From a New York Times obit by Robert D. McFadden headlined “John Jakes, Whose Historical Novels Hit the Jackpot, Dies at 90”:

John Jakes, a superstar writer of historical fiction whose generational family sagas of the American Revolution and the Civil War mingled real and imaginary characters and became runaway best sellers and popular television fare, died in Sarasota, Fla.

Mr. Jakes wrote some 60 novels, including westerns, mysteries, science and fantasy fiction, and children’s books. But he was best known for two series of novels with enormous mass-market appeal: “The Kent Family Chronicles,” eight volumes written in the 1970s to capitalize on the 1976 Bicentennial celebrations (55 million copies were sold), and the “North and South” Civil War trilogy, which appeared in the 1980s (10 million copies).