Rona Jaffe facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Rona Jaffe
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Jaffe in the 1970s
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| Born | June 12, 1931 New York City, U.S.
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| Died | December 30, 2005 (aged 74) |
| Alma mater | Radcliffe College |
| Occupation | Novelist |
| Years active | 1958–2003 |
Rona Jaffe (born June 12, 1931 – died December 30, 2005) was an American writer. She wrote many novels between 1958 and 2003. In the 1960s, she also wrote articles about culture for Cosmopolitan magazine.
Contents
Early Life and School
Rona Jaffe was born in 1931 in Brooklyn, New York City. She grew up in a Jewish family. She was the only child of Samuel Jaffe, who was an elementary school principal. Her mother was Diana Ginsberg. Rona's grandfather was a very successful builder who constructed the famous Carlyle Hotel. She grew up in a wealthy family on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. She went to the Dalton School and then graduated from Radcliffe College in 1951.
Rona Jaffe's Writing Career
Rona Jaffe wrote her first book, The Best of Everything, in 1958. At that time, she was working as an editor at Fawcett Publications. This book quickly became a movie in 1959, also called The Best of Everything. A famous actress named Joan Crawford starred in it. The book showed what life was like for women working in offices before the big changes of the women's rights movement.
Later, in the late 1960s, a well-known editor named Helen Gurley Brown asked Rona Jaffe to write for Cosmopolitan magazine. Rona wrote articles about different cultural topics for the magazine.
Mazes and Monsters Book and Movie
In 1981, Rona Jaffe published another important book called Mazes and Monsters. This story was about a game similar to Dungeons & Dragons. In the book, playing the game caused some players to become confused and see things that weren't real. It even made them act violently.
This book came out when many people were worried about the effects of role-playing games (RPGs). The story might have been inspired by news reports from 1979. These reports were about a college student named James Dallas Egbert III who disappeared. He was a big fan of Dungeons & Dragons.
Because of growing concerns and interest in role-playing games, Mazes and Monsters was made into a TV movie in 1982. The TV movie was also called Mazes and Monsters. It starred a young Tom Hanks, in one of his first big roles.
Rona Jaffe passed away in London in 2005. She was 74 years old and died from cancer while on vacation.
Selected Books by Rona Jaffe
- The Best of Everything (1958)
- Away from Home (1960)
- The Last of the Wizards (a book for young readers) (1961)
- Mr. Right Is Dead (a short novel and five short stories) (1965)
- The Cherry in the Martini (1966)
- The Fame Game (1969)
- The Other Woman (1972)
- Family Secrets (1974)
- The Last Chance (1976)
- Class Reunion (1979)
- Mazes and Monsters (1981)
- After the Reunion (1985)
- An American Love Story (1990)
- The Cousins (1995)
- Five Women (1997)
- The Road Taken (2000)
