Rogers, Rosemary 1932–

PERSONAL: Born December 7, 1932, in Panadura, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka); came to the United States, 1962; naturalized U.S. citizen; daughter of Cyril Allan (an owner and manager of a private school) and Barbara Jansze; married Summa Navaratnam (divorced); married Leroy Rogers (divorced); married Christopher Kadison (a poet); children: (first marriage) Rosanne, Sharon; (second marriage) Michael, Adam; (third marriage) Christopher Kadison. Education: University of Ceylon, B.A. Politics: Democrat. Religion: Episcopalian. Hobbies and other interests: Reading, music, watching some sports (especially football), printing, cooking, opera, and dancing.

ADDRESSES: Home—CT. Agent—c/o Author Mail, Harlequin Enterprises Ltd., Mira Books, 225 Duncan Mill Rd., Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.

CAREER: Associated Newspapers of Ceylon, Colombo, writer of features and public affairs information, 1959–62; Travis Air Force Base, Fairfield, CA, secretary in billeting office, 1964–69; Solano County Parks Department, Fairfield, secretary, 1969–74; writer. Part-time reporter for Fairfield Daily Republic.

MEMBER: Authors Guild, Authors League of America, Writers Guild.

WRITINGS:

ROMANCE NOVELS

Sweet Savage Love, Avon (New York, NY), 1974.

The Wildest Heart, Avon (New York, NY), 1974.

Dark Fires, Avon (New York, NY), 1975.

Wicked Loving Lies, Avon (New York, NY), 1976.

The Crowd Pleasers, Avon (New York, NY), 1978.

The Insiders, Avon (New York, NY), 1979.

Lost Love, Last Love, Avon (New York, NY), 1980.

Love Play, Avon (New York, NY), 1981.

Surrender to Love, Avon (New York, NY), 1982.

The Wanton, Avon (New York, NY), 1985.

Bound by Desire, Avon (New York, NY), 1988.

The Tea Planter's Bride, Avon (New York, NY), 1995.

A Dangerous Man, Avon (New York, NY), 1996.

Dark Fires, Book 2, Avon (New York, NY), 1996.

All I Desire, Avon (New York, NY), 1999.

A Reckless Encounter, Mira (Buffalo, NY), 2001.

Savage Desire, Mira (Buffalo, NY), 2001.

An Honorable Man, Mira (Don Mills, Ontario, Canada), 2002.

Return to Me, Mira (Don Mills, Ontario, Canada), 2003.

Jewel of My Heart, Mira (Don Mills, Ontario, Canada), 2004.

Sapphire, Mira (Don Mills, Ontario, Canada), 2005.

Rogers's works have been translated into eleven languages.

NONFICTION

(Coauthor) Saints Preserve Us!: Everything You Need to Know about Every Saint You'll Ever Need, Random House (New York, NY), 1993.

(With Sean Kelly) Who in Hell—: A Guide to the Whole Damned Bunch, Villard (New York, NY), 1996.

(With Linda Stasi) Boomer Babes: A Woman's Guide to the New Middle Ages, St. Martin's (New York, NY), 1998.

(With Kelly) How to Be Irish (Even If You Already Are), Villard (New York, NY), 1999.

(With Kelly) The Birthday Book of Saints: Your Powerful Personal Patrons of Every Blessed Day of the Year, Villard (New York, NY), 2001.

(With Neil Rogers Michlin and Christine Ernst Bode) Mother-Daughter Movies: 101 Films to See Together, St. Martin's Griffin (New York, NY), 2004.

Contributor to magazines, including Good Housekeeping and Star.

SIDELIGHTS: Rosemary Rogers, who writes lengthy historical and contemporary romances, has helped change the course of the genre by adding a new element: explicit sex in the previously G-rated love scenes. Kathryn Falk related in Love's Leading Ladies: "When Rosemary used to read historical novels as a young girl she often wondered why they didn't say a little more in the love scenes. 'Not that you want to be clinical like a sex manual,' [Rogers] explains. 'But I always felt you can go into a bit of detail and at the same time you can leave a little to the imagination.' This is what she attempts to do." An essayist for Twentieth-Century Romance and Historical Writers called Rogers "one of today's most popular romance writers."

Formerly, romance novels required a virginal heroine who remained chaste until she married the hero, which usually occurred at the novel's conclusion. The beginnings of Rogers' books generally follow the traditional format. But before long, the hero forcefully awakens the heroine to her dormant passions. Rogers' formula has sold over fifty million copies of her books worldwide, disproving the theory that romances are "women's novels." Rogers includes men among her readers, some in unlikely places. "I have fan clubs in half the federal penitentiaries around the country!" she told Contemporary Authors interviewer Jean W. Ross.

"She's one author who looks and lives like one of her heroines," suggested Tom Huff, who was quoted in Love's Leading Ladies. Rogers grew up in an environment similar to those depicted in her books. Her father owned and managed a group of private schools in Ceylon, and his eldest daughter was raised in a world of servants, chaperones, and European excursions. She wrote her first short story at the age of eight, read voraciously, and as a teenager wrote novels for pleasure. "At seventeen, initiating the pattern her heroines now follow, Rosemary rebelled against a feudal upbringing," wrote a Time reporter. Rogers' rebellion took the form of being the first woman in her family to get a job. She became a feature writer for a Ceylon newspaper and worked there for three years. Marrying a track star, a divorce soon followed; she married again, this time to Air Force Sergeant Leroy Rogers. The pair eventually moved to California, where she raised four children and continued to write. "Right through bringing up my own kids, through diaper time, instead of watching TV, I'd write stories," she told Falk.

When her second marriage also ended, Rogers was left trying to support her family on a secretary's salary of 4,200 dollars a year. About this time, her parents came to live with her after fleeing the Marxist rebellion in Ceylon. In order to survive economically, Rogers decided to market one of her old stories, eventually rewriting it twenty-four times before sending the 636-page manuscript to Avon Books, whose name her daughter had found on the first page of Writer's Market. It arrived on editor Nancy Coffey's desk in the wake of Avon's successful publishing of The Flame and the Flower by Kathleen Woodiwiss. Recognizing another potential bestseller, Avon immediately offered Rogers a contract.

The novel was published as Sweet Savage Love and Rogers promptly followed it up with another bestseller, Dark Fires. The first two books, plus a third, Lost Love, Last Love, relate the lengthy, passionate, and sometimes violent romance between Steven Morgan, a womanizing adventurer, and Virginia Brandon, the spirited, initially virginal, heroine. While the public reacted enthusiastically to the books, critics were often less pleased. Charles Madigan commented on Lost Love, Last Love in the Chicago Tribune: "Basically, it's about sex. Almost everyone in this 378-page book is interested in sex. Steve and Ginny, for example, mate with regularity…. Steve also couples with many other women, too. They are his mistresses." The word romance does not always denote moonlight and chivalry, either. "[Steve] never kisses Ginny; he lays such a lip lock on her that he almost breaks her neck. And Ginny, hey. She loves it," Madigan continued. Some critics have even labeled her books as pornographic. Rogers disagrees, once explaining to CA that she does not write pornography. She stated that her novels "are more like morality plays—exposing life the way it is."

Rape is a common and recurring theme in Rogers' novels. In an interview with Patricia Goldstone for the Los Angeles Times she said of her heroines: "They end up getting raped a lot because, historically speaking, that's what happened to any woman who went out on her own." "My heroines are partly me, partly women I have known or read about," Rogers told Goldstone. "They are Woman." A West Coast Review of Books contributor described the heroine of The Wanton a little differently, calling her "a beautiful and highly intelligent young woman, who is nevertheless the prisoner of her base passions and desires."

In her 2001 novel A Reckless Encounter, Rogers tells of Celia St. Remy Sinclair, who seeks revenge on Lord Northington for raping her mother. But Celia falls in love with Lord Northington's son, Colter, who works as a government spy. A Publishers Weekly critic noted a few historical inaccuracies in the novel, but admitted that Rogers's works "are better known for their sensuality [and] her diehard readers will readily consume" A Reckless Encounter. John Charles remarked in Booklist that the plot "may sound familiar," but "Rogers serves it up with a polished flair."

Set in the Civil War era South, An Honorable Man finds twenty-three-year-old Cameron Campbell, the spoiled and sheltered daughter of a Mississippi senator, still nursing the grudge against handsome blockage runner Captain Jackson Logan, who broke her young heart six years earlier. When Logan returns on a mysterious mission with warnings of the impending Civil War, Cameron's ire is rekindled. Worse, she finds out that Logan intends to stay at their family plantation, Elmwood, for a few days before moving on. The senator intends to send Cameron north while declaring his support of the Union, knowing full well the problems his stance will cause him. As Logan undertakes a mysterious mission involving the senator, Cameron's ill-will is bolstered by Logan's seeming dedication to his advancement above all else. As for Logan himself, he realizes that he has not forgotten the young senator's daughter after all, but knows that his mission will make it difficult to let Cameron know how he really feels about her. Complicating matters is Cameron's brother, the evil Grant, who perpetuates murder and villainy in the name of the Confederacy. Booklist reviewer Patty Engelmann called the novel an "old-fashioned romance with modern thoughts about women, slavery, sex, and an updated version of the South."

In Jewel of My Heart, Madison Westcott is a painter in late nineteenth-century London who is more interested in her work than in attending society parties at her mother's behest. When her Aunt Kendra visits from Jamaica, Madison is persuaded to display some of her work, but the subject matter of her artwork is so offensive that she is immediately sent away to Jamaica with her aunt. Happy to leave stuffy London society and pleased at the chance to get better acquainted with her aunt, Madison enjoys the attention of two gentlemen. Jefford Harris is a staid and conservative sort who constantly has words of criticism for Madison. Lord Thromblin, however, is a roguish sort who catches Madison's attention and incites horror in her aunt. Unrest in Jamaica force them to head to India, where Madison's true feelings become known. With this book, Rogers "gives her many readers the romance they anticipate along with lush scenery and romantic locations," remarked Engelmann in another Booklist review.

After her mother's death, the eponymous protagonist of Sapphire leaves Martinique and sets out to England to find the Earl of Wessex, her real father. Accompanied by her adopted sister and godmother, Sapphire discovers that the Earl is dead and that an American cousin, Blake Thixton, has inherited the title that rightfully belongs to her. When the new earl refuses to honor her claim to the title, Sapphire's godmother hatches an unlikely plan to force Thixton to acknowledge her. Unexpectedly, Thixton asks Sapphire to be his mistress, and even Sapphire is surprised to realized that she may well accept the earl's unconventional offer. Rogers's novel contains the same elements of bold hero, unconventional heroine, and steamy plot "that first made this genre wildly popular in the early 1980s," observed John Charles in Booklist.

Many critics have felt that Rogers's books provide an escape from life's everyday monotony. Madigan, describing a woman reading her Rogers novel at the laundromat, wrote: "You are carried from the drudgery of the Buck-a-wash, from the rhythmic pounding of that washing machine and the whirring of those dryers and that offensive smell of bleach to a world of magnolias and women who smell like flowers and men who are so dashing you would never expect to meet one in the laundromat." The essayist for Twentieth-Century Romance and Historical Writers believed that Roger's novels "follow a predictable pattern yet the plots are often intricate and imaginative, and are built on a foundation of vivid, often witty dialogue."

Rogers herself has undergone a Cinderella-type transformation with her success as a romance writer. Washington Post writer Elisabeth Busmiller described the now fulltime author, who is also a grandmother, this way: "She looks exactly as you would expect: Minkwrapped (black, by Chloe) and jewelry-draped (one bracelet, two earrings, three necklaces and eight rings …). She is … tall, thin, olive-skinned, with cascading dark hair and full lips." Rogers now has two homes in California (one on Big Sur) and another home in Manhattan. She prefers to work at night, with music playing in the background.

Rogers told Falk: "The basic thing is the chemistry…. If you have the attraction, then wherever you are becomes romantic. Society overdoes the candlelight, atmosphere bit. Love is a much abused word, nowadays. I believe in attraction at first sight, but love is precious and doesn't come too easily. It has a lot to do with liking. For love to last, it has to involve liking, friendship, and communication." What kind of book does she prefer to read? "I like something I can sink my teeth into," she added. "Something with action, mystery, and suspense."

Unfavorable critical reviews do not bother Rogers too much; she is content with her enthusiastic audience. "I could never do things to please critics or an intellectual coterie," she told a Time reporter. "I write to please ordinary people—I write the kinds of books I want to read."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Authors in the News, Volume 1, Thomson Gale (Detroit, MI), 1976.

Contemporary Popular Writers, St. James Press (Detroit, MI), 1997.

Falk, Kathryn, Love's Leading Ladies, Pinnacle Books (New York, NY), 1982.

Twentieth-Century Romance and Historical Writers, 3rd edition, St. James Press (Detroit, MI), 1994.

PERIODICALS

Booklist, December 1, 2001, John Charles, review of A Reckless Encounter, p. 635; November 15, 2002, Patty Engelmann, review of An Honorable Man, p. 583; December 15, 2004, Patty Engelmann, review of Jewel of My Heart, p. 714; January 1, 2006, John Charles, review of Sapphire, p. 71.

Chicago Tribune, June 14, 1981, Charles Madigan, review of Lost Love, Last Love.

Library Journal, February 15, 2001, review of Savage Desire, p. 153; April 15, 2004, Mirela Roncevic, review of Mother-Daughter Movies: 101 Films to See Together, p. 110.

Los Angeles Times, February 11, 1981, Patricia Goldstone, "Rogers Says Writing Is Her Escape Valve," interview with Rosemary Rogers, p. H1.

Publishers Weekly, January 29, 1988, review of Bound by Desire, p. 425; May 8, 1995, p. 24; November 5, 2001, review of A Reckless Encounter, p. 47; November 18, 2002, review of An Honorable Man, p. 47.

Romance Reader, January 7, 1999, review of All I Desire.

Washington Post, May 22, 1980, Elisabeth Busmiller, "Mistress Pulp," interview with Rosemary Rogers, p. C1.

West Coast Review of Books, July, 1985, review of The Wanton; Volume 13, number 6, 1988, review of Bound by Desire, p. 26.

ONLINE

Fantastic Fiction Web site, http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/ (June 4, 2006), biography of Rosemary Rogers.