(Gritty, compelling, and groundbreaking for its time, A St...)
Gritty, compelling, and groundbreaking for its time, A Stone for Danny Fisher is a tale of ambition, hope, and violence set in a distinct and dangerous period of American history.
Harold Robbins was an American popular novelist. His novels about relationships, money and power were scorned by critics and loved by readers.
Background
Ethnicity:
His parents were Russian- and Polish-Jewish immigrants.
Harold Robbins was born on May 21, 1916, in New York City, New York, United States. Robbins was raised in Brooklyn, by his father, who was a pharmacist, and by his stepmother.
Education
Robbins was educated at the George Washington High School, but he dropped out of high school.
Career
Robbins began to work and at age of nineteen, borrowed eight hundred dollars and made a lot of money on crop futures. But he lost the money by the time he was twenty and took a clerk job at Universal Pictures’ New York warehouse. He rose to become budget director. It was during this period that Robbins started writing in his spare time. His first effort, Never Love a Stranger (1948), was a bestseller. The first book that got attention from critics was A Stone for Danny Fisher (1952).
Robbins stayed at Universal as an executive until 1957. From that year, Robbins worked as a full-time writer, producing usually 5000 words a day. After Danny Fisher came Never Leave Me (1953), 79 Park Avenue (1955), Stiletto (1960), Where Love Has Gone (1962), The Adventurers (1966), The Inheritors (1969), The Betsy (1971), The Pirate (1974), The Lonely Lady (1976), Dreams Die First (1977), Memories of Another Day (1979), Goodbye, Janette (1981), Spellbinder (1982), Descent From Xanadu (1984), The Storyteller (1985), The Piranhas (1991), The Raiders (1994), The Stallion (1996), and Tycoon (1997). As Robbins’ publications continued, many critics chided the books by saying they were too gossipy, the characters shallow.
Robbins wrote twenty-three novels, in general. His typical novel includes profiles of powerful men and women, and incorporates a liberal use of sex scenes and decadent lifestyles. He also wrote novels in the style of the Depression era, usually about a street kid who does good.
At one point of his life, Robbins owned 14 cars, a 85ft yacht, and had houses in Beverly Hills, Acapulco, and the South of France. And he had no fear of being photographed wearing multicoloured striped trousers, a lilac hat, and giant sunglasses. From 1982, Robbins was obliged to use a wheelchair due to emphysema and a cocaine-induced stroke, but he continued writing.
Robbins was the playboy of his day and a master of publicity.
Connections
Robbins was married three times. He married Lillian Machnivitz in 1937; the marriage was childless, but he had two illegitimate daughters. The couple divorced in 1962 and three years later Robbins married Grace Palermo. That marriage ended in divorce, as well. Finally, in 1992, Robbins married Jann Stapp.