HOSPITAL CORRIDORS
First edition of the contemporary romance novel that led to Mills & Boon's historic collaboration with Harlequin.
Near fine in very good jacket.
Price: $2,000.00
HOSPITAL CORRIDORS
"Together we'll watch the sunrise in the Rockies"
Since its inception in 1949, Harlequin functioned as a reprint publisher, looking for hardcover titles to issue in mass market paperback form. However, these titles were not limited to romance; they included adventures, mysteries and thrillers, and sleaze. The move to focus on romances began after Harlequin's Ruth Palmour noticed that their romance reprints tended to sell better than other titles in their annual lists, and began seeking more sources for this material. In the early years, the chosen titles were all medical romances, as per Harlequin de facto editor Mary Bonnycastle's preference. Paul Grescoe notes that nearly a third of Harlequin's 1955 list was composed of medical romances by the American author Lucy Agnes Hancock: they needed to expand their stable.
HOSPITAL CORRIDORS, set in Montreal, was the first book requested by Palmour when she wrote the fateful letter suggesting the partnership in 1957. Mary Burchell, the pen name of Ida Cook, was one of Mills & Boon's most popular writers and a major force in the direction of their romances, known for her "down-to-earth" settings featuring everyday women. Burchell was herself from a lower-middle class background, with a background in journalism. She used the proceeds from her exceptional success as a romance writer to fund trips with her sister to Europe before World War II broke out, helping Jewish refugees escape Germany under the guise of opera-obsessed tourists (which, to be fair, they also were).
Mills & Boon hardcovers were largely aimed at the library market in this era; jacketed copies without library markings (as here) are therefore scarce. OCLC finds no holdings in US institutions. A major moment in romance history, not only tipping the scales of Harlequin's catalogue towards the genre it would come to dominate, but also inaugurating an epochal partnership in mass market publishing.
Read more: Grescoe, Merchants of Venus.
The Object
London: Mills & Boon, (1955). 7.25'' x 4.75''. Original brown paper boards stamped in black. In original price-clipped color pictorial dust jacket. Publisher's ads at rear. 191, [1] pages. Moderate edgewear to jacket, light toning to spine. Ink gift inscription dated 1956 to front free endpaper. Bright.
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