The unwelcomed child

Raised in seclusion by fundamentalist grandparents who claim she is an evil product of her mother's sinful mistake, teenager Elle Edwards finally learns the truth about her conception and struggles with profound feelings of insecurity while pursuing a relationship with a vacationing boy.

Main Author: Andrews, V. C.
Format: Books Print Book
Language: English
Published: New York : Gallery Books, 2014.
Edition: First Gallery Books hardcover edition.
Subjects:
Summary: Raised in seclusion by fundamentalist grandparents who claim she is an evil product of her mother's sinful mistake, teenager Elle Edwards finally learns the truth about her conception and struggles with profound feelings of insecurity while pursuing a relationship with a vacationing boy.
Physical Description: 373 pages ; 23 cm
ISBN: 9781476741024 (hbk.)
1476741026 (hbk.)
Author Notes: Born on June 6, 1924 in Portsmouth, Va., Virginia Cleo ("V. C.") Andrews was one of three children of William Henry and Lillian Lilnora. Andrews worked as a commercial fashion and portrait artist for a time. However, after her father's death in the late 1960s and the family's subsequent move to Manchester, Mo, she began what she described as "closet" writing. It was her publisher's decision to use the initials V. C. rather than her full name. This was done for the purpose of neutralizing her gender so as to sell to adult male audiences; the common belief was that men did not like to read books by women writers.

Andrews eventually became a full-time writer. Her first novel was a science fiction fantasy entitled The Gods of the Green Mountains, published in 1972. In 1980, she published the bestseller Flowers in the Attic, followed by Petals on the Wind, If There Be Thorns, Seeds of Yesterday, and Garden of Shadows; all of which comprise the Dollanganger Series.

Andrews died of breast cancer on December 19, 1986, in Virginia Beach, Virginia. After her death, her family hired a ghost writer, Andrew Neiderman, to finish the manuscripts she had started. He would complete the next two novels, Garden of Shadows and Fallen Hearts, and they were published soon after. These two novels are considered the last to bear the "V. C. Andrews" name and to be almost completely written by Andrews herself. She left a legacy of books that have been sold worldwide and translated into 13 foreign languages.

(Bowker Author Biography)