Sweet Valley High book series creator Francine Pascal has died.
In a statement to The New York Times, Laurie Wenk-Pascal announced that her mother passed away at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital in Manhattan on Sunday following a battle with lymphoma. She was 92.
Born Francine Paula Rubin, the New York native launched her career by writing scripts for soap opera The Young Marrieds with her husband John Pascal.
Later, Francine had an idea for a soap opera aimed at teenagers but was persuaded to turn it into a book series - which eventually became the enormously popular Sweet Valley High young adult novels.
Beginning in 1983 and presided over by a team of ghostwriters, the books followed the lives of identical twins Jessica and Elizabeth Wakefield as they attended high school in the fictional Sweet Valley suburb of California.
"A friend of mine had lunch with a (book) editor, a man, who said, 'Why isn't there a Dallas for young people?' I thought about it, and I actually had a book (proposal) due. There are a lot of twins in my life. (My agent) Amy (Berkower) is a twin. My sister-in-law was a twin. People are always fascinated by twins. You'll never be alone," she once told Entertainment Weekly of the concept. "I thought about it, and this other soap opera thing was in my head, the one that I couldn't sell. I sat down and I wrote a (character) bible and the first 12 (Sweet Valley High) stories. It went quickly because it was such a fertile idea. Bantam Books loved it. They ordered all 12."
The original series concluded in 2003 after the publication of 181 books. However, the series spawned several spin-offs and a '90s TV adaptation starring Brittany and Cynthia Daniel as the lead characters.
Previously, it was reported that a new TV show and film adaptation had been greenlit, though no updates have been shared of late.
Over the course of her career, Francine also wrote novels Save Johanna! and If Wishes Were Horses.
She is survived by daughters Laurie and Susan.
