Personal life

Rosemary Jansz was born in 1932 in Ceylon, now Sri Lanka.. Her parents, Cyril and Barbara Jansz, were Dutch-Portuguese settlers who owned several private schools and were extremely wealthy. Rogers lived among many servants and was sheltered from much of the outside world. She began writing at age eight, and throughout her teens penned many romantic epics in the style of her favorite writers, Sir Walter Scott, Alexandre Dumas, père, and Rafael Sabatini.

After spending three years at the University of Ceylon, Rogers became a reporter, and soon married Summa Navaratnam, a Ceylonese rugby player and track star (who played for Ceylon against the 1950 British Lions and who was known as "the fastest man in Asia"). Disappointed with her husband, Rogers moved with her two daughters to London in 1960.

In Europe, she met Leroy Rogers, an African-American from the United States, they married in his home town, St. Louis, Missouri and she moved her family to California, where they had two sons. The second marriage ended after eight years, and Rogers was left to support herself and four children on her salary as a typist for the Solano County Parks Department. The following year, in 1969, her parents came to live with Rogers.

Her third marriage, in September of 1984, was to poet Christopher Kadison, 20 years her junior. It was not a marriage made in heaven and they soon began to live apart.

The four children of Rogers have grown and they have become independent. Rogers is single and makes her home in Connecticut, where she continues to write.

Writing career

Every night for a year, Rogers worked to perfect a manuscript that she had written as a child, rewriting it 24 times. When her teenage daughter found the manuscript in a drawer, she encouraged her mother to send the manuscript to Avon, which quickly purchased the novel. That novel, Sweet Savage Love, skyrocketed to the top of bestseller lists, and became one of the most popular historical romances of all time. Her second novel, Dark Fires, sold two million copies in its first three months of release.

Her first three novels sold a combined 10 million copies. The fourth, Wicked Loving Lies sold 3 million copies in its first month of publication.

Rosemary Rogers was one of the first romance authors to extend her scenes into the bedroom. Her novels are often full of violence, and the heroine is usually raped one or more times, sometimes by the hero, and sometimes by other men. Her heroines travel to exotic locations and meet important people. In many cases, one or both of the protagonists follows a "riches-to-rags-to-riches" storyline.

Legend of Morgan-Challenger Series

1. Sweet Savage Love (1974)
2. Dark Fires (1975)
3. Wicked Loving Lies (1976)
4. Lost Love, Last Love (1980)
5. Bound by Desire (1988)
6. Savage Desire (2000)

Logan Duology

1. An Honorable Man (2002)
2. Return to Me (2003)

Single Novels

• Wildest Heart (1974)
• The Crowd Pleasers (1978)
• The Insiders (1979)
• Love Play (1981)
• Surrender to Love (1982)
• The Wanton (1985)
• Tea Planter's Bride (1995)
• Dangerous Man (1996)
• Midnight Lady (1997)
• All I Desire (1998)
• In Your Arms (1999)
• A Reckless Encounter (2001)
• Jewel of My Heart (2004)
• Sapphire (2005)
• A Daring Passion (2007)
• Scandalous Deception (2008)

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