PCL MS 160 Jayne Ann Krentz Collection

Born March 28, 1948, Jayne Ann Castle (maiden name), Jayne Ann Krentz (married name) has authored 32 New York Times Bestsellers. There are over 23 million copies of her Romance books in print and she continues to write books to satisfy a variety of audiences. In 1970 she obtained her B.A. in History at the University of California, Santa Cruz and continued her education by obtaining a Masters in Library Science from San Jose State University. She worked as a librarian for several years in academic and corporate libraries before she decided to focus on her writing career.

She has used 7 different pseudonyms during her writing career. After publishing several books as Jayne Castle, she was contractually prohibited from using that name for several years and relied on several pen names: Jayne Taylor, Jayne Bentley, Stephanie James and Amanda Glass. today, she relies primarily on three: Amanda Quick is the name she uses while writing historical romantic-suspense, Jayne Ann Krentz is the name she uses while writing contemporary romantic-suspense, and Jayne Castle is the name she uses for futuristic/paranormal romantic-suspense.

Krentz worked as the editor and contributor to a non-fiction essay collection Dangerous Men and Adventurous Women: Romance Writers on the Appeal of the Romance, a book published in 1992 by the University of Pennsylvania Press. She has also participated as the keynote speaker at several conventions including, the Romance Writers of America, on the importance of the Romance genre.

In addition to many other awards, Krentz won the 1995 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Romance Writers of America, and was awarded the Susan Koppelman Award for Feminist Studies by the Women's Caucus of the Popular Culture Association and the American Culture Association for her work on Dangerous Men and Adventurous Women. She lives with her husband Frank Krentz in Seattle, Washington where she continues to write and advocate for Romance Literature.

The Jayne Ann Krentz Collection includes copies of speeches given by Krentz, including in 2000 at the Romance In The New Milleniumn Conference sponsored by the Browne Popular Culture Library, as well as articles written by or about her, promotional items, award notifications and book reviews. One unique item in the collection is the audio script for the 1997 Amanda Quick novel Affair, which can provide researchers a glimpse into the translation between written and audio works.