1960s - Part I

I've just finished Sam Wasson's Fifth Avenue, 5 A.M. (New York: HarperCollins, 2010), the story of the making of the film version of Breakfast at Tiffany's. The title describes the time and place of the filming of the first scene in the movie. The date was October 2, 1960. Today the director of Breakfast at Tiffany's, Blake Edwards, died.

A co founder of Ms. Magazine is quoted in the book:

"When Breakfast at Tiffany's came out, it blew me away. ... Here was this incredibly glamorous quirky, slightly bizarre woman who wasn't convinced that she had to live with a man. She was a single girl living a life of her own, and she could have an active sex life that wasn't morally questionable. I had never seen that before."

Meanwhile Harlequin Books, in the decade beginning 1960, published ten non-romance books. The rest of the 60s was inoffensive Mills & Boon romances, 849 of them. The 10 non-romance were a mixed bag - six non fiction (3 sports, one each of biography, RCMP history and an etiquette dictionary) and four fiction, including the amazing Thomas P. Kelley. Here are three of the 10.

Harlequin 635 - 1961

Harlequin 695 - 1962

Harlequin 718 - 1963