The Blockbusters Few See Them as a Literary Circle, but They Make L.A. a Book Capital of Sorts Home Edition

• Published in: The Los Angeles times
• Main Author: Rourke, Mary
• Format: Newspaper Article
• Language: English
• Published: Los Angeles, Calif Los Angeles Times Communications LLC 13.07.1988
• ISSN: 0458-3035

They are L.A's other celebrities, not screen idols or rock stars but self-described entertainers who lead glamorous lives and write best-selling books with titles as familiar as pop songs. From [Sidney Sheldon] came "Windmills of the Gods," from [Jackie Collins] "Hollywood Wives" and [Judith Krantz] is the author of "Scruples." Robbins wrote "The Carpetbaggers," and Stone completed "The Agony and the Ecstasy" while [Irving Wallace] penned "The Prize." He thinks it's ridiculous to call Sheldon, et al., the chroniclers of their place and time. "Next we'll hear that Danielle Steele is the Charles Dickens of San Francisco," he says about that city's best-selling author. But in fact Sheldon and friends are writing about the places they know, from the offices of Hollywood moguls to the boutiques of Rodeo Drive to the rock music clubs along Sunset Strip. Their steamy tales romanticize these haunts for readers around the world for whom their books are translated to foreign languages. (Sheldon's stories are reprinted in 18 foreign languages, Krantz's in 22.) And that's before the books find their way to the silver screen. Indeed most of the city's big-name fiction writers do have roots in Hollywood-the ultimate fantasy land. Robbins was a vice president for Universal Studio when he got the idea to try novel writing. Wallace, like Sheldon, turned to novels after years as a Hollywood scriptwriter. Krantz and Collins may have learned how to build a movie-like story by osmosis. Both are married to producers who have brought one or more of their wive's books to the screen.