Celeste De Blasis
Celeste De Blasis (1946–2001) was a successful American author of historical romance novels. Biography. Celeste N. De Blasis was born on May 8, 1946, in Santa Monica, California. She grew up at the Kemper Campbell Ranch in Victorville, California in the high Mojave Desert. She attended Wellesley College, later transferred to Oregon State University, and in 1968 was graduated from Pomona College where her longing to be back home at the ranch had drawn her. She continued to live on the ranch until her death from complications associated with lupus erythematosus on April 13, 2001. Celeste De  Blasis was published in a number of poetry magazines, including "Manifold" (London), "Kauri", and "Sandcutters". In 1969 she was given the Southern Division National League of PEN Women Award for Letters for her poetry. In 1975, De Blasis published her first novel, "The Night Child". It was followed the next year by "Suffer A Sea Change" (1976). Her third book, "The Proud Breed" (1978) was about the pride of being a Californian. Of the novel, De Blasis observed, "This story is very dear to me, and the need to write it came from the demands of pride. I grew up  in an educational system that taught me more about the eastern seaboard than I needed to know and almost nothing about California...and the paucity of that history grew to be more and more galling. In the writing of "The Proud Breed" I have discovered what an immensely rich, varied and intricate weaving has made the fabric of this state, and I am proud to be even so small a thread in the pattern." The book became a Doubleday Book Club selection. In 1981, De Blasis published "The Tiger's Woman". The book became Doubleday Book Club and Literary Guild  selections. De Blasis then embarked on her most ambitious and successful work, the "Wild Swan" trilogy. The first volume, "Wild Swan" was published in 1984, set in Collington, Maryland around the Belair Mansion and was quickly followed by "Swan's Chance" in 1985. The final volume of the trilogy, "A Season of Swans" was published in 1989. Her final book did not follow her proven historical romance formula. It was a biographical work titled "Graveyard Peaches", about her life at the Kemper Campbell Ranch in Victorville, California. After the publication of this work, Celeste De Blasis battled lupus erythematosus until  her death in 2001. She was cremated and her ashes were spread along her favorite trail at the Kemper Campbell Ranch where she had walked nearly every day.