won the Romantic Times Lifetime Achievement Award and the Romantic Times Reviewer's Choice Award, as well as being named one of Affaire de Coeur's top ten favorite romance writers. Edwards has a reputation for meticulously researching the proper anthropological backgrounds of each tribe she writes about. Edwards and her husband Charles, a retired high school biology teacher, have been married for over 50 years. They have two sons, Charles and Brian. The family lived in

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an Independent city (United States), independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Miss ...

for over thirty years, but now reside in

Mattoon, Illinois Mattoon ( ) is a city in Coles County, Illinois, United States. The population was 16,870 as of the 2020 census. The city is home to Lake Land College and has close ties with its neighbor, Charleston, Illinois, Charleston. Both are principal cit ...

. Edward
died
January 4, 2016.

Plagiarism allegations

On 7 January 2008, the romance-novel review blog ''Smart Bitches, Trashy Books'' accused Edwards of widespread

plagiarism Plagiarism is the representation of another person's language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions as one's own original work.From the 1995 ''Random House Dictionary of the English Language, Random House Compact Unabridged Dictionary'': use or close ...

after finding multiple passages in her novels that appeared to be directly taken from various works by other authors, including novels, poems, reference books, and websites about Native American history and culture. Many of the passages came from old references, many without copyright or with expired copyright protection. One of Edwards' publishers,

Signet Signet may refer to: *Signet, Kenya, A subsidiary of the Kenyan Broadcasting Corporation (KBC), specifically set up to broadcast and distribute the DTT signals * Signet ring, a ring with a seal set into it, typically by leaving an impression in sea ...

, initially defended the passages in question as

fair use Fair use is a Legal doctrine, doctrine in United States law that permits limited use of copyrighted material without having to first acquire permission from the copyright holder. Fair use is one of the limitations to copyright intended to bal ...

rather than

copyright infringement Copyright infringement (at times referred to as piracy) is the use of Copyright#Scope, works protected by copyright without permission for a usage where such permission is required, thereby infringing certain exclusive rights granted to the c ...

Nora Roberts Nora Roberts (born Eleanor Marie Robertson on October 10, 1950) is an American author of over 225 novels, known for romance novel, romance published under her own name. She also writes police procedurals which have elements of science fiction ...

, herself a victim of plagiarism, joined the outcry. Two days later, Signet announced that they would be reviewing all of Edwards' books that they published to determine whether plagiarism had occurred, and, in April 2008, Signet stopped publishing Edwards' books "due to irreconcilable editorial differences.". In an interview, Edwards said that she did not know she was supposed to credit sources, and her husband stated that Edwards gained ideas from her reference works but did not "lift passages".

Partial bibliography

Chippewa

# ''Savage Torment'' (1982) # ''Savage Obsession'' (1983) # ''Savage Innocence'' (1984) # ''Savage Heart'' (1985) # ''Savage Paradise'' (1987)

Savage Secrets

# ''Savage Surrender'' (1987) # ''Savage Eden'' (1988) # ''Savage Bliss'' (1990) # ''Savage Dream'' (1990) # ''Savage Splendor'' (1991) # ''Savage Whispers'' (1991) # ''Savage Dance'' (1991) # ''Savage Persuasion'' (1991) # ''Savage Promise'' (1992) # ''Savage Mists'' (1992) # ''Savage Sunrise'' (1993) # ''Savage Pride'' (2000)

Wild Arizona

# ''Wild Ecstasy'' (1992) # ''Wild Splendor'' (1993) # ''Wild Desire'' (1994) # ''Wild Abandon'' (1994) # ''Wild Rapture'' (1995) # ''Wild Embrace'' (1995)

Savage

# ''Savage Illusion'' (1993) # ''Savage Spirit'' (1994) # ''Savage Embers'' (1994) # ''Savage Secrets'' (1995) # ''Savage Passions'' (1996) # ''Savage Shadows'' (1996) # ''Savage Longings'' (1997) # ''Savage Tears'' (1997) # ''Savage Heat'' (1998) # ''Savage Wonder'' (1998) # ''Savage Joy'' (1999) # ''Savage Fires'' (1999) # ''Savage Grace'' (2000) # ''Savage Devotion'' (2000) # ''Savage Thunder'' (2001) # ''Savage Honor'' (2001) # ''Savage Moon'' (2002) # ''Savage Love'' (2002) # ''Savage Destiny'' (2003) # ''Savage Hero'' (2003) # ''Savage Trust'' (2004) # ''Savage Hope'' (2004) # ''Savage Courage'' (2005) # ''Savage Vision'' (2005) # ''Savage Arrow'' (2006) # ''Savage Beloved'' (2006) # ''Savage Tempest'' (2006) # ''Savage Quest'' (2007) # ''Savage Intrigue'' (June 2007) # ''Savage Skies'' (September 2007) # ''Savage Glory'' (November 2007) # ''Savage Flames'' (February 2008) # ''Savage Abandon'' (September 2008) # ''Savage Sun'' (April 2009) # ''Savage Dawn'' (September 2009)

Wild Tribes

# ''Wild Bliss'' (1995) # ''Wild Thunder'' (1995) # ''Wild Whispers'' (1996) # ''Wind Walker'' (2004)

Dreamcatcher

# ''Running Fox'' (2006) # ''Shadow Bear'' (2007) # ''Falcon Moon'' (2007)

Stand-alone novels

# ''Portrait of Desire'' (1982) # ''Rapture's Rendezvous'' (1982) # ''Secrets of My Heart'' (1982) # ''Silken Rapture'' (1983) # ''Passions Web'' (1984) # ''Elusive Ecstasy'' (1984) # ''Island Rapture'' (1985) # ''Desire's Blossom'' (1985) # ''Forbidden Embrace'' (1985) # ''Eugenia's Embrace'' (1986) # ''Passions Fire'' (1986) # ''Beloved Embrace'' (1987) # ''Enchanted Enemy'' (1988) # ''Hostage Heart'' (1988) # ''Passion in the Wind'' (1988) # ''A Gentle Passion'' (1989) # ''Eden's Promise'' (1989) # ''Roses After Rain'' (1990) # ''Passion's Embrace'' (1990) # ''When Passion Calls'' (1990) # ''Touch the Wild Wind'' (1991) # ''Rolling Thunder'' (1996) # ''Flaming Arrow'' (1997) # ''Innocent Obsession'' (1997) # ''White Fire'' (1997) # ''Bold Wolf'' (1998) # ''Lone Eagle'' (1998) # ''Thunder Heart'' (1999) # ''Silver Wing'' (1999) # ''Winter Raven'' (2000) # ''Sun Hawk'' (2000) # ''Midnight Falcon'' (2001) # ''Fire Cloud'' (2001) # ''Spirit Warrior'' (2002) # ''Storm Rider'' (2002) # ''Night Wolf'' (2003) # ''Racing Moon'' (2003) # ''Proud Eagle'' (2004) # ''Silver Feather'' (2005) # ''Swift Horse'' (2005) # ''Her Forbidden Pirate'' (January 2009)

Omnibus

*''An Old-Fashioned Valentine'' (1993) (with Kathryn Kramer and Eugenia Riley) *''Love's Legacy'' (1996) (with Madeline Baker, Mary Balogh, Elaine Barbieri, Lori Copeland, Heather Graham, Catherine Hart, Virginia Henley, Penelope Neri, Diana Palmer and Janelle Taylor) *''Baby on the Doorstep'' (1997) (with Lori Copeland and Susan Kay Law) *''Wild Ecstasy / Wild Rapture / Wild Embrace'' (2003)

References

External links

CassieEdwards.com
the author's official website, as recorded by the

Wayback Machine The Wayback Machine is a digital archive of the World Wide Web founded by Internet Archive, an American nonprofit organization based in San Francisco, California. Launched for public access in 2001, the service allows users to go "back in ...

, active up to the beginning of 2008 {{DEFAULTSORT:Edwards, Cassie American romantic fiction writers 1936 births Living people Writers from St. Louis People from Mattoon, Illinois