Harlequin Romance By The Numbers

A numerical listing of titles published under the "Romance" imprint. Harlequin first began published numbered series in 1949, starting with The Manatee by Nancy Bruff. The publisher began with a mix of book types -- from pulp fiction to cookbooks. Romance fiction was always part of the Harlequin mix, from 1949's Honeymoon Mountain by Frances Shelly Wees through works by Jean Plaidy aka Victoria Holt. In 1953, Harlequin entered the world of Medical or Doctor/Nurse Romance when they began publishing American author Lucy Agnes Hancock. Over the next decade, romance fiction, particularly of the Doctor/Nurse style comprised a larger portion of the fiction mix, and in 1958, authors who wrote for [[Mills and Boon|Mills