By now you have no doubt heard the heartbreaking news about our beloved author, Dottie Frank, who passed away on Monday, September 2, 2019.
Dot was a force of nature: brilliant, generous, gregarious. She had a wicked sense of humor that could break up any room. She was devoted to friends and family (and was always quick to share the latest photos of her beloved young grandson, Teddy.) In short, she loved life. Which makes it that much harder to accept this loss.
Dot could walk into a room filled with strangers and leave with newfound friends. (She’d also have a handful of dates confirmed to speak at their book clubs or libraries!) She adored her readers and she loved librarians. Google ‘Dorothea Benton Frank’ and ‘Public Libraries’ and you’ll find an endless list of appearances she’d made over the years at libraries, conferences, fundraisers, book clubs, etc. She was tireless, enthusiastic, and genuine.
Dot made her William Morrow debut in 2006 with her novel, Full of Grace. That year she spoke at the Texas Library Association conference in Houston. It was an author dinner held on the top floor of the Petroleum Club which overlooked the city. She lit up that room with her sharp wit and sassy asides. The audience loved her. We all did. Ironically, her last library conference was the Texas Library Association conference in 2018. Here is a photo of her signing at the HarperCollins booth. You can almost hear her laughing.
She had a great time at library shows and she loved meeting librarians. Sharing her beloved Low Country books with readers gave her the greatest joy.
It’s unfathomable that she is gone—but how fortunate we all were to have had her in our lives.
With the permission of William Morrow President and Publisher Liate Stehlik, here is the internal memo which was sent out to HarperCollins employees this week:
We are deeply saddened by the passing of our beloved author Dorothea Benton Frank, who died Monday following a brief struggle with leukemia at the age of 67.
Dottie was the author of 20 bestselling novels set in the Low Country of South Carolina, and we were honored to publish her for the last 15 years, including her most recent bestseller, Queen Bee.
She wrote her first book, Sullivan’s Island: A Low Country Tale, shortly after the death of her mother in 2000, determined to buy back her childhood family home—the last physical connection she had to her beloved hometown—with the money she earned. The book went on to debut on the New York Times bestseller list at number nine and now has well over one million copies in print. Thus started a bestselling franchise that was often celebrated for its tart humor, honesty, and strong-willed female characters that struggled with the real slings and arrows of everyday life: love and heartbreak, fortune and ruin, bliss and disappointment, and the folly of youth and the wisdom of experience.
Dottie was an avid cook, and enjoyed fly fishing the one time she tried it, reading, traveling, and mentoring young writers on the creative process. She divided her time between her home on Sullivan's Island and New Jersey.
She was a friend to so many here and will be missed by us all.
“I want my books to entertain and inform, and I want somebody to be glad that they spent the time reading it. So I try to write a satisfying story about something that’s important in all our lives and is contemporary. I don’t think people read my books to get lost in them so much as they read my books to find themselves in them.”
—Dorothea Benton Frank
It’s only fitting that we end this post by raising a glass in honor of Dot, using her very own recipe* for her beloved Mint Julep.
To Dot: Who brought the sass of New Jersey and the charm of South Carolina like no other. We will never forget you.
-Virginia, Chris, and Lainey
*Dot's Mint Julep
Ingredients: simple syrup, Makers Mark, muddled mint leaves, and crushed ice.
One part syrup to two parts Makers Mark; freeze julep cup.
- Fill shaker with ice, simple syrup, and Makers Mark
- Muddle leaves in cup, fill with ice
- Shake shaker like mad
- Strain and pour into cup
- Repeat until happiness takes over