Works
by the following authors are included in this blog. Names in bold are the author’s real name, while
those in bold italic are pen names.
Adams, Tracy – see O’Bryan,Sofi
Baldwin, Faith – (1893–1978) published more than 100
novels, only a few of which were medical romance novels (e.g. Private Duty, District Nurse, He Married a
Doctor). She was born in New Rochelle, NY, to a wealthy lawyer, and married
Hugh Cuthrell in 1920. The couple lived in Brooklyn had two sons and two
daughters, including a pair of fraternal twins, but separated shortly after the
birth of the twins in 1927. About ten years later she moved to a place she
named Fable Farm in Norwalk, CT, where she lived for the rest of her life. She
reconciled with her husband shortly before Hugh’s death in 1953. From Medical Center: “Faith Baldwin is a
small, blue-eyed, vivacious author who types her own manuscripts […] She was
educated at various schools in New York, and was in Germany from 1914 to 1916
finishing her education […] Although Miss Baldwin says she would ‘rather be a
biologist, an actress, a doctor, an explorer’ than a novelist, her popularity
as a good story-teller is reinforced by each new book.”
Banks, Rosie M. – see Jackson,Alan. This name was first used by author P.G. Wodehouse; in his novels it was the pen name of a novelist who wrote florid romance novels.
Blocklinger, Peggy O’More – (1895–1975)
wrote under the names Peggy O’More, Jeanne Bowman, Juliet Mann, and Betty
Blocklinger. She was also a writer of children’s novels. She was born in
Tacoma, Washington, and went to school in Oregon, Washington, and California.
She worked as a reporter, newspaper columnist, and a librarian.
Bowman, Jeanne – see Blocklinger,
Peggy O’More.
Cabot, Isabel – see Capeto, Isabel
Capeto, Isabel – (1925–2018) See full biograpy here.
Carr, Patti – see Neubauer, William
Castle, Frank – (1910–1994) Born in New Mexico, lived in Texas as a child and then moved to California at the age of 10 and died in Oregon. His wife, Helen B. Castle (from whom he obviously took his pseudonym) was a nurse. He appears to have written only two nurse novels and largely wrote western and detective stories under the pseudonyms Steve Thurman and Val Munroe.
Castle, Helen B. – see Castle, Frank
Converse, Jane – see Maritano,
Adele Kay
Craig, Georgia – see Dern, Erolie
Pearl (Gaddis)
Dana, Rose – see Ross,
William E. Daniel
Dern, Erolie Pearl (Gaddis) – (1895–1966)
wrote nurse novels under the names of Peggy Gaddis, Peggy Dern, and Georgia
Craig. She also used the names Roberta Courtland, Gail Jordan, Carolina Lee,
Perry Lindsay, and Joan Sherman. See “Peggy Gaddis/Peggy Dern:
Bibliography of Erolie Pearl Gaddis Dern (1895-1966),” by Kenneth R.
Johnson.
Dern, Peggy – see Dern, Erolie
Pearl (Gaddis)
Dorset, Ruth – see Ross,
William E. Daniel
Edward, Marie Elaine – see Mosler, Blanche Yvonne
Finley, Glenna – (1925–2013) See full biography here.
Gaddis, Peggy – see Dern, Erolie
Pearl (Gaddis)
Garrison, Joan – see Neubauer, William
Hale, Arlene – see Hale, Mary
Arlene
Hale, Mary Arlene – (1924–1982) wrote more than 100
books under pseudonyms Arlene Hale, Gail Everett, Louise Christopher, and Lynn
Williams. She lived in New London, Iowa, the youngest of four surviving
children. Her father died when she was about seven years old when he slipped on
ice while carrying a shotgun. Shortly after graduating from high school in
1941, she worked for the Iowa-Illinois Telephone Co., and on a factory assembly
line during World War II. Initially she began writing poetry, and had some
success with this, then wrote her first book in 1948 and became a full-time novelist
in 1954, at the age of 30. She never married and lived with her mother until
her death, of cancer, at age 57.
Hall, Bennie C. – (1887–1976) See full biography here.
Hamill, Ethel – see Webb, Jean Francis III
Hancock, Frances
Dean
– see Judson, Jeanne
Hancock, Lucy Agnes – (ca 1877–1962) was born in
Brooklyn, the fifth of eight children of English immigrants. The family moved
to Auburn, New York, where Lucy lived for the rest of her life with three
unmarried sisters; she too never married. (Her oldest sister Florence lived at
the Willard State Hospital for the insane in Ovid, New York, for at least 30
years.) She worked for International Harvester for at least 25 years and began
publishing novels in 1936, when she was almost 60 years old, and became
well-known for her popular nurse romances. She died on April 29, 1962.
Harris, Kathleen – see Rowe,
Adelaide Morris (Humphries)
Hathaway, Jan – see Neubauer, William
Humphries, Adelaide – see Rowe,
Adelaide Morris (Humphries)
Jackson, Alan – (1906–1965) See full biography here.
Judson, Jeanne – (1888–1981) See full biography here.
Kellier, Elizabeth – From the author blurb in Nurse Missing: "Elizabeth Kellier was born in an English village near the city of Lichfield, but she was educated at Wolverhampton where she also attended the School of Art. She became a registered nurse in 1952, doing her training at the Royal Infirmary at Leicester. After a short period as a staff nurse there, she married an officer in the Royal Air Force. He was killed while night-flying only nine months later. Since then, she has had experience in many branches of the nursing profession and has worked in chronic and fever hospitals, private nursing homes, and as district nurse. She has lived in many parts of England and also in Wales. Several years ago a desire to write which had been with her since childhood made her turn to writing for a career. In addition to her novels she has contributed short stories and articles to a variety of magazines. She now lives near the little town of Wareham in Dorset. Her hobbies are serious music, painting and swimming."
Libby, Patricia – (1923–2013) See full biography here.
Maritano, Adela Kay – (1918–2002) wrote under the names of Jane Converse, Kay Martin, and Adela Gale (books written with this pseudonym were jointly authored with her husband, Gale Maritano).
Marsh, Rebecca – see Neubauer, William
Marshall, Marguerite Mooers – (1887–1964) See full biography here.
McComb, Katherine – (1895–1990) Born Katherine G. Woods in Justice,
Texas, she was the youngest of four sisters. She married Robert Lee McComb at
age 16 (he was 23) and lived in Corpus Christi, Texas. The couple moved to Los
Angeles when she was 29 and they lived there almost 30 years, moving back to
Corpus Christi when he retired. She started writing Westerns at age 62, then
moved to mysteries and romances when the Western market dried up. She never had
any children and remained in Texas for the rest of her life. She died in 1990
at age 95.
McElfresh, Elizabeth Adeline – (1918–?) also
wrote under the names of Jennifer Blair, Jane Scott, Elizabeth Wesley and John
Cleveland. She began her career as a newspaper proofreader, and early in her
career earned more than twice what her father, a laborer who worked on the
roads for the WPA, did, no doubt helping to support the small family (she had
one sister). She worked as a newspaper journalist for several newspapers in
Indiana from the 1930s to 1950s and was director of public relations for the
Good Samaritan Hospital in Vincennes, Indiana, from 1966-8, then returned to
writing full-time. She apparently never married and lived with her widowed
sister until her sister died in 2008.
Mosler, Blanche Yvonne – (1904–1994) She lived in Oklahoma and never married. She wrote six novels, but only one nurse novel (Marie Warren, Night Nurse)
Newcomb, Norma – see Neubauer, William
Neubauer, William – See full biography here.
O’Bryan, Sofi – (1918–2016) See full biography here.
O’More, Peggy – see Blocklinger,
Peggy O’More.
Palmer, Florence K. – (1907–1976), was born Florence McDermott in
Kansas to 18-year-old parents who resided in New York. When she was about six years old, her
mother (re)married; she took her stepfather’s last name (Crueger) and grew up
in Seattle, an only child. She married attorney Dewey Palmer at age 20. The
couple moved to Oregon about ten years later and lived there the remainder of
their lives. They had no children. She worked as a journalist and wrote a syndicated
column called “Trials and Tribulations” about unusual legal cases that ran more
than a decade in the 1960s. She seems to have written only one nurse novel, Surgical Nurse.
Roberts, Mary Roberts – One of the earliest nurse romance novelists; see full biography here.
Roberts, Suzanne – Also wrote under the name Laurie Marath.
Ross, William E. Daniel – (1912–1995)
Known as Dan, he was a Canadian novelist who wrote more than 300 books under
numerous pseudonyms. He wrote nurse novels under the names Rose Dana, Rose
Williams, and Ruth Dorset.
Rowe, Adelaide Morris (Humphries) – (1898–1979)
wrote under her maiden name, Adelaide Humphries, and the pen names Kathleen
Harris, Wayne Way and Token West; the latter two were used for lustier novels.
Rush, Ann - see Cunningham, Sara Jenkins
Sangster, Margaret E. - See full biography here.
Sargent, Joan - see Cunningham, Sara Jenkins
Shepard, Fern – see Stonebraker, Florence
Stonebraker, Florence English – See full biography here.
Thorne, Emily – see Judson,Jeanne
Webb, Jean Francis III – See full biography here.
Wesley, Elizabeth – see McElfresh,
Elizabeth Adeline
Williams, Rose – see Ross,
William E. Daniel
