Francine Pascal Dies: ‘Sweet Valley High’ Book Series Creator Was 92

Francine Pascal, the author whose “Sweet Valley High” series of young-adult novels became a cultural touchstone for generations of middle- and high-school readers beginning in the 1980s, died Sunday at Manhattan’s at New York-Presbyterian Hospital of lymphoma. She was 92.

Her death was announced by daughter Laurie Wenk-Pascal to The New York Times.

The first book in the series, Double Love, was published in 1983, an attempt, Pascal would say, to fill the void in young adult literature for a Dallas-style soap opera entertainment. Set primarily at a fictional high school in a fictional Los Angeles suburb, the book series initially focused on twins Jessica and Elizabeth Wakefield. As the series grew (eventually to include hundreds of sequels) The Wakefields would age from middle-school to college, their adventures encompassing reality-based teen drama and comedy as well as more fantastical doings akin to Nancy Drew and even the Scooby-Doo gang.

Born Francine Paula Rubin on May 13, 1932, Pascal grew up in Jamaica, Queens, later studying journalism at New York University. Early in her writing career she freelanced for magazines including True Confessions and Cosmopolitan, and in the early 1960s wrote, along with husband John Pascal, for the New York-based TV soap The Young Marrieds. (The Pascals would later collaborate with Francine’s brother Michael Stewart on the book for the 1969 Broadway musical George M!)

But her signature success came in the ’80s with the “Sweet Valley High” book series. By the middle of the decade, entries from the series dominated young adult best-seller lists; industry figures place total sales of the books at well over 200 million.

In addition to Double Love, Pascal wrote the next 11 books in the “Sweet Valley High” series, after which she collaborated with and oversaw teams of writers. (Pascal also wrote non-Sweet Valley young-adult novels, including 1977’s Hangin’ Out With Cici, which was soon adapted into a afternoon TV movie special.

A TV series loosely based on Sweet Valley High starred Brittany Daniel and Cynthia Daniel and ran from 1994 to 1997, at first in syndication and then moving to UPN, Disney and other outlets. A feature film had long been proposed but was never made. While the original book series ended in 2003, a sequel series was released in 2011.

Pascal is survived by daughters Laurie Wenk-Pascal and Susan Johansson, six grandchildren and five great-grandchildren. A third daughter, Jamie Stewart, died in 2008.