Baldwin's writing career began in earnest when her first novel,
Mavis of Green Hill, was published in 1921 by Boston publisher
Small, Maynard & Company. Six years later, in 1927, she sold her first serial to a magazine,
Good Housekeeping. This led to more serials for "
women's magazines" that published romance novels as six-part serials, and her popularity with the middle-class and working women audience quickly grew. Her popularity was at its peak in the 1930s, and in 1936 she earned over $300,000 (approximately equivalent to $4 million in 2005). In the 1950s, she was still going strong, with earnings over $2 million, sales over 10 million in all editions, and "one of the handful of living novelists to complete a five-foot shelf". In total, Baldwin wrote about 85 books, including 60 novels, two books of poetry, and countless dozens of short stories and magazine articles. From 1958 to 1965, she wrote a column that was published in ''
Woman's Day'' called "The Open Door". Baldwin continued to write until her death in 1978. She was often quoted by others, and her comments are now often found in books of quotes and on web sites that offer quotes. Several of her stories and novels were adapted to the big screen. In the late 1960s, Baldwin's name was used in a dubious advertising campaign for the
Famous Writers School, a correspondence school. She was listed as a "guiding faculty" member, along with other "faculty", including
Bennett Cerf,
Bergen Evans,
Bruce Catton,
Mignon G. Eberhart,
John Caples,
J. D. Ratcliff,
Mark Wiseman,
Max Shulman,
Rudolf Flesch,
Red Smith, and
Rod Serling. The advertising drew sharp criticism and accusations as deceptive because the inattentive reader may have inferred from the ad copy that the listed famous writers personally reviewed and provided critiques of students' work, which was not true. Later in life when asked about her life philosophy, Baldwin responded that her belief was simple: "It is in God and His spirit in mankind. It is in man and his struggle. It is in the Golden Rule and in the valor of men, however ignoble their shortcomings." ==Death==