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Avalon Books' Nurse Series cover art by Edrien King (1970s, 1980s)

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Steamy Saturday

The New Nurses by prolific nurse romance novelist Arlene Hale (1924-1982), published in New York as "A Candlelight Romance" by Dell Publishing Co. in 1970, is less about steam than it is about white privilege and racial stereotypes. One of the steamiest passages (if it could be called that) comes near the very end of the novel:

[Paul] came striding toward her, prowlish, tigerish. But for the barest of moments, he looked at her with love in his eyes, and her thoughts leaped joyously toward the night. Then he changed. He was not the man who had just said he loved her, who kissed her ardently at the door and breathe promise into all her tomorrows. This was the doctor. Tough. Sharp, demanding the best from them.

So much for steam.

The story revolves around two nursing-school chums, Lynn Lawrence and Bobbi Wagner, who Hale describes this way: "Bobbi was Negro, light-skinned and while not strikingly beautiful, she was nice-looking and the uniform suited her. Lynn was a golden blonde, with very blue eyes and a peaches-and-cream complexion. They were a startling combination." Not a very auspicious beginning.

They leave Chicago together for new jobs in the same hospital, both fleeing unpleasant circumstances: Lynn, a failed relationship; Bobbi, a mooching, ne'er-do-well younger brother. They move in together, but their relationship is sometimes strained as they come to realize they are from different sides of the track with different temperaments: Lynn is all peaches and cream and American apple pie; Bobbi is moody and surly, “moods … sometimes as black as her skin.” Yikes! Even their romances reflect racial stereotypes: Lynn dates competent and accomplished Dr. Paul Hamilton; Bobbi falls in with itinerant, hip jazz musician DeVore Dunsmore.

Things get more strained when Bobbi's lame-ass brother Johnny takes up residence on their couch, and Lynn and Bobbi vie for the same supervisor position. Bobbi thinks Lynn is dating the doctor to get the job and also believes she herself is hamstrung because of her race, which her boyfriend reinforces: "You forget where you’re from. You forget you’re just a black girl. . . . You’ll never make it. Because you’re black." Got that, Bobbi?

In the end, someone else gets the supervisor job (phew!), Lynn gets the doctor, and Bobbi cuts DeVore loose because she sees no future in following him around from gig to uncertain gig. Both fulfill their early-1970s audience expectations about these women's station in life. And in the end, Bobbi reinforces those expectations by declaring, "You know something Lynn. . . I think it's going to work." To which Lynn replies, "So do I. Oh, so do I!"

Dell's Candlelight Romance series ran from 1967 to 1982. The cover art for The New Nurses is by Edrien King.

View more posts on books by Arlene Hale.

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