Cassie Edwards is a best-selling American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 author of over 100 historical

Historical romance

Historical romance is a subgenre of two literary genres, the romance novel and the historical novel.-Definition:Historical romance is set before World War II...

 romance novels. She has been published by Dorchester Publishing

Dorchester Publishing

Dorchester Publishing is a publisher of mass market paperback books. Although mostly known for romance, Dorchester also publishes horror, thriller and Western titles.-Publication lines:...

, Signet Books, Kensington Publishing and Harlequin

Harlequin Enterprises Ltd

Harlequin Enterprises Limited is a Toronto, Ontario-based company that is a publisher of series romance and women's fiction. Owned by the Torstar Corporation, the largest newspaper publisher in Canada, the company publishes approximately 120 new titles each month in 29 different languages in 107...

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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

Native Americans in the United States

Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...

 tribes. Edwards's grandmother was a full-blooded Cheyenne

Cheyenne

Cheyenne are a Native American people of the Great Plains, who are of the Algonquian language family. The Cheyenne Nation is composed of two united tribes, the Só'taeo'o and the Tsétsêhéstâhese .The Cheyenne are thought to have branched off other tribes of Algonquian stock inhabiting lands...

. 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, and three grandchildren. The family lived in St. Louis, Missouri

St. Louis, Missouri

St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...

 for over thirty years, but now reside in Mattoon, Illinois

Mattoon, Illinois

Mattoon is a city in Coles County, Illinois, United States. The population was 18,555 as of the 2010 census. It is a principal city of the Charleston–Mattoon Micropolitan Statistical Area.Mattoon was the site of the "Mad Gasser" attacks of the 1940s....

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Plagiarism allegations

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

Plagiarism

Plagiarism is defined in dictionaries as the "wrongful appropriation," "close imitation," or "purloining and publication" of another author's "language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions," and the representation of them as one's own original work, but the notion remains problematic with nebulous...

 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 expired copyright. One of Edwards' publishers, Signet, initially defended the passages in question as fair use

Fair use

Fair use is a limitation and exception to the exclusive right granted by copyright law to the author of a creative work. In United States copyright law, fair use is a doctrine that permits limited use of copyrighted material without acquiring permission from the rights holders...

 rather than copyright infringement

Copyright infringement

Copyright infringement is the unauthorized or prohibited use of works under copyright, infringing the copyright holder's exclusive rights, such as the right to reproduce or perform the copyrighted work, or to make derivative works.- "Piracy" :...

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Nora Roberts

Nora Roberts

Nora Roberts is a bestselling American author of more than 209 romance novels. She writes as J.D. Robb for the "In Death" series, and has also written under the pseudonym Jill March...

, herself a victim of plagairism, 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".

Chippewa

1. Savage Obsession (1983)
2. Savage Innocence (1984)
3. Savage Heart (1985)
4. Savage Torment (1982)
5. Savage Paradise (1987)

Savage Secrets

1. Savage Surrender (1987)
2. Savage Eden (1988)
3. Savage Splendor (1991)
4. Savage Whispers (1991)
5. Savage Bliss (1990)
6. Savage Dream (1990)
7. Savage Dance (1991)
8. Savage Persuasion (1991)
9. Savage Promise (1992)
10. Savage Mists (1992)
11. Savage Sunrise (1993)
12. Savage Pride (2000)

Wild Arizona

1. Wild Ecstasy (1992)
2. Wild Rapture (1995)
3. Wild Embrace (1995)
4. Wild Splendor (1993)
5. Wild Desire (1994)
6. Wild Abandon (1994)

Savage

• 1.Savage Illusion (1993)
• 2. Savage Spirit (1994)
• 3. Savage Secrets (1995)
• 4. Savage Passions (1996)
• 5. Savage Longings (1997)
• 6. Savage Tears (1997)
• 7. Savage Heat (1998)
• 8. Savage Wonder (1998)
• 9. Savage Joy (1999)
• 10. Savage Embers (1994)
• 11.Savage Shadows (1996)
• 12. Savage Fires (1999)
• 13. Savage Grace (2000)
• 14. Savage Devotion (2000)
• 15. Savage Thunder (2001)
• 16. Savage Honor (2001)
• 17. Savage Moon (2002)
• 18. Savage Love (2002)
• 19. Savage Destiny (2003)
• 20. Savage Hero (2003)
• 21. Savage Trust (2004)
• 22. Savage Hope (2004)
• 23. Savage Courage (2005)
• 24. Savage Vision (2005)
• 25. Savage Arrow (2006)
• 26. Savage Beloved (2006)
• 27. Savage Tempest (2006)
• 28. Savage Quest (2007)

Wild Tribes

1. Wild Bliss (1995)
2. Wild Thunder (1995)
3. Wild Whispers (1996)
4. Wind Walker (2004)

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)
• Running Fox (2006)
• Shadow Bear (2007)

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)

External links

• Cassie Edwards Official Website Attempted retrieval on June 3, 2010 returned the error, "Access forbidden! You don't have permission to access the requested directory. There is either no index document or the directory is read-protected. Error 403."