Harlequin Books
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| Parent company | HarperCollins |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1949 |
| Founder | Jack Palmer and Doug Weld |
| Country of origin | Canada |
| Headquarters location | Toronto |
| Publication types | Books |
| Fiction genres | Romance |
| Revenue | $585 million |
| Owner(s) | News Corp Division of HarperCollins |
| Official website | www |
Harlequin Enterprises Limited (known simply as Harlequin) is a Toronto-based company that publishes series romance and women's fiction. Harlequin was owned by the Torstar Corporation, the largest newspaper publisher in Canada, from 1981 to 2014. It was then purchased by News Corp and is now a division of HarperCollins.
In May 1949, Harlequin was founded in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada as a paperback reprinting company. The business was a partnership between Advocate Printers and Doug Weld of Bryant Press, Richard Bonnycastle, plus Jack Palmer, head of the Canadian distributor of the Saturday Evening Post and the Ladies' Home Journal. Palmer oversaw marketing for the new company and Richard Bonnycastle took charge of the production.
The company's first product was Nancy Bruff's novel The Manatee. For its first few years, the company published a wide range of books, all offered for sale for 25 cents. Among the novels they reprinted were works by James Hadley Chase, Agatha Christie, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and Somerset Maugham. Their biggest success was Jean Plaidy's Beyond the Blue Mountain (1951). Of the 30,000 copies sold, only 48 were returned. Although the new company had strong sales, profit margins were limited and the operation struggled to stay solvent.
Following the death of Jack Palmer in the mid-1950s, Richard Bonnycastle acquired his 25% interest in Harlequin. Still struggling to survive, soon Doug Weld departed and Richard Bonnycastle, now in full control, transferred Weld's shares to key staff member, Ruth Palmour.
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