Francine Pascal, creator of “Sweet Valley High,” dies at the age of 92

Francine Pascal, the creator of The Sweet Valley High book series, has died. She was 92.

Her daughter, Laurie Wenk-Pascal, said she died of lymphoma on Sunday, July 28, at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital in Manhattan. The New York Times reported. PEOPLE has contacted Pascal’s publisher.

Pascal was born on May 13, 1932 in Manhattan, grew up in Jamaica, Queens and had success with the children’s book series in 1983. Pascal created Sweet Valley Highwhich consisted of 181 books, and wrote the first 12 books. Soon after, a team of writers cultivated the stories of identical twins Elizabeth and Jessica Wakefield in the fictional Los Angeles suburb of Sweet Valley.

“Sweet Valley is the essence of high school. It’s the moment before reality hits, when you really believe in the romantic values ​​- sacrifice, love, loyalty, friendship – before you become jaded and slide into adulthood,” she said of the series in a 1988 interview with PEOPLE.

Before Sweet Valley High Pascal studied journalism at New York University before she worked as a freelance writer for True confessions, Modern screen, Cosmopolitan And Home journal for women.

She married her first husband, Jerome Offenberg, and they divorced in 1963. The former couple had three daughters together. Her daughter, Jamie Stewart, died in 2008.

Pascal later married John Pascal, a year after her divorce from Offenberg. The two had worked together on the soap opera in the 1960s The young married couples, This was the beginning of Francine’s writing career, and they were together when he died in 1981. Speaking to PEOPLE in 1988, Francine remembered her late husband as “a lovely man, a wonderful father, a great writer.”

In addition to his work as a screenwriter, Pascal also wrote several books for adults, including a non-fiction book about the Patty Hearst trial. The Curious Case of Patty Hearstin 1974. She also wrote novels for adults Save Johanna! in 1981 and If wishes were horses in 1994, a fictionalized autobiography about her life with her late husband John.

In the late 1970s she ventured into the world of young adult novels with Hanging out with Cici in 1977 – which was later continued and developed into an afternoon TV special. Then, in 1979, she released My first love and other disasters and the following year The child from the used clothing collection.

Then, after a conversation with another editor, Pascal was inspired to write a teen version of the hit CBS series Dallas and quickly realized that she had a hit in her hand with Sweet Valley High.

The successful book series is about Elizabeth and Jessica Wakefield, whom she described to PEOPLE as “the most adorable, gorgeous 16-year-old girls you could imagine.” After she wrote the first 12 books, several spinoffs followed, including Sweet Valley twins, Sweet Valley children And Sweet Valley Intermediate.

The book series, which sold 200 million copies, focused on a specific group of readers: teenage girls. During her conversation with PEOPLE in 1988, Pascal said: “These books have discovered a whole group of young girls who have never read. I don’t know if they all War and peace, but we have turned non-readers into readers. And then when they look at Harlequin romance novels, what then? They will read.”

After she stopped writing books herself, she prepared drafts for other authors, relying on her “Bible,” which described the characters and their inner relationships in hundreds of books.

The Sweet Valley The series ended in 2003 – 20 years after its debut. But in 2011 it was resumed with Sweet Valley Confidential10 years after Sweet valley high.

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Pascal also leaves behind two daughters, six grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.