In the 1970s and 1980s, many men wrote romance novels–using pseudonyms of course. Here we list some male romance writers from the old-school era.
Romance Is For Everyone
In the past, Sweet Savage Flame has focused on authors who used pseudonyms. We’ve posited reasons why romance writers would use pen names. One possibility given was that men were romance writers. As romance is often considered a woman’s topic, it’s understandable that male romance writers would favor an opposite-gendered moniker when publishing.
The realm of fictional violence has been historically masculine. Romance, on the other hand, has been consigned to the feminine sphere.
Upon closer inspection, the matter is not so black-and-white. While females account for 82 to 85% of the romance genre readership, that still means many men enjoy love stories with happy endings.
Consider that romance is a billion-dollar industry, with a 30% market share of paperbacks alone. Romance lags (barely) behind only the suspense/thriller genre in total sales for adult fiction.
In the United States, about 25 million romance books are sold annually. Despite being primarily a woman’s domain, that means there are quite a few male romance readers.
What about the writers?
Tom Huff: aka Jennifer Wilde, Edwina Marlowe and Beatrice Parker
Men were part of the 1970s romance revolution, and to this day, they remain part of it as writers and readers. Most male writers published books under pseudonyms in the early years of historical romance.
A few years after the release of The Flame and the Flower, in 1976, Avon’s competitor Warner Books published Love’s Tender Fury by Jennifer Wilde. Wilde had released Gothics under the names Edwina Marlow and Beatrice Parker.
In reality, he was Thomas E. Huff of Texas, and his 550-page saga became a huge hit, receiving dozens of printings and selling multi-million copies. Written in the “savage” style of romance, it told the tale of indentured servant Marietta Danvers and her rocky relationship with the purported hero, Derek. However, Marietta had other lovers along the way.
Unsurprisingly, it turns out that Huff was among many men who were romance writers working under pseudonyms. Subsequently, we decided to find out who were the authors behind the names.
Robert Vaughan’s Take on Being a Male Romance Writer
Robert Vaughan was a journeyman author, who used many pseudonyms and worked as a ghostwriter, He sold millions of books–but never when using his real name.
“I wrote [them] as Patricia Matthews, made number one on the list. In 1981, I sold 6 million books. In my lifetime, I have probably sold 40 million books, but nobody knows who I am. Now, my wife Ruth and I are co-writing romance novels as Sara Luck. She’s actually quite good at it, and I’m proud of her. And though the Sara Luck books don’t have my name, Ruth and I at least own the name.”
ROBERT VAUGHAN
Men Who Write Romance
Below is a list of male writers who authored romance novels during the 20th century.
There are many men since 2000 who now write romances. But as we are limiting the scope to “retro” authors, they are not on this list. For example, men (or couples) like Ilona Andrews or Sylvain Renard.
Nicholas Sparks, Robert James Waller, and similar writers of romantic fiction are also not included, as they were/are not writers of the Romance genre in general.
List of Retro Male Romance Writers (or Male & Female Duos)
A
- Felicia Andrews – Charles Grant
B
- Megan Barker – Roger Erskine Longrigg
- Monica Barrie – David Wind
- Grania Beckford – Roger Erskine Longrigg
- Laura Black – Roger Erskine Longrigg
- Emma Blair – Iain Blair
- Jessica Blair – Bill Spence
- Stephanie Blake – Jack Pearl
- Cousin to author Donald Bain aka Lee Jackson
- Madeleine Brent – Peter O’Donnell
- Brent had successfully published Gothics for years before the new bodice ripper era.
- Elizabeth Bright – Tim Myers
C
- Tori Carrington – Lori Karayianni & Tony Karayianni
- Shana Carrol – Kerry Newcomb & Frank Schaeffer (both men)
- Lucy Clark – Lucy Clark & Peter Clark
- Jan Coffey – Nikoo McGoldrick & Jim McGoldrick
D
- Emma Darcy – Wendy Brennan & Frank Brennan
- Until Frank’s death; then Wendy wrote by herself.
- Fancy Dewitt – Paul Fairman
- Jennifer Dalton – David Wind
- Marilyn Davids – David Wind
- Marilyn Davidson – David Wind
- Diana Douglas – Richard Wilkes-Hunter
E
- Rosalind Erskine – Roger Erskine Longrigg
F
- Paula Fairman – Paul Fairman & Robert Vaughan
- Fairman passed away in 1977. He was a prolific science fiction editor and writer who lived from 1916-1977. Fairman published two romances as Paula Fairman before he passed on. Later, Pinnacle Books, his publishing house, would continue to release Paula Fairman novels through a ghostwriter, a la V.C. Andrews. That “ghostwriter” was the even more prolific Robert Vaughan, author of the bestseller Andersonville.
- Caroline Farr – Richard Wilkes-Hunter
G
- Emma Goldrick – Emma Sutcliffe-Goldrick & Robert Goldrick
- Victoria Gordon – Gordon Aalborg (We’ve reviewed one of his romances here)
- Leigh Greenwood – Harold Lowry
- Greenwood openly writes a man but uses a gender-neutral pseudonym
H
- Caroline Hart– Charles Garvice
- Unheard of today, but Garvice was the best-selling British romance author of his era, from the late Victorian to the Pre-World War I era, releasing over 150 romance novels.
- Shirl Henke – Shirl & Chuck Henke
- Actually, Henke wrote all her books, but her husband would often guest-write a love or action scene, and Henke would leave you guessing which one it was.
- Melissa Hepburne – Craig Broude
- Broude is the only romance novelist to appear in his own book and have relations with the heroine, that scamp! I recommend reading his books with your butt unclenched, as his books are silly romps.
J
- Lee Jackson – Donald Bain
K
- Madeleine Ker – Marius Gabriel Cipolla
L
- Fabio – Fabio Lanzoni may have come up with ideas for his books, but he has at least two ghostwriters, one being Eugenia Riley.
- Laura London – Sharon Curtis & Tom Curtis
- Janet Lovesmith – Paul Fairman
- Sara Luck – Robert Vaughan & Ruth Vaughan
M
- Edwina Marlow – Tom E. Huff
- Shauna Marlowe – Richard Wilkes-Hunter
- Patricia Matthews– Patricia Brisco Matthews & Clayton Matthews, and Robert Vaughan
- The Matthews and their publishers claim she wrote her novels by herself, sometimes with the help of her husband. Matthews was labeled as “America’s First Lady of Historical Romance” after producing million-selling blockbuster after blockbuster. Interestingly enough, journeyman author, Robert Vaughan, claims responsibility for several of her bestsellers. We’ll follow up on this interesting discrepancy in a further article.
- A.E. Maxwell – Evan & Ann Maxwell
- Author Elizabeth Lowell wrote some romances with her husband by combining the initials of her real name Ann Maxwell and her husband’s first name Evan.
- May McGoldrick – Nikoo McGoldrick & Jim McGoldrick
- Paula Moore – Paul Fairman; Robert Vaughan
N
- Christina Nicholson – Christopher Nicole
P
- Beatrice Parker – Tom E. Huff
R
- Barbara Riefe – Alan Riefe
- Riefe published many books with Playboy Press and other publishers, selling millions of copies.
- Clarissa Ross – W.E.D. Ross
- Marilyn Ross – W.E.D. Ross
- Vanessa Royall – Mike Hinkemeyer
S
- Christina Savage – Kerry Newcomb & Frank Schaeffer (both males)
- Gill Sanderson – Roger Sanderson
- Con Sellers – Connie Sellers (male writing as a male)
- Sellers was a rarity in that he used his real name to write Pulps, Western and Historical romances, such as Marilee and Sweet Caroline.
- Janette Seymour – Michael Butterworth
- We’ve reviewed his bodice rippers and they’re quite entertaining.
- Katherine St. Clair – Tom E. Huff
- Jessica Stirling – Hugh Crawford Rae & author Peggy Coghlan
- Pamela South – Donald Bain
- Diana Summers – Robert Kimmel Smith
W
- Paulette Warren – Paul Fairman
- Jennifer Wilde – Tom E. Huff
Y
- Alison York – Christopher Nicole
**Saliee O’Brien & Francesca Greer** – Not a male, but often attributed as one. O’Brien/Geer was a woman named Frankie-Lee Griggs Weed Zelley Janas who used several pseudonyms, male and female, especially Francis Leroy Janas.
Some Books by Male Authors Reviewed on Sweet Savage Flame
Links
- James Reasoner: Pulp
- James Reasoner: More Pulp
- Library of Congress
- Western Fictioneers
- Donadees: Robert Vaughan
- Wikipedia: Robert Vaughan
- PaperbackSwap: Robert Vaughan
- Lee Goldberg: Robert Vaughan
- Statista: Adult Fiction Sales
- Esquire: Men Reading Romance
- Romance History: Tom E. Huff
- LA Times
- Romance History: Men Who Wrote Romance
- Tom Rizzo: Robert Vaughan Novel Approach History
- BBC News
- Duke University: Male Authors
- Library Thing
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I absolutely love this! I follow a few other romance blogs and none of them have ever written about male romance authors. Great post .
Thank you! There were quitea few men back “in the day” who wrote Gothics and Historicals. Now with independent publishing, there are even more writing romance, and many unafraid to use their real names. The genre is diversifying in multiple ways!
Also, Felicia Andrews, aka Charles Grant, wrote a handful of Romances in the late 70s and early 80s 🙂
I have a sort of loose intention to collect Romances from the 70s and 80s written by men, but given how many there are, I don’t think I’m going to try to be complete about it!
Felicia Andrews was on my original list, so how did I leave him/her off? Thanks, Jennifer; I’ll update the list.
This is such a great post!! I have read some Jennifer Wilde but had no idea there were so many other male romance authors out there!
WOW! As a male who recently began serious reading and collecting romances this was incredible!!!! Great research, this blog always feeds the mind!
Though there might be some exceptions, it’s easy to tell which books are written by men. There’s more violence (often graphic), cruelty (including animals, which really bugs me), infidelity, rape, and – worst of all – heroines who get kidnapped, raped and used as sex slaves, but love every orgasmic minute. Few women would write such a story (unless the money was too hard to resist). I just started reading a book, but when I picked up on the warning signs (animals being killed for sport while the H and h watch), I stopped reading.
I haven’t found that to be true at all, unless the vast majority of past romance writers were secretly men writing as women. That sort of story was pervasive; it was, to quote The Simpsons, the style at the time. 🙂 And obviously vast numbers of women enjoyed/enjoy reading them so why couldn’t they enjoy writing them?