Harlequin Nurses Part II

Part I introduced the popular nurse romance published by Harlequin Books. One of, to my mind, the oddest aspects of their nurse books was referring to doctors by their first name, like minor English royalty. Instead of Dr Knowitall, we have Dr Jack.

My mother was a nurse before, during and after this mid-century nurse craze and I never heard her refer to a doctor this way. In fact I've never heard anyone say "I was well satisfied that Dr Jill removed my bunion."

Here are a couple of examples.

Harlequin 381 - March 1957

Harlequin 381 back

Harlequin 388 - May 1957

Harlequin 388 back

Harlequin Nurses Part I

To my mind one of the oddest publishing phenomena is the nurse romance. Specifically the Harlequin nurse romance which, in the early to mid sixties, dominated their book list. Here are some statistics:

                   nurse titles   total titles

1953-1959           81           477        17%

1960-1965          268          479        56%

There were no nurse romances from 1949 to 1952, three in 1953, an average of 10 per year for the next 5 years, 25 in 1959, an average of 45 from 1960 to 1965, then 25 in 1966 and dropping off from there. The most amazing statistic is that 56% of all Harlequin titles for six years (1960 - 1965) were nurse romances. All but 10 of the rest were non-nurse romances.

Here are three with "Nurse" in the title.

Harlequin 362 - May 1956

Harlequin 362 back

Harlequin 384 - April 1957

Harlequin 384 back

Harlequin 423 - May 1958

Harlequin 423 back 

Nurses in Canada Part I

The "nurse" romance was a robust genre in the mid 20th century. Canadian paperback publishers took note and reprinted many American and British titles. Here are three that my mother, a nurse, would have found absurdly funny.

"And a nurse you shall be -- though of course you know you're much too pretty for it! How can you expect a doctor to keep his mind on a patient with you around?" said Dr. McPhail, with a little teasing laugh.

News Stand Library 130 - September 1950

News Stand Library 130 back

Elliott wouldn't let Bunny go. The rubbing alcohol had spilled all over his chest and onto the bed, but he kept his arms about her and gave her a playful kiss as she tried to pull away.

Derby 8 - 1950

Derby 8 back

Deborah was surprised to see the tears in the eyes of the strict superintendent while Doctor Hamilton found it impossible to do more than press her hand and bluster that she had been a foolish, headstrong, glorious idiot, dammit!

Harlequin 338 - May 1955

Harlequin 338 back