Are You Afraid of the Dark?

Sidney Sheldon (February 11, 1917 – January 30, 2007) was an American writer whose career spanned Broadway musical theater, Hollywood screenwriting, television series creation, and — beginning in his early sixties — a second act as one of the highest-selling novelists of the late twentieth century. Born Sidney Schechtel in Chicago to Russian-Jewish immigrant parents, Sheldon worked as a Universal Studios script reader in the late 1930s before serving as a U.S. Army Air Corps pilot during World War II. His postwar Hollywood career produced the Academy Award–winning screenplay for "The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer" (1947), as well as "Easter Parade" (1948) and "Annie Get Your Gun" (1950). Moving to television in the 1960s, Sheldon created, wrote, and produced three long-running series: "The Patty Duke Show" (1963–1966), "I Dream of Jeannie" (1965–1970), and the Aaron Spelling co-production "Hart to Hart" (1979–1984). For "I Dream of Jeannie" he personally wrote most of the first three seasons' scripts. At age fifty-three Sheldon turned to prose fiction with "The Naked Face" (1970), which won the Mystery Writers of America Edgar Award for best first novel. Beginning with "The Other Side of Midnight" (1973), his subsequent novels became fixtures on international bestseller lists. "The Other Side of Midnight", "A Stranger in the Mirror" (1976), "Bloodline" (1977), "Rage of Angels" (1980), "Master of the Game" (1982), "If Tomorrow Comes" (1985), "The Sands of Time" (1988), "Memories of Midnight" (1990), and "The Sky Is Falling" (2000) typified his trademark formula: a glamorous female protagonist navigating international power, ambition, and reversal across multiple continents. "Are You Afraid of the Dark?" (2004) was the last novel published in his lifetime. The Guinness Book of World Records lists Sheldon as the most-translated author at the time of his death — his work has appeared in fifty-one languages and sold more than three hundred million copies worldwide. He is the only writer to have won an Oscar, a Tony Award, and an Edgar Award.