Author Belva Plain dies at 95

Novelist Belva Plain, the author of 20 books about several generations of Jewish-American families, has died.

Plain died Oct. 12 at her home in New Jersey. She was 95.

Plain became a best-selling author as a grandmother at the age of 59 with her first novel, “Evergreen,” which spent a combined total of 61 weeks on The New York Times best-seller list in hardback and paperback. Twenty of her novels have appeared on the Times list. More than 25 million copies of her books are in print. 

The author, born in New York City, was a third-generation American of German Jewish descent. A graduate of Barnard College, she sold her first story to Cosmopolitan magazine at the age of 25.

Plain wrote her books in longhand in notebooks using detailed outlines as a reference, according to the Times.

Shortly before her death, Plain completed a sequel to “Evergreen,” which will be published in February, The Associated Press reported.