By DAISY NGUYEN 01.31.07, 1:35 PM ET
Sidney Sheldon had a prolific and award-winning career writing for theater, movies and television, but he often proclaimed his greatest love for another creative outlet.
"Writing novels is the most fun I've ever had," Sheldon once said.
The best-selling author died Tuesday at 89 at Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage of complications from pneumonia. His wife, Alexandra, was by his side.
"I try to write my books so the reader can't put them down," Sheldon explained in a 1982 interview. "I try to construct them so when the reader gets to the end of a chapter, he or she has to read just one more chapter. It's the technique of the old Saturday afternoon serial: Leave the guy hanging on the edge of the cliff at the end of the chapter."
Sheldon mostly wrote about stalwart women who triumph in a hostile world of ruthless men. His notable novels included "Rage of Angels," "The Other Side of Midnight," and "If Tomorrow Comes."
"I like to write about women who are talented and capable, but most important, retain their femininity," he said. "Women have tremendous power - their femininity, because men can't do without it."
Several of his novels became television miniseries, often with the author as producer.
Sheldon began writing as a youngster in Chicago, where he was born Feb. 11, 1917. At 10, he sold a poem for $10. During the Depression, he worked at a variety of jobs, attended Northwestern University and contributed short plays to drama groups.
At 17, he tried his luck in Hollywood as a reader of prospective film material at Universal Studio for $22 a week. At night, he wrote his own screenplays and sold one, "South of Panama," to the studio for $250.
During World War II, Sheldon served as a pilot in the Army Air Corps. After the war, he established his reputation as a prolific writer in the New York theater. At one time, he had three musicals on Broadway: a rewritten "The Merry Widow," "Jackpot" and "Dream with Music." He received a Tony award as one of the writers of the Gwen Verdon hit "Redhead."
His Broadway success ushered his return to Hollywood, where his first assignment, "The Bachelor and the Bobbysoxer," starring Cary Grant, Myrna Loy and Shirley Temple, won him an Academy Award for best original screenplay of 1947.
When the movie industry began to feel the pinch of television's popularity, Sheldon decided to try the new medium.
"I suppose I needed money," he remembered. "I met Patty Duke one day at lunch. So I produced `The Patty Duke Show,' and I did something nobody else in TV ever did. For seven years, I wrote almost every single episode of the series."
He also created and produced "I Dream of Jeannie," which lasted five seasons in the late 1960s.
During the last year of "I Dream of Jeannie," he decided to write a novel, he said in 1982. His first work, "The Naked Face," was scorned by book reviewers and sold 21,000 copies in hardcover. The novel found a mass market in paperback, however, reportedly selling 3.1 million. Thereafter Sheldon became a habitue of best-seller lists.
He prided himself in the authenticity of his novels. He remarked in 1987: "If I write about a place, I have been there. If I write about a meal in Indonesia, I have eaten there in that restaurant. I don't think you can fool the reader."
For "Windmills of the Gods," which dealt with the CIA, he interviewed former CIA chief Richard Helms, traveled to Argentina and Romania and spent a week in Junction City, Kan., where the heroine had lived.
Though he won a Tony, an Oscar and an Emmy (for "I Dream of Jeannie") during his career, Sheldon said he derived the most satisfaction from writing his novels.
"I love writing books," he said. "When you do a novel you're on your own. It's a freedom that doesn't exist in any other medium."
Sheldon was married for more than 30 years to Jorja Curtright Sheldon, a stage and film actress who later became a prominent interior decorator. She died in 1985. He married Alexandra Kostoff, a former child actress and advertising executive, in 1989.
Associated Press writer Bob Thomas contributed to this report.
(SUBS 8th graf, `Sheldon began...', to correct date of birth, Feb. 11 sted 17. SUBS 17th graf, `For "Windmills..', to correct title of book, Windmills of the Gods.' )

我看過的最好的寫作者例子，是我認識的第一個加拿大人，而且是在北京時候認識的，叫李莎·卡爾杜奇, 她是成長于魁北克的意大利移民,以意、法語寫作，五十多嵗時離職，去北外教法語，後來在中央電視臺作法語顧問，還在《北京周報》儅過編輯。我認識她是1993年看她的畫展，被她的畫、她的詩、72次獻血的記錄和她安詳的面目吸引。她完全是自己畫，沒有跟任何人學，畫風很有童稚味道，每年畫五六幅畫，送朋友或者賣掉捐助希望工程。她每年獻血兩次，被中國紅十字會視爲國際人道主義人士，是第一批拿到中國綠卡的老外。她現在時不時地去這裡那裏參加筆會或者領什麽獎，一生出版了三十多本小説、詩歌，全是在中國這十幾年寫出來的，因爲她在中國完全衣食無憂，工作壓力也不大，可以專注寫作。她非常勤奮，每天早上起來寫作幾個小時才去坐班車或者公共汽車上班。我覺得，能那樣一直專注自己熱愛的寫作，工作也可以不太煩心地解決謀生問題而不用太出賣自己，這是多麽理想的生活方式啊：當然前提是不要夢想大名大利、大富大貴，而且也不太討厭為五斗米甚至兩斗米而工作。當然她是幸運的，其大前提是中國需要這樣的人，所以他們不用太辛苦就可以通過為中國做點事情而得到衣食無憂的不錯報償。

 

在加拿大我看到很多的這樣的例子：我女兒幼兒園管收學費和接電話的秘書，是個爵士音樂家，周末或者晚上常常演出，而且上班時候午餐時間他會在幼兒園後面狂敲一通鼓。街角的雜貨店店員，是個兒童文學作家，出版了n 多本兒童故事書；市政廰那個辦理家庭小生意許可證的辦公室婦女，是個攝影師……這些人都有豐富的生活，並且不被遠大理想灼痛甚至燃燒成灰燼，能不能大紅大紫于他們不太相干，時不時有人冒出頭被更廣大的群體認可、知曉，這些都是意外。有人說要把job, career 和 mission 分開來，就不會太痛苦。我自己一直不能分清所以到如今還總是很麻煩……並不是誰都有個凡高那樣的弟弟按時寄錢來。

 

（前幾天聽到電臺的爵士節目，講一個溫哥華的爵士音樂家，説是“hugely underrated”,因爲沒有什麽商業上的成就（唱片暢銷）。他甚至很少錄製唱片，自六十年代就活躍于溫哥華地區，影響了這個地區很多爵士音樂家的成長，但是後來隱退，至今下落不明，電臺的DJ 在呼籲，有誰知道這個人，去聯絡他們。他們建立起來一個網站，把各種回憶、照片和私人錄音貢獻出來分享。他的音樂很特別，我在開車的路上聼到，特別喜歡他的大段大段的獨奏鼓聲，DJ説他甚至能夠一邊掏出香煙、點燃、還一邊不停地敲鼓。我想這個人的生活，不管快樂或者痛苦，都是過給自己的，應該是滿足的一生…… 不知道爲什麽要寫這一段，所以放在括號裏面，與你分享某种感悟吧。）

 

2007年1月1日  祝你新年快樂！

　

“从前有一个小姑娘，叫小黄帽……”

　　

“不对，是小红帽！”

　　

“哦，是小红帽。她妈妈叫她，对她说：你听话，小绿帽……”

　　

“不对，是小红帽。”

　　

“哦，对了，小红帽，你去迪奥米拉婶婶家那里，把这些土豆送给婶婶。”

　　

“不对，是去姥姥家，送给她蛋糕。”

　　

“好吧，到了树木里，碰见一只长颈鹿。”

　　

“错了，是一只狼，不是长颈鹿。”

　　

“狼问她：六乘以八等于几？”

　　

“根本就没有问这个。狼问她：你去哪儿啊？”

　　

“对了。小黑帽回答说……”

　　

“是小红帽，小红帽！”

　　

“对，她说：我去市场上买番茄酱。”

　　

“什么呀，她做梦也没想到去市场。她说：我去姥姥那儿，她病了，可是我找不到路了。”

　　

“对了，马说……”

　　

“什么马呀，是狼说！”

　　

“哦，它说：你坐75路无轨电车，在多莫广场下车，往右走，那儿有三级台阶， 地上还有一个钱币，你不要管三级台阶，只去把钱拿来买一块口香糖吃。”

　　

“爷爷，你真不会讲故事，全都讲错了。不过，口香糖我倒要买。”

　　

“好吧，给你钱。”

　　

爷爷又埋头看他的报纸了。