Harlequin Paperbacks
The Harlequin Paperbacks collection at Bruce Peel Special Collections is under development and currently includes more than 500 first-edition Harlequin paperbacks from the publisher's first thirty years (1949-1980). Although best known today for romance novels, Harlequin has historically published in a wide variety of genres. Founded in Winnipeg in 1949 by Richard Bonnycastle, Jack Palmer, and Doug Weld, Harlequin began by acquiring rights to reprint novels in the post-war era when there was a high demand for affordable paperback books. These early publications included westerns, mysteries, romance novels, and a wide variety of nonfiction topics. By the mid-1950s, ownership and leadership shifted to include Ruth Palmour and Mary Bonnycastle along with Richard Bonnycastle, and Harlequin began to focus on romance novels. Of special interest are titles by such notable authors as Arthur Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie, as well as a celebratory twenty-fifth anniversary publication, which includes a listing of Harlequin titles published between 1949 and 1974.
Getting started: Although published books in both print and digital formats are normally found by searching the University of Alberta Library catalogue, this collection is an exception. Books in the Harlequin Paperbacks collection can be explored using the online finding aid. For more information about research in the Peel library, see Finding and Requesting Peel Library Materials.
Collection Formats: 20th Century -- click to see other collections with this format
