LaVyrle Spencer
Encyclopedia
LaVyrle Spencer is an American
best-selling author
of contemporary and historical
romance novels. She has successfully published a number of books, with several of them made into movies. Twelve of her books have been New York Times bestsellers, and Spencer was inducted into the Romance Writers of America
Hall of Fame in 1988. She retired from writing in 1997.
graduation Spencer married her high school sweetheart Dan Spencer. The two had two daughters, Amy and Beth (who died in 1990), and are grandparents. They live in a Victorian house in Stillwater, Minnesota
, where Spencer enjoys gardening, cooking, playing bass guitar and electric piano, and photography.
She sent her manuscript to best-selling novelist Kathleen E. Woodiwiss, who read it and promptly mailed it to her own editor at Avon. The editor purchased the novel, which was published in 1979. The Fulfillment was very different from the historical romance "bodice-rippers" which were popular at the time. Unlike the other novels, Spencer's debut work did not include any grand adventures, and featured a "nice man" instead of a more overbearing hero.
Avon likewise rejected Spencer's third book, The Endearment, about a mail-order bride
and her husband, who, unlike most heroes, was a virgin. Avon was leery of this book because it made the hero, not the heroine, the protagonist
. The Endearment was later published by Pocket Books
.
In these early years Spencer also wrote four category romances. She later stopped writing these shorter novels because she was disappointed with the short shelf life, generally only one month, allotted to the category romance.
Spencer's novels were highly successful, consistently selling over 1.5 million copies in paperback and over 400,000 copies in hardcover. In 1997, she released her twenty-third and last novel, Then Came Heaven. She told Publishers Weekly
that she had always intended to write until she reached a set financial goal, at which point she would retire in order to travel and spend time with her family. After meeting that goal, she retired.
of abiding love, family ties and strength in difficult times.
In the 1980s and 1990s Spencer wrote 12 New York Times Bestsellers
. Her books have been sold to book clubs worldwide, and have been published around the world. Condensed versions of many of her novels have appeared in Reader's Digest
and Good Housekeeping
.
RITA Awards, the highest award presented to romance novelists. Four of her wins came in the category Best Single-Title Historical Romance, and were for the novels, The Endearment (1983), Hummingbird (1984), Twice Loved (1985), and The Gamble (1988). She also won a RITA Award in 1990 for Best Romance of 1989 for her romance Morning Glory. Because she won three RITAs in a single category, Spencer was inducted into the RWA Hall of Fame in 1988, becoming one of only twelve women (as of September 2009) to have been so honored.
TV movie
starring Cheryl Ladd
and Morning Glory, which Spencer wrote in 1989, was released as a major motion picture
under the same title, starring Deborah Raffin
and Christopher Reeve
. Spencer and her husband appear as extras
in the film.
In a television deal that Variety
called “precedent–setting,” CBS TV produced two of Spencer's books for television movies, with an option on a third. Home Song, the first book produced by CBS TV, starring Lee Horsley
, Polly Draper
, and Deborah Raffin, aired in April 1996. The second, Family Blessings, starred Lynda Carter
, and was directed by Deborah Raffin and Nina Foch. The network also bought the rights to first look at 11 other Spencer novels, as well as pre–cable broadcast rights to the theatrical film of her novel Morning Glory.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
best-selling author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
of contemporary and 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 successfully published a number of books, with several of them made into movies. Twelve of her books have been New York Times bestsellers, and Spencer was inducted into the Romance Writers of America
Romance Writers of America
Romance Writers of America is a national non-profit genre writers association. It provides networking and support to individuals seriously pursuing a career in romance fiction and supports top authors such as Nora Roberts and Judith McNaught.-History:...
Hall of Fame in 1988. She retired from writing in 1997.
Personal life
LaVyrle Spencer was born on July 17, 1943 in Browerville, Minnesota, where she was raised. Shortly after her high schoolHigh school
High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....
graduation Spencer married her high school sweetheart Dan Spencer. The two had two daughters, Amy and Beth (who died in 1990), and are grandparents. They live in a Victorian house in Stillwater, Minnesota
Stillwater, Minnesota
As of the census of 2000, there were 15,143 people, 5,797 households, and 4,115 families residing in the city. The population density was 2,340.0 people per square mile . There were 5,926 housing units at an average density of 915.7 per square mile...
, where Spencer enjoys gardening, cooking, playing bass guitar and electric piano, and photography.
First novel
Although she showed a flair for writing during high school, Spencer didn't begin her first novel until she was in her thirties, working as a teacher's aide at Osseo Junior High School, she had read "The Flame and Flower" by the bestselling author Kathleen E. Woodwiss, which gave her the idea to become a novelist. She decided to try transferring to paper a recurring dream she was having about a story based on her grandmother's lifestyle on a Minnesota farm. She awoke at 4:00 a.m. one morning, and quickly began writing down her story in a three-ring notebook. This story became her first novel, The Fulfillment.She sent her manuscript to best-selling novelist Kathleen E. Woodiwiss, who read it and promptly mailed it to her own editor at Avon. The editor purchased the novel, which was published in 1979. The Fulfillment was very different from the historical romance "bodice-rippers" which were popular at the time. Unlike the other novels, Spencer's debut work did not include any grand adventures, and featured a "nice man" instead of a more overbearing hero.
Other works
Spencer's second novel, Hummingbird, was rejected by her editor at Avon and also by another editor at Jove, although Jove later published the novel in 1983. Both publishing companies faulted the book for having too much humor and for being too narrow in scope, as the bulk of the book was set within a single house. Spencer opined that "drama happens within, in the emotional impact on the characters," and refused to dramatically rewrite the book.Avon likewise rejected Spencer's third book, The Endearment, about a mail-order bride
Mail-order bride
Mail-order bride is a label applied to a woman who publishes her intent to marry someone from another country. This term is considered offensive by some people. The mail-order bride industry is the economic trade of contracted domestic partnerships, often between citizens of different countries or...
and her husband, who, unlike most heroes, was a virgin. Avon was leery of this book because it made the hero, not the heroine, the protagonist
Protagonist
A protagonist is the main character of a literary, theatrical, cinematic, or musical narrative, around whom the events of the narrative's plot revolve and with whom the audience is intended to most identify...
. The Endearment was later published by Pocket Books
Pocket Books
Pocket Books is a division of Simon & Schuster that primarily publishes paperback books.- History :Pocket produced the first mass-market, pocket-sized paperback books in America in early 1939 and revolutionized the publishing industry...
.
In these early years Spencer also wrote four category romances. She later stopped writing these shorter novels because she was disappointed with the short shelf life, generally only one month, allotted to the category romance.
Spencer's novels were highly successful, consistently selling over 1.5 million copies in paperback and over 400,000 copies in hardcover. In 1997, she released her twenty-third and last novel, Then Came Heaven. She told Publishers Weekly
Publishers Weekly
Publishers Weekly, aka PW, is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers and literary agents...
that she had always intended to write until she reached a set financial goal, at which point she would retire in order to travel and spend time with her family. After meeting that goal, she retired.
Writing style
Spencer is known for creating realistic characters and stories that focus on families rather than only the relationship between a man and woman. These "ordinary" men and women are warm and vulnerable and are always portrayed sympathetically. Her heroines tend to be a mix of fire and warmth, strength, savvy and soft–heartedness who must overcome some sort of adversity, such as pregnancy, divorce, a lengthy separation, the loss of a loved one, and then undergo a catharsis. The stories center on themesTheme (literature)
A theme is a broad, message, or moral of a story. The message may be about life, society, or human nature. Themes often explore timeless and universal ideas and are almost always implied rather than stated explicitly. Along with plot, character,...
of abiding love, family ties and strength in difficult times.
In the 1980s and 1990s Spencer wrote 12 New York Times Bestsellers
New York Times Best Seller list
The New York Times Best Seller list is widely considered the preeminent list of best-selling books in the United States. It is published weekly in The New York Times Book Review magazine, which is published in the Sunday edition of The New York Times and as a stand-alone publication...
. Her books have been sold to book clubs worldwide, and have been published around the world. Condensed versions of many of her novels have appeared in Reader's Digest
Reader's Digest
Reader's Digest is a general interest family magazine, published ten times annually. Formerly based in Chappaqua, New York, its headquarters is now in New York City. It was founded in 1922, by DeWitt Wallace and Lila Bell Wallace...
and Good Housekeeping
Good Housekeeping
Good Housekeeping is a women's magazine owned by the Hearst Corporation, featuring articles about women's interests, product testing by The Good Housekeeping Institute, recipes, diet, health as well as literary articles. It is well known for the "Good Housekeeping Seal," popularly known as the...
.
Recognition
Spencer has won five Romance Writers of AmericaRomance Writers of America
Romance Writers of America is a national non-profit genre writers association. It provides networking and support to individuals seriously pursuing a career in romance fiction and supports top authors such as Nora Roberts and Judith McNaught.-History:...
RITA Awards, the highest award presented to romance novelists. Four of her wins came in the category Best Single-Title Historical Romance, and were for the novels, The Endearment (1983), Hummingbird (1984), Twice Loved (1985), and The Gamble (1988). She also won a RITA Award in 1990 for Best Romance of 1989 for her romance Morning Glory. Because she won three RITAs in a single category, Spencer was inducted into the RWA Hall of Fame in 1988, becoming one of only twelve women (as of September 2009) to have been so honored.
Television
Spencer has also made the leap from page to screen. Her first novel, The Fulfillment, was developed as a CBSCBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
TV movie
Television movie
A television film is a feature film that is a television program produced for and originally distributed by a television network, in contrast to...
starring Cheryl Ladd
Cheryl Ladd
Cheryl Ladd is an American actress, singer and author. Ladd is best known for her role as Kris Munroe in the television series Charlie's Angels, hired amid a swirl of publicity prior to its second season in 1977 to replace the departing Farrah Fawcett-Majors...
and Morning Glory, which Spencer wrote in 1989, was released as a major motion picture
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
under the same title, starring Deborah Raffin
Deborah Raffin
Deborah Iona Raffin is an American film and television actress.Raffin was born in Los Angeles, California, the daughter of Trudy Marshall, a Brooklyn-born former movie actress, and Phillip Jordan Raffin, a restaurateur and meat/brokerage executive.She appeared in several 1970s Hollywood films...
and Christopher Reeve
Christopher Reeve
Christopher D'Olier Reeve was an American actor, film director, producer, screenwriter, author and activist...
. Spencer and her husband appear as extras
Extra (actor)
A background actor or extra is a performer in a film, television show, stage, musical, opera or ballet production, who appears in a nonspeaking, nonsinging or nondancing capacity, usually in the background...
in the film.
In a television deal that Variety
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
called “precedent–setting,” CBS TV produced two of Spencer's books for television movies, with an option on a third. Home Song, the first book produced by CBS TV, starring Lee Horsley
Lee Horsley
Lee Arthur Horsley is an American film, television, and theater actor known for starring roles in the television series, Nero Wolfe , Matt Houston , and Paradise . He starred in the 1982 cult film, The Sword and the Sorcerer, and recorded the audiobook edition of Lonesome Dove...
, Polly Draper
Polly Draper
Polly Carey Draper is an American actress, screenwriter, playwright, producer and director. She is renowned for her ensemble role in ABC's hit series Thirtysomething. In 1998, Draper starred in her screenwriting debut The Tic Code, featuring Gregory Hines which was inspired by her husband Michael...
, and Deborah Raffin, aired in April 1996. The second, Family Blessings, starred Lynda Carter
Lynda Carter
Lynda Jean Carter is an American actress and singer, best known for being Miss World USA and as the star of the 1970s television series The New Original Wonder Woman and The New Adventures of Wonder Woman ....
, and was directed by Deborah Raffin and Nina Foch. The network also bought the rights to first look at 11 other Spencer novels, as well as pre–cable broadcast rights to the theatrical film of her novel Morning Glory.
Novels
- The Fulfillment (1979)
- The Endearment (1982)
- Forsaking All Others (1982)
- Hummingbird (1983)
- A Promise to Cherish (1983)
- The Hellion (1984)
- Sweet Memories (1984)
- Twice Loved (1984)
- Separate Beds (1985)
- Spring Fancy (1985)
- A Heart Speaks (1986)
- The Gamble (1987)
- Years (1987)
- Vows (1988)
- Morning Glory (1989)
- Bitter Sweet (1990)
- Forgiving (1991)
- Bygones (1992)
- November of the Heart (1993)
- Family Blessings (1994)
- Home Song (1995)
- That Camden Summer (1996)
- Then Came Heaven (1997)
- Small Town Girl (1997)
Collections
- The Hellion / Separate Beds / Hummingbird (1991)
- Bittersweet / Morning Glory / Vows (1991)
- Gamble / Endearment / Forgiving (1992)
- Years / Twice Loved / Spring Fancy (1993)
- Morning Glory / Vows/ the Gamble (1994)
- Bygones / Separate Beds / Bitter Sweet (1994)
- Hummingbird / Twice Loved / Vows (1994)
- Separate Beds / Forsaking All Others / Promise to Cherish (1995)
- The Endearment / Bitter Sweet / Forgiving (1995)
- Bygones / November of the Heart / Family Blessings (1996)
- For the Heart: Sweet Memories / a Matter of Circumstance / Afterglow (1997)
- Home Song / That Camden Summer / Small Town Girl (1999)