March is Women’s History Month, and my posts for three of
the next four weeks will be a celebration of women. It seems fitting that the
first of the celebrations on this blog dedicated to the reading and writing of
romance fiction should focus on romance writers. Almost four years ago, this post appeared on the
Romance Vagabonds, but with a few updates, everything I wrote in 2008 holds
true in 2012.
Halls of fame are an American tradition. Every sport
imaginable has its hall of fame. Most of us know the National Baseball Hall of
Fame in Cooperstown, New York and the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio
(and a separate College Football Hall of Fame in South Bend, Indiana), but
there are also halls of fame for the best in soccer, hockey, tennis, cycling,
bowling, swimming, motorsports, and so on. The same holds true for music.
Whether your preferred genre is rock, country, classical, gospel, or blues, you
can find a hall of fame dedicated to the genre’s high achievers. Inventors have
their own hall of fame; so do songwriters, cowgirls, astronauts, ukulele
players, and Texas Rangers. So why is there no Romance Writers Hall of Fame?
Now before you accuse me of sloppy research, let me add
that I know the Romance Writers of America does have a Hall of Fame. But
membership is based on a single criterion: “Upon receipt of her/his third
(formerly the fourth) RITA Award in the same category, an RWA member is
inducted into the RWA Hall of Fame for that category.” Some of the brightest lights in the romance writing galaxy
are on the list that includes Justine Dare/Justine Davis, Jennifer Greene
(Alison Hart), Francine Rivers, Cheryl Zach, Nora Roberts (the first inductee
and the only three-time, multiple-categories inductee), Kathleen Korbel/Eileen
Dreyer, Jo Beverley, Susan Elizabeth Phillips, Jodi Thomas, Kathleen Creighton,
and Julia Quinn. But surely a genre that boasts a long history and more than
6000 published books annually in recent years has more than ten writers who
merit special recognition for their legacy of excellence in writing romance
fiction and sustained contribution to the genre.
RWA’s Lifetime Achievement recipients are a fuller recognition
of those who have contributed significantly. This award didn’t acquire its
distinguished title until 1990. For the first seven years, writers recognized
for their body of work were awarded the Golden Treasure. Perhaps the name
seemed purple-tinged and too closely tied to the heaving bosom books of the
past. At any rate, in 1990 the award that recognizes annually a living romance
writer whose record of excellence extends over fifteen years or more and whose
contributions to the genre are notable was renamed the Lifetime Achievement
Award. In 2008, in honor of the romance writer who is arguably the highest
achiever in the history of RWA, the award was rechristened the Nora Roberts
Lifetime Achievement Award. Vicki Lewis Thompson was the first recipient of the
award under its new name.
Studying the list of winners provides an
encapsulated history of modern romance fiction. The first winner was Virginia
Nielsen McCall, who had published more than thirty romance and YA novels by the
time she received the Golden Treasure in 1983. Three years later, Roberta
Gellis, author of the popular Roselynde Chronicles, a series of meticulously researched
Medieval romances published from 1978-1983, was the winner. Kathleen Woodiwiss,
whose 1972 novel The Flame and the Flower is credited with revolutionizing
romance fiction and inaugurating the modern romance, was the honoree in 1988.
RWA paid tribute to the queens of the “Gothic Revival” and early romantic
suspense over the next four years as in turn Eleanor Burford Hibbert (aka
Victoria Holt)*, Phyllis Whitney, Barbara Mertz (aka Barbara Michaels), and
Mary Stewart were recognized.
In 1995 and 1997 respectively, Jayne Ann Krentz and Nora
Roberts were the recipients of the LAA. Both writers were prolific and
successful within category fiction and groundbreakers in single-title romance
fiction. Krentz’s 1986 novel, Sweet Starfire, combined elements of romance with
science fiction to create a new subgenre, the futuristic romance. Roberts’s
success with interconnected tales of friends and family in series such as the
MacGregor books began one of the most firmly entrenched trends in romance
fiction, and her success with reissues of popular books transformed the shelf
life of paperback romance novels. Both women also proved themselves able and
eloquent defenders of the genre. The Krentz-edited collection of twenty-two
essays by romance writers, Dangerous Men and Adventurous Women: Romance Writers on the Appeal of
Romance (1992) received the Susan Koppelman
Award for Feminist Studies. Roberts vocally defends the
genre and argues for romance’s unique ability to incorporate
elements of other popular genres into its fluid form.
Krentz and Roberts, along
with other LAA winners such as Ann Maxwell, aka Elizabeth Lowell (1994), Anne Stuart (1996), Linda Howard
(2005), Susan Elizabeth Phillips (2006), Linda Lael Miller (2007), Vicki Lewis
Thompson (2008), and Debbie Macomber (2010) continue to produce books that keep
us happily reading. Last year, Sharon Sala became the twenty-seventh honoree on
this list that includes writers who have shaped the genre over half a century
or so, but even twenty-seven seems too few to do justice to the genre’s rich and extensive history.
I’d love to see an International Romance Writers Hall of
Fame, something along the lines of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame
that from 1996-2004 inducted four writers annually based on “their continued
excellence and long-time contribution to the science fiction and fantasy field.”
I would hope to see contributions of romance writers before the 1970s honored
as well as those since that turning point.
I already have my four nominees for the first inductees
prepared.
Jane Austen
Not only do many, many romance readers suffer from advanced
cases of Austen-mania, but romance writers, even some like Charlaine Harris who
appear to have little in common with Jane Austen acknowledge her influence.
Regency writer Carla Kelly acknowledged her debt to Austen in an AAR column
(August 2001): "In the odd moments when I manage a witty bit of dialogue
or tweak a plot until it begs for mercy, I can wink and think to myself,
'Thanks, Jane.'" Such tributes are too numerous to catalog, but they
provide abundant evidence that Austen continues to contribute to the genre.
Georgette Heyer
Think of almost any character type or plot device that we
associate with Regency-set historicals, and Heyer readers can point to a book
where Heyer used it. The intelligent, independent heroine, the arrogant lord,
the marriage of convenience, the innocent disillusioned, the heroine disguised
as a male—all these and more are handled with skill and wit in Heyer’s books. Mary
Jo Putney calls Heyer the inventor of a genre and Putney along with Judith
McNaught, Catherine Coulter, Leigh Greenwood, and surprisingly Robin Schone
acknowledge debts to Heyer.
Faith Baldwin
Not many of today’s romance readers know the work of
Baldwin, but she was the Nora Roberts of her day, perhaps the most famous and
financially successful American romance writer of the early twentieth century. A
New York Times critic wrote in 1939, "There ought to be some sort
of literary or at least book prize for Faith Baldwin.
She can turn them out a mile a minute, all readable . . . all tops in her
field." (Sounds like a description
of NR, doesn’t it?) Baldwin wrote eighty-five novels, several of which were
turned into movies. She created a popular series, the Little Oxford books that
spanned generations. The series included Station Wagon Set (1939), Any Village
(1971), No Bed of Roses (1973), Time and the Hour (1974), and Thursday's Child
(1976). Although the H/H in these books get their HEA and the sensuality level is sweet, Baldwin did not shy away
from issues such as infidelity, divorce, and career and family conflicts.
Nora Roberts
Do I even need to
explain this choice? The Witness (April 2012) will be Roberts’s two hundredth
novel, more than 175 of them New York Times bestsellers. More than 400 million
of her books are in print, and she is the public face and voice of the genre to
those outside it. Her MacGregor books made history when The McGregor Grooms
became the first Silhouette original title to hit # 1 on The New York Times bestseller
list, Perfect Neighbor became the first category romance ever to hit The
New York Times bestseller list, and The McGregor Brides became the
first Silhouette single title to hit The New York Times bestseller list.
Her success with series has been a major influence on the popularity of
connected books, and the sales of her reissued titles helped to extend the
shelf life of romance novels before digital books were thought of.
Do you think we need an International Romance
Writers Hall of Fame? Keeping in mind the criteria of excellence and
significant contribution to the genre, who would you like to see included?
