The forecast this week is for extremely light and scattered Almanac posts, as I am on a second Break Week. Which is like Shark Week, only less so. (Way, way less so. Seriously, watch reruns of Shark Week.)

It’s the birthday of Jacqueline Susann (1918-1974), whose 1966 novel Valley of the Dolls was for a while the best-selling novel of all time (at the time of her death, it had sold 17 million copies; today it has sold over 30 million). Valley tells the somewhat autobiographical story of four “glamour girls” in 1945 and their friendships, sex lives, and drug use. Susann was also the first novelist ever to have three books in a row hit #1 on the New York Times’s bestseller list.

Susann, who was born in Philadelphia, had been a model and actress before going into writing. In 1946, she and husband Irving Mansfield had a baby, Guy, who began showing signs of severe autism as a toddler. Autism was very little understood and Guy was finally put into a mental institution for children, which devastated Susann and possibly drove her into using pills—which she nicknamed her “dolls.” In late 1961, Susann was diagnosed with breast cancer and made a deal with God: give her 10 more years and she’d make it as a writer. By then, she was motivated not just by her long-time desire for fame but by a desire to make enough money to support Guy and give him a secure future. She achieved raging success and died 12 years after her diagnosis.

Susann is also credited with making the modern book tour what it is today.

Have a good to splendid Monday (whatever you feel up to, no pressure) and stay scrupulously honest to the data.