Author:V. C. Andrews

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The first seven books attributed to V. C. Andrews were written by her. This includes all books through her death in 1986. It appears that Andrews was too ill to do the final editing of Dark Angel, hence some credit for that book may rightfully fall to her Pocket Books editor, Ann Patty.

The next two books appearing under this credit, Garden of Shadows and Fallen Hearts have somewhat more uncertain authorship. Traditionally, e.g. on Wikipedia, these books are said to have been written by Andrew Neiderman based on notes or outline by Andrews. However, in the text of the court case "Estate of Virginia C. Andrews, Deceased, etc., v. United States of America" (1994), the district judge makes the following findings "Niederman [...] read all of Andrews' previous works, entered the texts of those works into a computer and analyzed Andrews' writing style and her plot, style and character development techniques. Niederman then produced an outline and several pages of ghostwritten text for the prequel to Flowers In The Attic which he submitted for review by Pocket Books." By this account, there was no Andrews manuscript or even an outline for Garden of Shadows. There is, however, at least the characters and setting created by Andrews. The next two "V.C. Andrews" books are Gates of Paradise and Web of Dreams. These continue the "Casteel" series created by Andrews, but were apparently written completely by Neiderman based on, at best, characters and ideas of Andrews.

All later books attributed to V.C. Andrews were (as far as is known) written by Andrew Neiderman. The first book of the first new series, written fully outside the scope of Andrews work (but in her style) is Dawn. It includes the following full-page letter from the Andrews family:

Dear V. C. Andrews Reader

Those of us who knew and loved Virginia Andrews know that the most important things in her life were her novels. Her proudest moment came when she held in her hand the first printed copy of FLOWERS IN THE ATTIC. Virginia was a unique and gifted storyteller who wrote feverishly each and every day. She was constantly developing ideas for new stories that would eventually become novels. Second only to the pride she took in her writing was the joy she took in reading the letters from readers who were so touched by her books.

Since her death many of you have written to us wondering whether there would continue to be new V. C. Andrews novels. When Virginia became seriously ill while writing the Casteel series, she began to work even harder, hoping to finish as many stories as possible so that her fans could one day share them. Just before she died we promised ourselves that we would take all of these wonderful stories and make them available to her readers.

Beginning with the final books in the Casteel series we have been working closely with a carefully selected writer to organize and complete Virginia's stories and to expand upon them by creating additional novels inspired by her wonderful storytelling genius.

DAWN is the start of a new V. C. Andrews series. We believe it would have given her great joy to know that it will be entertaining so many of you. Other V. C. Andrews novels will be published in the coming years and we hope they continue to mean as much to you as ever.

Sincerely,
THE ANDREWS FAMILY

It is worth noting that the district judge mentioned earlier noted that the sentences about her working "harder than ever" after she became ill was "promotional", i.e. not true, and the judge even commented on "the ethics of publishing this statement".