Francine Pascal, a former soap opera writer and creator of the Sweet Valley High novels, died on Sunday in Manhattan. She was 92.
Pascal’s publisher, Penguin Random House, confirmed the death to the Associated Press on Tuesday. Her daughter, Laurie Wenk-Pascal, told the New York Times that her mother died at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital due to lymphoma.
Pascal created 181 Sweet Valley High books over 20 years, with the help of a team of various writers. The young-adult books, the first of which debuted in 1983, followed identical twins Elizabeth and Jessica Wakefield as they navigated teen romance, friendships and drama in the fictional Los Angeles suburb of Sweet Valley. There were also several spin-offs, including Sweet Valley Senior Year and Sweet Valley University.
The books were translated into 27 languages, selling more than 200 million copies worldwide. Its accompanying television series starred real-life twins, Cynthia and Brittany Daniel, and ran for four seasons from 1994 to 1997.
Prior to creating the Sweet Valley series, Pascal was a journalist who wrote for the 1960s TV soap The Young Marrieds before writing her first young adult novel.
Pascal and her first husband, Jerome Offenberg, divorced in 1963. They had three daughters, one of whom, Jamie, died in 2008. In 1964, she married John Pascal, who died in 1981. She is survived by daughters Laurie and Susan, as well as six grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.
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