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ANDREWS, V(irginia) C(leo) ?-1986
Source: Contemporary Authors, New Revision Series, Volume 21, editor Deborah A. Straub, Gale Research Company (Detroit, MI, ©1987). PERSONAL: Born in Portsmouth, Va.; died December 19, 1986, of cancer in Virginia Beach, Va., buried in Portsmouth, Va.; daughter of William Henry (a tool and die maker) and Lillian Lilnora (a telephone operator; maiden name, Parker) Andrews. Education: Educated in Portsmouth, Va. ADDRESSES: Home--Virginia Beach, Va. Agent--Anita Diamant, The Writers' Workshop, 310 Madison Ave., New York, N.Y. 10017. (NOTE: Please do not write to this address - it is no longer current.) CAREER: Writer. Formerly worked as a fashion illustrator, commercial artist, portrait artist, and gallery exhibitor. WRITINGS: NOVELS
WORK IN PROGRESS: A novel based in thirteenth-century France. SIDELIGHTS: V. C. Andrews' books, described by a London Times critic as "her own blend of gothic horror stories crossed with fairy tales," sold millions of copies worldwide. A tale of greed, incest, and child abuse, Andrews' first novel, Flowers in the Attic, tells the story of the four beautiful Dollanganger children. These children, the offspring of an incestuous union, are locked in an attic because if their fundamentalist grandfather learns of their existence, he will exclude their mother from his will. Forgotten by their unfeeling mother and tormented by their sadistic grandmother, the children create their own world, turning to each other for love. The saga of Dollangangers, including the children's subsequent revenge, continues in the next two books by Andrews -- Petals on the Wind and If There Be Thorns. The success of the Dollanganger trilogy is a remarkable story in itself. Released in 1979, Flowers in the Attic rocketed to the best-seller lists a mere two weeks after its publication and remained their for over fourteen weeks. When word spread that there would be a sequel to Flowers, the demand was so great that Andrews' paperback publisher, Pocket Books, advanced the publishing date by several month. The sequel, Petals on the Wind, also became an instant success, rising to the number one position and remaining on the New York Times best-seller list for nineteen weeks. Petals' popularity was so great that it even caused Flowers to reappear on the list for a brief stint. If There Be Thorns, the third part of the Dollanganger trilogy, continued Andrews' impressive track record, attaining the number two slot on most best-seller lists the second week after the release. While the books' themes of incest, misogyny, rape, and revenge have outraged some readers, others, particularly the adolescent girls who constitute the major proportion of Andrews' readership, have found the mixture irresistible. In fac, all three of the Dollanganger novels have been record breakers for Pocket Books, the first two alone selling over seven million copies within two years. Despite their overwhelming popularity, Andrews' novels have not met with proportionate critical acclaim. In her Washington Post Book World review of Flowers in the Attic, Carolyn Banks calls the book's plot "unbelievable" and its dialogue "indigestible." She adds, "The principle of selection does not seem to have entered the author's head, nor her editor's." Reviewing My Sweet Audrina in the New York Times Book Review, Eden Ross Lipson finds the storyline difficult to follow claiming: "Most of the brief sexual passages involve third parties watching in fascination, which gives things a little spin, I suppose. Nothing else makes such sense." However, not all the reviews of Andrews' novels have been so negative. Without dismissing the criticism leveled by other reviewers, some critics have found praiseworthy elements in Andrews' works. While she acknowledges that certain situations in Petals on the Wind tax credibility, Bea Maxwell, writing in the Los Angeles Times Book Review, praises Andrews' storytelling ability, particularly her skill in ensnaring her audience. "Andrews lulls the reader, then shocks and awaken," she says. Dale Pollock, another Los Angeles Times Book Review critic sees weak spots in If There Be Thorns, namely the ending, but finds the book "an absorbing narrative" in which the two speakers "emerge as credible (if pitiable) characters." Pollock also sees considerable merit in Andrews' ability to tell the story through the eyes of two adolescent boys. "Andrews excels at re-creatingthe confusion and frustration of being old enough to grasp the pieces of a family mystery, but too young to assemble the puzzle." London Times reviewer Patricia Miller seems to sum up the attitude of many of those who find themselves attracted to Andrews' books when she writes: "Virginia Andrews' writing is embarrassingly crude and naive, especially in her first books, though she has improved greatly in the course of writing four. A reviewer in the Washington Post said Flowers in the Attic was 'the worst book in the world.' I see his point, but there is a strength in her books--the bizarre plots, matched with the pathos of the entrapped, which she herself clearly feels." Andrews spoke freely of her past and, in recounting her life story, told a tale of tragedy, courage, and even the supernatural which rivals a plot from one of her novels. Crippled in her childhood as a result of medical neglect, Andrews spent most of her adolescence on crutches and as an adult remained largely confined to a wheelchair. In spite of several painful operation during her late teens, she was able to finish high school. From there she went on to complete a four year art course. In fact, before the huge success of Flowers in the Attic, Andrews supported herself quite comfortably as a commercial artist. Prior to Flowers, her career as a writer was unremarkable. Finding her work as a commercial artist unfulfilling ("I became an artist, and was still unsatisfied, for an artist is an artist, doing the same thing every day," she told CA), Andrews had been a closet writer for years, scribbling away at night in the secluded suburban home that she shared with her mother until her death. In spite of her handicap, Andrews managed to produce from thirty to forty pages a night, usually typing in bed but often writing while standing up in an awkward body brace. Despite her prodigious output, Andrews initially had little success getting her words into print. Her only sale before 1979 was a small piece in a confessions magazine. After that she wrote nine books in seven years and each of them was turned down. She remained undaunted, however, continuing to write every night. A major breakthrough occurred when she submitted a novel entitled The Obsessed to a publishing company. Editors told Andrews that the 290,000-word story showed promise but was simply too long. Encouraged, she began revising extensively and came up with a shortened 98-page version she entitled Flowers in the Attic. The turning point came when early readers of this "new" novel suggested that Andrews get "more gutsy" and give free reign to her vivid imagination. As Andrews herself remarked in a Washington Post article, she was given the green light to "deal with all those unspeakable things my mother didn't want me to write about, which was exactly what I wanted to do in the first place." She then rewrote Flowers a second time adding those libidinous elements she had originally omitted, dedicated the book to her mother, and sold the novel to Pocket Books for $7,500. In order to promote the sales of a first novel by an unknown author her editor Ann Patty, then associated with Pocket Books, instituted a massive publicity campaign, complete with complimentary preview editions, haunting radio advertisements, and aggressive in-store merchandising. This boost, combined with the book's chilling cover graphics and controversial themes, had an immediate and lasting impact on the book-buying public. The great success of Flowers in the Attic and its sequels have assured V. C. Andrews a large and faithful readership. When asked by the Washington Post's Stephen Rubin about the types of novels she writes, full of greed, incest, and horror, Andrews explained: "Why do I write about such oddball situation? Why have an imagination if you don't go that way? I guess I'm just drawn to that sort of things. I don't like everything to be explained by scientists who say there are no little green men from Mars. I don't like that. I want them to be there. I like things out of the ordinary." In response to those who charge that her books are morbid or bleak, Andrews told Rubin: "I don't think anything that appears wonderful and shiny on its surface doesn't have a dark side to it." Elaborating on this she remarked to CA, "There is no beauty without ugliness, and no enjoyment without suffering; we have to have the shade in order to see the light, and that is all I do in a story, put my characters in the shade - and try before the ending, to have them in the sunlight." When Andrews began writing one of her books, she completely immersed herself in the task. She believed so wholeheartedly in what she wrote that when one of her characters had trouble eating or sleeping, she herself could not eat or sleep. She so empathized with her characters that if one of them died, she was grief stricken. In fact, during the composition of Flowers in the Attic Andrews purportedly lost twenty of her usual 110 pounds. Another one of her quirks was to mount a mirror behind her typewriter so that she could see herself as she wrote and thus "project better." Psychic experiences played an important role in Andrews' life and writings. A firm believer in ESP and reincarnation, she claimed to have known all along that she was going to be crippled because of psychic flashes she experienced as a child. "When I was still very healthy, I saw my shadow and it had crutches," she told the London Times. Andrews' faith in the supernatural, in particular in her own dreams, was reflected in her books. As she explained to CA, "My novels are based on dreams, and situation taken from my own life, in which I change the pattern so that what might have happened actually does happen--and therein lies the tale." Andrews' great success had little effect on her work habits. She wrote each night before retiring to bed. In fact, in 1981 she told the Washington Post that she had already composed brief synopses for an additional sixty-three books. This dedication reflects Andrews' commitment to her work. As she told the Washington Post: "I always wanted to be somebody exceptional, somebody different, who did something on her own." Andrews' books have been translated into Norwegian, Swedish, Portuguese, Dutch, Hebrew, Turkish Italian, and German. MEDIA ADAPTATIONS: A movie adaptation of Flowers in the Attic was filmed by Fries Entertainment-New World Pictures in 1987. AVOCATIONAL INTERESTS: Ballet, classical music, bridge, chess astrology (for personality profiles, not predictions). BIOGRAPHICAL/CRITICAL SOURCES: PERIODICALS
Detroit Free Press, January 18, 1987. OBITUARIES: PERIODICALS
Chicago Tribune, December 22, 1986. - Sketch by Robert F. Scott Full text © 1987 Gale Research Company |
