Kathleen E. Woodiwiss

Kathleen E. Woodiwiss is credited with pioneering the historical romance genre with her 1972 novel, The Flame and the Flower. Many of today’s contemporary authors cite Woodiwiss as inspiration. She was born Kathleen Erin Hogg in 1939 in Alexandria, Louisiana. She was the youngest of eight children. She married U.S. Air Force Second Lieutenant Ross Eugene Woodiwiss in 1956. She and her husband spent three years in Japan become moving back to the U.S. During this time, she tried to write a novel several times, but became frustrated at length of time it took to write longhand. She ended up appropriating her husband’s electric typewriter to write.

Her first novel, The Flame and the Flower, was rejected many times over for its length – 600 pages. Instead of editing her story, she instead submitted it to paperback publishers. Avon quickly published the novel. The Flame and the Flower was ground-breaking because it featured a strong heroine and actual sex scenes. It sold over 2.3 million copies. She is beloved by her readers by the quality of her work. She was able to publish 12 bestselling novels before her death from cancer in 2007.