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Harold Robbins
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{{Short description|American author}} {{Use mdy dates|date=January 2015}} {{Use American English|date=August 2011}} {{Infobox person | name = Harold Robbins | image = Harold Robbins (1979).jpg | image_size = <!-- only if smaller than default size --> | alt = | caption = Harold Robbins (1979) | birth_name = Francis Kane<ref name="nytimes.com"/><br>Harold Rubin<ref>[https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/educational-magazines/robbins-harold-1916-1997 Robbins, Harold 1916-1997 (Francis Kane, Harold Rubin)] [[Encyclopedia.com]]. Retrieved October 3, 2023.</ref> | birth_date = {{birth date|mf=yes|1916|5|21}} | birth_place = {{nowrap|[[New York City|New York]], [[New York (state)|New York]], U.S.}} | death_date = {{death date and age|mf=yes|1997|10|14|1916|5|21}} | death_place = [[Palm Springs, California]], U.S. | resting_place = [[Forest Lawn Cemetery (Cathedral City)|Forest Lawn Cemetery]], [[Cathedral City, California]] | occupation = Author | spouse = Lillian Machnivitz (1937–1962; divorced)<br>Grace Palermo (1965–1992; divorced)<br>Jann Stapp (1992–1997, his death) }} '''Harold Robbins''' (May 21, 1916 – October 14, 1997) was an American author. One of the [[List of best-selling fiction authors|best-selling writers of all time]], he wrote over 25 best-sellers, selling over 750 million copies in 32 languages. ==Early life== Robbins was born Harold Rubin in New York City in 1916, the son of Frances "Fannie" Smith and Charles Rubin. His parents were well-educated Jewish emigrants from the [[Russian Empire]], his father from [[Odessa]] and his mother from Neshwies ([[Nyasvizh]]), south of [[Minsk]]. Robbins later falsely claimed to be a Jewish orphan who had been raised in a Catholic boys' home.<ref name=wilson>{{cite book| last=Wilson| first=Andrew| title=Harold Robbins: The Man Who Invented Sex| date=January 11, 2011| pages=7, 14| publisher=[[Bloomsbury Publishing]]| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=T4347c2YS18C&pg=PA7| isbn=978-1608196586| access-date=September 16, 2020}}</ref><ref name="kirjasto">{{cite web |url=http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/robbins.htm |title=Harold Robbins |website=Books and Writers (kirjasto.sci.fi) |first=Petri |last=Liukkonen |publisher=[[Kuusankoski]] Public Library |location=Finland |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131014101147/http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/robbins.htm |archive-date=October 14, 2013 |url-status=dead}}</ref> Instead he was raised by his father, a pharmacist, and his stepmother, Blanche, in [[Brooklyn]].<ref name=wilson/> Robbins dropped out of high school at 15 to enlist in the [[United States Navy|U.S. Navy]].<ref name="guardian 1970 interview">[https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/jan/17/harold-robbins-interview-gide-mann-and-me-1970 Harold Robbins interview: Gide, Mann and me - archive, 1970] ''[[The Guardian]]''. Retrieved October 3, 2023.</ref> He claimed to have served on a submarine that was torpedoed, leaving him as the sole survivor;<ref name="hollywoodreporter">[https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/lifestyle/lifestyle-news/revisiting-harold-robbins-forgotten-dirty-old-man-american-letters-1221836/ Revisiting Harold Robbins, the Forgotten “Dirty Old Man of American Letters”] ''[[The Hollywood Reporter]]''. Retrieved October 3, 2023.</ref><ref name="nytjanetmaslin">[https://web.archive.org/web/20150605053816/https://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/15/arts/15masl.html Never Enough: A Writer’s Life of Sex, Drugs and Excess] ''[[The New York Times]]'' via [[Internet Archive]]. Retrieved October 3, 2023.</ref> in fact, no U.S. submarines were torpedoed during the 1930s.{{cn|date=April 2025}} Robbins worked a variety of jobs, including errand boy, [[bookmaker|bookies']] runner, and inventory clerk in a grocers. He was employed by [[Universal Pictures]] from 1940 to 1957, starting off as a clerk and rising to an executive.<ref name="nytimes.com" /> ==Work== His first book was ''[[Never Love a Stranger]]'' (1948). ''[[The Dream Merchants (novel)|The Dream Merchants]]'' (1949) was a novel about the [[American film industry]], from its beginning to the [[sound film|sound era]] in which Robbins blended his own life experiences with history, melodrama, sex, and glossy high society into a fast-moving story. His 1952 novel, ''[[A Stone for Danny Fisher]],'' was adapted into a 1958 motion picture ''[[King Creole]]'', which starred [[Elvis Presley]].<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20150605075450/https://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/21/books/review/Carson-t.html Harold Robbins: The Man Who Invented Sex] ''[[The New York Times]]'' via [[Internet Archive]]. Retrieved October 3, 2023.</ref> Among his best-known books is ''[[The Carpetbaggers]]'' (1961) – featuring a protagonist who was a loose composite of [[Howard Hughes]], [[Bill Lear]], [[Harry Cohn]], and [[Louis B. Mayer]].<ref>{{cite magazine |title=A Tour through the Harold Robbins Industry |first=Thomas |last=Thompson |magazine=[[Life (magazine)|Life]] |date=December 8, 1967 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3EwEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA52 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref> ''The Carpetbaggers'' takes the reader from New York to [[California]], from the prosperity of the [[aeronautics|aeronautical industry]] to the glamor of Hollywood. Its sequel, ''The Raiders'', was released in 1995. Film producer [[Joseph E. Levine]] acquired the rights to ''The Carpetbaggers'' in September 1962 and produced the [[The Carpetbaggers (film)|1964 film]].<ref>{{cite magazine |title=Levine Makes Sound Deal With Paramount|url=https://archive.org/details/boxofficejanmar182boxo/page/n161/mode/1up?view=theater|page=6|magazine=Boxoffice |date=January 28, 1963 |access-date=February 21, 2024 |via=[[Internet Archive]]}}</ref> He also acquired the rights to Robbins's next book ''Where Love Has Gone'' (1962) with the [[Where Love Has Gone (film)|film version]] also released in 1964.<ref name=Levine>{{cite magazine|magazine=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]|date=September 18, 1963|page=3|title=That Money Writer, Harold Robbins, Sells Third (Unwritten) To Levine|url=https://archive.org/details/sim_variety_1963-09-18_232_4/page/3/mode/1up?view=theater|access-date=February 20, 2024|via=[[Internet Archive]]}}</ref> In 1963, Levine paid Robbins $1 million for pre-publication and film rights for Robbins's upcoming book ''The Adventurers''.<ref name=Levine/> The book was released in 1966 and was based on Robbins's experiences living in [[South America]], including three months spent in the mountains of [[Colombia]] with a group of bandits. The [[The Adventurers (1970 film)|film version]] was released in 1970. Robbins also created the [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]] television series ''[[Harold Robbins' The Survivors|The Survivors]]'' (1969–1970), starring [[Ralph Bellamy]] and [[Lana Turner]].{{citation needed|date=May 2021}} Robbins's editors included Cynthia White and [[Michael Korda]] and his literary agent was Paul Gitlin.<ref name=Another>{{cite book| last1=Korda| first1=Michael| title=Another life: a memoir of other people| url=https://archive.org/details/anotherlifememoi00kord|url-access=registration| date=1999| publisher=Random House| location=New York| isbn=978-0679456599| edition=1st}}</ref> In July 1989, Robbins was involved in a literary controversy when the trade periodical ''[[Publishers Weekly]]'' revealed that around four pages from Robbins's novel ''The Pirate'' (1974) had been lifted without permission and integrated into [[Kathy Acker]]'s novel ''The Adult Life of Toulouse Lautrec'' (1975), which had recently been re-published in the UK in a selection of early works by Acker titled ''Young Lust'' (1989).<ref name=guardian>{{cite news| last=Kraus| first=Chris| date=August 19, 2017| title=Sex, tattle and soul: how Kathy Acker shocked and seduced the literary world| newspaper=[[The Guardian]]| location=London| url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/aug/19/sex-tattle-and-soul-how-kathy-acker-shocked-and-seduced-the-literary-world| access-date=September 27, 2017}}</ref><ref name=Kraus>{{cite book| last=Kraus| first=Chris| date=August 18, 2017| title=After Kathy Acker: A Literary Biography| publisher=[[Semiotext(e)]] | isbn=978-0241318065}}</ref>{{rp|page=232}} After Paul Gitlin saw the exposé in ''Publishers Weekly'', he informed Robbins's UK publisher, [[Hodder & Stoughton]], who requested that Acker's publisher [[Allen_%26_Unwin|Unwin Hyman]] withdraw and pulp ''Young Lust''. Representatives for the novelist explained that Acker was well known for her deliberate use of literary [[Appropriation (art)|appropriation]]<ref name=guardian/><ref name=Kraus/>{{rp|page=234}}—or [[bricolage]], a [[postmodern]] technique akin to [[plagiarism]] in which fragments of pre-existing works are combined along with original writings to create new literary works. After an intervention by [[William S. Burroughs]]—a novelist who used appropriation in his own works of the 1960s—Robbins issued a statement to give Acker retroactive permission to appropriate from his work, avoiding legal action on his publisher's part.<ref name=guardian/><ref name=Kraus/>{{rp|pages=234–5}} Since his death, several new books have been published, written by [[ghostwriter]]s and based on Robbins's own notes and unfinished stories. In several of these books, [[Junius Podrug]] has been credited as co-writer. From the Hodder & Stoughton 2008 edition of ''The Carpetbaggers'' "about the author" section: {{Quote | Robbins was the playboy of his day and a master of publicity. He was a renowned novelist but tales of his own life contain even more fiction than his books. What is known is that with reported worldwide sales of 750 million, Harold Robbins sold more books than [[J.K. Rowling]], earned and spent $50m during his lifetime, and was as much a part of the sexual and social revolution as the [[birth control pill|pill]], [[Playboy]] and [[cannabis (drug)|pot]]. In March 1965, he had three novels on the British paperback bestseller list – ''Where Love Has Gone'' at No.1, ''The Carpetbaggers'' at No.3 and ''The Dream Merchants'' in the sixth spot.}} == In popular culture == Robbins is mentioned (with [[Jacqueline Susann]]) in ''[[Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home]]'' by Admiral [[James T. Kirk]], as archetypal 20th century writers, whom his first officer [[Spock]] recognizes as "the giants". Robbins is also mentioned by name by [[Basil Fawlty]] in the ''[[Fawlty Towers]]'' episode "Waldorf Salad"; he refers to Robbins's work as "transatlantic tripe, a sort of pornographic muzak". The band [[Squeeze (band)|Squeeze]] mentions "a Harold Robbins paperback" in their song "[[Pulling Mussels (From The Shell)]]". The band [[Sleeper (band)|Sleeper]] also state that a character in their song "[[Inbetweener (song)|Inbetweener"]], "reads Howard Robbins". In [[Roger Corman]]'s 1970 post-apocalyptic ''[[Gas! -Or- It Became Necessary to Destroy the World in Order to Save It.]]'', a young couple uses a public library's copies of the collected works of [[Jacqueline Susann]] (who took inspiration from Robbins in writing her first novel in ''[[Valley of the Dolls (novel)|Valley of the Dolls]]''){{Citation needed|date=November 2022}} as kindling after the woman's initial objection to burning library books to keep warm. She says, "OK, but what if we run out?" Her boyfriend says, "Don't worry, there's an entire shelf full of Harold Robbins." In the movie ''[[Educating Rita (film)|Educating Rita]]'', Dr Bryant, played by [[Michael Caine]] said he doubts that the examiner of the English Literature course has read ''[[Where Love Has Gone (novel)|Where Love Has Gone]]''. ==Personal life== Robbins was married three times, first to his high school sweetheart, Lillian Machnivitz.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Pleasure Principle |url=http://books.guardian.co.uk/reviews/biography/0,,2208540,00.html |newspaper=The Guardian |last=Morrison |first=Blake |date=November 10, 2007 |access-date=2015-01-22}}</ref> In 1965 he wed Grace Palermo, who went on to pen an account of her life with Robbins in 2013.<ref>[https://www.theguardian.com/books/2007/oct/14/biography.features ''The Guardian'']</ref> Divorced in the early 1990s,<ref>{{cite book| title=Cinderella and the Carpetbagger: My Life as the Wife of the "World's Best-Selling Author," Harold Robbins| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0oHDNAEACAAJ&q=Cinderella+and+the+Carpetbagger:+:+My+Life+as+the+Wife+of+the+%22World%27s+Best-Selling+Author,%22+Harold+Robbins| year=2013| last=Robbins| first=Grace| publisher=Bettie Youngs Books| isbn=978-0988284838}}</ref> Robbins married Jann Stapp in 1992; they remained together until his death.<ref name="nytimes.com"/> He spent a great deal of time on the [[French Riviera]] and at [[Monte Carlo]] until his death from respiratory heart failure, at the age of 81 in [[Palm Springs, California]].<ref name="nytimes.com">[https://web.archive.org/web/20150709064251/https://www.nytimes.com/1997/10/15/books/harold-robbins-81-dies-wrote-best-sellers-brimming-with-sex-money-and-power.html Harold Robbins, 81, Dies; Wrote Best Sellers Brimming With Sex, Money and Power] ''[[The New York Times]]'' via [[Internet Archive]]. Retrieved October 3, 2023.</ref> His cremated remains are interred at [[Forest Lawn Cemetery (Cathedral City)|Forest Lawn Cemetery]] in Cathedral City.<ref>{{cite book| title=Resting Places: The Burial Sites of More Than 14,000 Famous Persons| edition=3d| page=634| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7-DgDAAAQBAJ&q=harold+robbins+forest+lawn&pg=PA634| last=Wilson| first=Scott| date=August 22, 2016| publisher=McFarland| isbn=978-0786479924| access-date=September 16, 2020}}</ref> Robbins has a star on the [[Hollywood Walk of Fame]] at 6743 Hollywood Boulevard. ==Novels== {{Div col}} * ''Never Love a Stranger'', 1948 (made into [[Never Love a Stranger|the 1958 film]]) * ''[[The Dream Merchants (novel)|The Dream Merchants]]'', 1949 (made into a 1980 TV miniseries) * ''[[A Stone for Danny Fisher]]'', 1952 (made into the 1958 film ''[[King Creole]]'') * ''Never Leave Me'', 1953 * ''79 Park Avenue'', 1955 (made into [[79 Park Avenue|the 1977 TV miniseries]]) * ''Stiletto'', 1960 (made into [[Stiletto (1969 film)|the 1969 film]]) * ''[[The Carpetbaggers]]'', 1961 (made into both [[The Carpetbaggers (film)|the 1964 film of the same name]] and the 1966 film ''[[Nevada Smith]]'') * ''[[Where Love Has Gone (novel)|Where Love Has Gone]]'', 1962 (made into [[Where Love Has Gone (film)|the 1964 film]]) * ''The Adventurers'', 1966 (made into [[The Adventurers (1970 film)|the 1970 film]]) * ''The Inheritors'', 1969 * ''The Betsy'', 1971 (made into [[The Betsy|the 1978 film]]) * ''The Pirate'', 1974 (made into [[The Pirate (1978 film)|the 1978 TV movie]]) * ''The Lonely Lady'', 1976 (made into [[The Lonely Lady|the 1983 film]]) * ''Dreams Die First'', 1977 * ''Memories of Another Day'', 1979 * ''[[Goodbye, Janette]]'', 1981 * ''The Storyteller'', 1982 * ''Spellbinder'', 1982 * ''Descent from Xanadu'', 1984 * ''The Piranhas'', 1986 * ''The Raiders'', 1995 (sequel to ''The Carpetbaggers'') * ''The Stallion'', 1996 (sequel to ''The Betsy'') * ''[[Tycoon (novel)|Tycoon]]'', 1997 ===Posthumously published novels credited to Robbins=== Works bearing Robbins name continued to appear after his death. The earliest three posthumous Harold Robbins novels (''The Predators'' (1998), ''The Secret'' (2000) and ''Never Enough'' (2001) are generally thought to have been completed by ghostwriters, but may have been partially or even substantially based on completed work or notes written by Robbins.{{cn|date=July 2022}} [[Junius Podrug]] has been identified as the uncredited ghostwriter of ''Sin City'' (2002) and ''Heat of Passion'' (2003). From 2004-2011, a series of novels credited to Robbins and Podrug appeared, although they are strictly the work of Podrug, writing in Robbins's style.{{cn|date=July 2022}} * ''The Predators'', 1998 * ''The Secret'', 2000 (sequel to ''The Predators'') * ''Never Enough'', 2001 * ''Sin City'', 2002 * ''Heat of Passion'', 2003 * ''The Betrayers'' (with [[Junius Podrug]]), 2004 * ''Blood Royal'' (with Junius Podrug), 2005 * ''The Devil to Pay'' (with Junius Podrug), 2006 * ''The Looters'' (with Junius Podrug), 2007, Madison Dupree No. 1 * ''The Deceivers'' (with Junius Podrug), 2008, Madison Dupree No. 2 * ''The Shroud'' (with Junius Podrug), 2009, Madison Dupree No. 3 * ''The Curse'' (with Junius Podrug), 2011, Madison Dupree No. 4 {{div col end}} ==References== {{Reflist}} ==External links== * {{iblist|type=author|id=5148|name=Harold Robbins}} * {{IMDb name|730356}} {{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Robbins, Harold}} [[Category:1916 births]] [[Category:1997 deaths]] [[Category:20th-century American Jews]] [[Category:20th-century American male writers]] [[Category:20th-century American novelists]] [[Category:American erotica writers]] [[Category:American male novelists]] [[Category:Burials at Forest Lawn Cemetery (Cathedral City)]] [[Category:Deaths from respiratory failure]] [[Category:Jewish American military personnel]] [[Category:Jewish American novelists]] [[Category:Military personnel from New York City]] [[Category:Military personnel from New York (state)]] [[Category:Novelists from California]] [[Category:Novelists from New York (state)]] [[Category:United States Navy sailors]] [[Category:Writers from New York City]] [[Category:Writers from Palm Springs, California]]
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