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Harlequin Enterprises Limited 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 until purchased in 2014 by News Corp in a deal closed On Aug 1 2014 under which Harlequin will be run as a division of HarperCollins. ==Early years== 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.〔Hemmungs Wirten (1998), p. 63.〕 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. In 1953, Harlequin began to publish medical romances. When the company's chief editor died the following year, Bonnycastle's wife, Mary, took over his duties.〔()〕 Mary Bonnycastle enjoyed reading the romances of British publisher Mills and Boon, and, at her urging, in 1957 Harlequin acquired the North American distribution rights to the category romance novels which had been published by Mills and Boon in the Commonwealth of Nations.〔Thurston (1987), p. 42.〕 The first Mills and Boon novel to be reprinted by Harlequin was Anne Vinton's ''The Hospital in Buwambo'' (Mills and Boon No 407).〔Hemmungs Wirten (1998), p. 64.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Harlequin Enterprises」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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