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18 Facts About Judith McNaught

1.

Judith McNaught was born on May 10,1944 and is a bestselling author of over a dozen historical and contemporary romance novels, with 30 million copies of her works in print.

2.

Judith McNaught was the first female executive producer at a CBS radio station.

3.

Judith McNaught married a St Louis dentist and had two children, a daughter, Whitney, and a son, Clayton, before her divorce.

4.

Judith McNaught was the first female executive producer at a CBS radio station.

5.

Judith McNaught met her second husband, Michael "Mike" McNaught, while working as an assistant director for a film crew, working on a movie for a General Motors division.

6.

Judith McNaught was the director of public relations for the company.

7.

Judith McNaught's husband encouraged her to write, buying her a new typewriter and being supportive through the years that publishers rejected her novels.

8.

Whitney, My Love, the first manuscript, was finally published in 1985, after Judith McNaught had proven herself with two successful published novels.

9.

Judith McNaught's novels introduced the hero first, rather than the heroine.

10.

At the beginning of Judith McNaught's writing career, she was one of a very few authors writing for the historical romance market.

11.

Judith McNaught was one of the first romance authors to receive a multimillion-dollar contract and have her novels published in hardcover, better positioning them for review by major publications.

12.

Judith McNaught reached the New York Times Bestseller List for the first time in 1988, and all of her subsequent books have placed on the NYT Bestseller List.

13.

Appalled at the discovery that one in five women was functionally illiterate, Judith McNaught offered to rewrite her almost-completed manuscript, Perfect to insert the literacy theme.

14.

Judith McNaught chose to donate a portion of her earnings from the book to women's literacy programs and insisted that each book contain a card giving readers information on how to donate to literacy programs or to become tutors.

15.

Judith McNaught was the keynote speaker at the Romance Writers of America Conference in 1996, and in 1997, Texas Women's Monthly selected her among their four favorite authors, with John Grisham, Patricia Cornwell, and Dean Koontz.

16.

Judith McNaught has been awarded a Romantic Times Career Achievement Award and had a Number 1 New York Times Bestseller with the romantic suspense Night Whispers.

17.

Judith McNaught described the break-up as peaceful and friendly, and she threw a party for 160 friends to celebrate entering a new phase of her life.

18.

Judith McNaught is active in children's charity and with breast cancer causes, and she has recently begun promoting literacy issues.