ANDREWS, V(irginia) C(leo) (?)-1986
Source: Something about the Author, Volume 50, Editor Anne Commire, Gale Research Company (Detroit, MI, ©1988).
OBITUARY NOTICE - See index for CA sketch: Born June 6 in
Portsmouth, Va.; died of cancer, December 19, 1986, in Virginia Beach,
Va.; buried in Olive Branch Cemetery, Portsmouth, Va. Artist and author
of novels and short stories. Andrews was the author of seven gothic
novels whose phenomenal commercal success reportedly made her the
fastest-selling author in America. All originally published as
paperbacks by Pocket Books, her tales of terror and suspense have sold
more than thirty million copies and are particularly attractive to
adolescents. Flowers in the Attic, the 1979 book that
catapulted Andrews from obscurity to international fame, is the story of
four children locked in an attic by their scheming mother and tortunred
by their sadistic grandmother. It is also her first novel to be made
into a motion picture, scheduled for release in March, 1987. the six
books that followed Flowers in the Attic are Petals on the
Wind, If There Be Thorns, Seeds of Yesterday,
My Sweet Audrina, Heaven, and Dark Angel.
Andrews, an invalid most of her life, supported herself for years as a
commerical artist and fashion illustrator before seriously pursuing a
writing career. Her first literary sales were stories she sold to
confession magazines.
FOR MORE INFORMATION SEE:
New York Times Biographical Service, Arno Press, 1980
Contemporary Authors, Volume 97, Gale, 1981
Obituaries:
Detroit Free Press, December 20, 1986
Milwaukee Journal, December 20, 1986
Los Angeles Times, December 21, 1986
New York Times, December 21, 1986
Washington Post, December 21, 1986
White Plains Reporter, December 21, 1986
Chicago Tribune, December 22, 1986
Variety, December 24, 1986
Time, January 5, 1987
School Library Journal, March, 1987
Full text © 1988 Gale Research Company