There was no money in it at first -- but Mr. Adler was no stranger to making do with little. As a child growing up in Brooklyn, he lived with his parents, his two brothers and assorted relatives in his grandparents' house. At one point, 11 people shared a bathroom, "but it seemed a glorious childhood," he said.

He was a so-so student -- "I read voraciously but I hated studying" -- but still made it through New York University, majoring in English. He took a job as a copy boy at The Daily News, "because it was the closest I could get to the printed word." One day, on a Long Island beach, he struck up a conversation with Sonia Kline. They married in May 1951 and have three sons.

After a stint in the Army and a briefer stint in public relations, Mr. Adler started his own ad agency. By then, he had written three novels. Publishers were monumentally uninterested -- until 1973, when he struck a deal with Whitman Publishing: he publicized John David Garcia's "The Moral Society" free, and Whitman published "Options," Mr. Adler's third book.

"Options" bombed -- but he was finally a published author. That made it easier to get G.P. Putnam's Sons to publish "Banquet Before Dawn" in 1974. The advance was just $4,000, "but it felt like I'd won the lottery," Mr. Adler said. "It was the defining moment of my life."

Putnam published six more of his novels. Then it was bought by Universal Pictures, and "they dumped me," Mr. Adler said. Warner Books picked him up and published "War of the Roses."

He has learned from the many business mistakes he made along the way. In the 70's he sold the movie rights to "Trans-Siberian Express" for $250,000; the movie was never made, but he could not get the rights back. When he sold movie rights to "Private Lies" several years later, he made sure the rights reverted to him after 10 years.

Still, the writing life has been good to him. He lived in Hollywood, working on movie scripts. And he lived in Washington for years, hobnobbing with politicos. For the last 15 years, the Adlers have lived in Jackson Hole, Wyo., most of the time, and on Manhattan's Sutton Place some of the time.