Danielle Fernandes Dominique Schuelein-Steel was born on August 14, 1947. She is an American writer known for writing romance novels. She is the most successful living author and the fourth most successful fiction author in history. Over 800 million copies of her books have been sold. As of 2024, she has written 210 books, including more than 182 novels.

Based in California for most of her career, Steel has written several books each year. She often works on up to five projects at the same time. All of her novels have been bestsellers, including those published in hardback. However, they have not received much praise from critics, according to Publishers Weekly. Her stories often focus on wealthy families dealing with crises, such as problems involving prison, fraud, blackmail, and suicide.

Steel has also written children's fiction and poetry. She started the Nick Traina Foundation to honor her son. The foundation supports organizations that help people with mental illness. Her books have been translated into 43 languages. Twenty-two of them have been made into TV shows, and two of those shows have been nominated for Golden Globe awards.

Early life

Steel was born Danielle Fernandes Dominique Schuelein-Steel in New York City to a German father and a Portuguese mother. Her father, John Schuelein-Steel, was a German-Jewish immigrant and a descendant of people who owned Löwenbräu beer. Her mother, Norma da Camara Stone dos Reis, was the daughter of a Portuguese diplomat.

She spent much of her childhood in France, where she attended dinner parties with her parents from an early age. These events allowed her to observe the habits and lives of wealthy and famous people. Her parents divorced when she was eight years old, and she was mainly raised by her father, seeing her mother only rarely. Steel began writing stories as a child and started writing poetry by her late teens. Raised Catholic, she considered becoming a nun during her early years. She graduated from the Lycée Français de New York in 1965 and studied literature, design, and fashion design at Parsons School of Design and later at New York University.

Career

While she was still in college at New York University, Steel began writing and finished her first manuscript when she was 19. She worked for a public-relations company in New York called Supergirls. A client, John Mack Carter, who was the editor of Ladies' Home Journal, encouraged her to focus on writing because he was impressed with her freelance articles. He suggested she write a book, which she did. Later, she moved to San Francisco and worked as a copywriter for Grey Advertising.

Her first novel, Going Home, was published in 1973. The book included themes that became central to her writing, such as family issues and human relationships. Her relationship with her second husband influenced two novels, Passion's Promise and Now and Forever, which helped launch her career. After the success of her fourth book, The Promise, she became part of San Francisco high society.

Beginning in 1991, Steel became a regular name on The New York Times bestseller lists for hardcover and paperback books. In 1999, she was listed in the Guinness Book of World Records for having a book on the New York Times Bestseller List for the most consecutive weeks of any author, 456 at that time. Steel says her books take 2½ years to complete, and she can work on up to five projects at the same time. She researches one book while outlining another. Since her first book was published, every one of her novels has reached bestseller lists in paperback, and each hardcover release has also been a hardcover bestseller.

During this time, Steel also wrote non-fiction books. Having a Baby, published in 1984, included a chapter about her experience with miscarriage. The same year, she published a book of poetry titled Love: Poems. She also wrote children’s books, including a series of 57 illustrated books called the "Max and Martha" series, which help children deal with real-life problems like having a new baby, starting school, or losing a loved one. She also wrote the "Freddie" series, which addresses other challenges, such as staying overnight for the first time or visiting a doctor.

In 1993, Steel took legal action against writer Lorenzo Bene, who planned to reveal in his book that her son Nick was adopted by her then-current husband, John Traina, even though adoption records in California are sealed. A San Francisco judge made a rare decision to unseal Nick’s adoption records, even though he was still a minor. This decision was later confirmed by a California Appellate Judge, who said that because Steel was famous, her son’s adoption did not have the same privacy rights, and the book was allowed to be published.

After years of writing, in 2003 Steel opened an art gallery in San Francisco called Steel Gallery, which displayed work by emerging artists. The gallery closed in 2007. She continues to organize art shows a few times a year for the Andrea Schwartz Gallery in San Francisco.

In 2002, Steel was honored by the French government as an Officier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres for her contributions to world culture.

She has also received:
– Induction into the California Hall of Fame in December 2009.
– A "Distinguished Service in Mental Health Award" (first given to a non-physician) from New York Presbyterian Hospital, Department of Psychiatry, and Columbia University Medical School and Cornell Medical College in May 2009.
– An "Outstanding Achievement Award" for her work with adolescents from Larkin Street Youth Services in San Francisco in May 2003.
– A "Service to Youth Award" for improving the lives of children and adolescents with mental health challenges from the University of San Francisco Catholic Youth Organization and St. Mary’s Medical Center in November 1999.
– An "Outstanding Achievement Award" in Mental Health from the California Psychiatric Association.
– A "Distinguished Service Award" from the American Psychiatric Association.

In 2006, Steel worked with Elizabeth Arden to create a new perfume called Danielle by Danielle Steel.

In 2014, she wrote an article for SFGate expressing her concern that San Francisco was losing its heart.

Personal life

In 1965, at the age of 18, Steel married French banker Claude-Éric Lazard and had a daughter named Beatrix. Steel and Lazard separated in 1972. While still married to Lazard, Steel met Danny Zugelder during an interview with a prisoner at a prison near Lompoc, California, where Zugelder was also imprisoned. After Zugelder was released from prison in June 1973, he moved in with Steel. However, he returned to prison in early 1974 due to charges of robbery and rape. Steel received her divorce from Lazard in 1975 and married Zugelder in the prison canteen. During their marriage, Steel experienced several miscarriages. She divorced Zugelder in 1978.

In 1978, Steel married her third husband, William George Toth, while pregnant with their son, Nick. They divorced in March 1981.

In 1981, Steel married John Traina, a businessman in shipping, cruises, and later in wine and art. Traina was previously married to Dede Wilsey. Together, they had five children: Samantha, Victoria, Vanessa, Maxx, and Zara. Traina adopted Steel’s son, Nick, and gave him his family name. Steel also became the stepmother to Traina’s sons, Trevor and Todd. To spend more time with her children, Steel often wrote at night, sleeping only four hours each day. Steel and Traina divorced in 1995.

Steel’s fear of flying made it difficult for her to travel by plane in the early 1980s. She completed an eight-week course at the San Francisco airport to help her overcome this fear.

In 1981, Steel married for the fourth time to John Traina. She married for the fifth time in 1981 to John Traina, a shipping and cruise magnate and later vintner and art collector who was the ex-husband of Dede Wilsey. Together they had five children, Samantha, Victoria, Vanessa, Maxx, and Zara. Traina adopted Steel's son Nick and gave him his family name and Steel also became stepmother of Traina's sons Trevor and Todd. Determined to spend as much time as possible with her children, Steel often wrote at night, making do with only four hours of sleep. Steel and Traina divorced in 1995.

Her fear of flying created many challenges in the early 1980s; she went through an eight-week course based at the San Francisco airport to overcome her fear.

Steel married for a fifth time, to Silicon Valley financier Thomas James Perkins, but the marriage ended after four years in 2002. Steel has said that her novel The Klone and I was inspired by a private joke between herself and Perkins. In 2006, Perkins dedicated his novel Sex and the Single Zillionaire to Steel.

Steel’s longtime residence was in San Francisco, but she now spends most of her time at a second home in Paris. Her 55-room San Francisco home, Spreckels Mansion, was built around 1912 as the mansion of sugar tycoon Adolph B. Spreckels.

Despite her public image and varied pursuits, Steel is known to be shy. Because of this and her desire to protect her children from the tabloids, she rarely grants interviews or makes public appearances.

Steel’s son, Nick Traina, died by suicide in 1997. Traina was the lead singer of San Francisco punk bands Link 80 and Knowledge. To honor his memory, Steel wrote the nonfiction book His Bright Light, about Nick’s life and death. Proceeds from the book, which reached The New York Times Non-Fiction Bestseller List, were used to found the Nick Traina Foundation, which Steel runs to fund organizations dedicated to treating mental accessibility issues. To gain more recognition for children’s mental health, Steel has lobbied for legislation in Washington and previously held a fundraiser every two years (known as The Star Ball) in San Francisco. In 2002, she founded Yo Angel Foundation to assist the homeless.

Writing style

Steel's novels are often described as following a set pattern. These stories usually place characters in situations that challenge their relationships. Some of her books focus on the lives of wealthy and famous people, and many address important life issues such as illness, death, loss, family problems, and relationships. Some people believe her popular storylines are inspired by events from her own life. Although critics sometimes call her work "lightweight" or less serious, Steel's stories often explore difficult topics, including incest, suicide, divorce, war, and the Holocaust. Over time, her writing has changed. Her later books feature stronger, more confident female characters who move on with their lives if they do not receive the respect they want from men. In recent years, Steel has taken more risks with her stories. For example, the book Ransom focuses more on suspense than romance and follows three groups of characters whose lives become connected. Another book, Toxic Bachelors, tells its story from the perspectives of three men who are afraid of relationships and eventually find love.

To avoid being compared to her earlier works, Steel does not write sequels. Many of her early books were printed in large numbers, sometimes one million copies. However, by 2004, her publisher reduced the initial print runs to 650,000 copies because fewer people were buying books. Despite this, her books remained very popular, selling out and reaching the top of charts worldwide.

Twenty-two of her books have been made into television shows, and two received Golden Globe nominations. One, Jewels, tells the story of a woman and her children surviving World War II in Europe and later becoming a famous jewelry business. In 1998, Columbia Pictures became the first movie studio to buy the rights to one of her novels, The Ghost. In 2005, Steel agreed to sell the film rights to 30 of her books for DVDs to New Line Home Entertainment.

Steel spends two to three years writing each book, working on multiple projects at the same time. She begins by making notes about her characters, as she explained in an interview with The New York Times in 2018. She said, "I make notes for a while before I start writing an outline. The notes are mostly about the characters. I need to know them well before I begin—what they are like, how they think, how they feel, and what happened to them." In a 2019 interview with The Guardian, she mentioned spending 20 to 30 hours at a time typing on her typewriter, which helped her gain attention and criticism.

Steel writes all her novels using Olympia SG1 standard typewriters. She has two typewriters she uses regularly: one at her home in San Francisco and another at her home in Paris. The typewriter in San Francisco has been with her since she bought it secondhand for $20 while working on her first book.

Works

Danielle Steel has written more than 210 books, including over 182 novels. Her books have been translated into 43 languages and can be found in 69 countries around the world.

Her works include novels, non-fiction books, picture books, and two children's book series: the Max & Martha series and the Freddie series.

Filmography

• The Promise (1979, movie shown in theaters)
• Now and Forever (1983, movie shown in theaters)
• Crossings (1986, a short TV series)
• Kaleidoscope (1990, a movie made for television)
• Fine Things (1990, a movie made for television)
• Changes (1991, a movie made for television)
• Palomino (1991, a movie made for television)
• Daddy (1991, a movie made for television)
• Secrets (1992, a movie made for television)
• Jewels (1992, a short TV series)
• Heartbeat (1993, a movie made for television)
• Star (1993, a movie made for television)
• Message from Nam (1993, a movie made for television)
• Once in a Lifetime (1994, a movie made for television)
• A Perfect Stranger (1994, a movie made for television)
• Family Album (1994, a short TV series)
• Vanished (1995, a movie made for television)
• Zoya (1995, a movie made for television)
• Mixed Blessings (1995, a movie made for television)
• No Greater Love (1996, a movie made for television)
• Remembrance (1996, a movie made for television)
• Full Circle (1996, a movie made for television)
• The Ring (1996, a movie made for television)
• Safe Harbour (2007, a movie released directly on video)