Author Olivia Goldsmith was born Randy Goldfield in Dumont, New Jersey in 1949. She attended New York University and became one of the first partners at the management consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton in New York. After she divorced her husband, she moved to London, changed her legal name to Justine Rendal, and became a writer. Her 1992 debut novel, "The First Wives Club" became a best-seller and was made into a movie in 1996. In her stories, there's a transformation of the main character and, according to Goldsmith, "In the Olivian universe, everybody gets what they deserve." Besides novels, she wrote articles for The New York Times and Cosmopolitan and wrote children's books under the name Justine Rendal. She received the Woman of Vision Award in 1997. She died from complications related to anesthesia on January 15, 2004 at the age of 54
