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Captain Littlepage had overset his mind with too much reading.
--Sarah Orne Jewett, The Country of the Pointed Firs

Stories never really end. They can go on and on. It's just that sometimes, at a certain point, one stops telling them.
--Mary Norton, The Borrowers

What really knocks me out is a book that, when you're all done reading it, you wish the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt like it.
--J. D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye

Mr. Cobb took me into his library and showed me his books, of which he has a complete set.
--Ring Lardner

Help Wanted, Female: Career Books

If they're not in school and they're not married to husbands willing to support them in style and they're not pampered daughters of mystery-case lawyers, fictional heroines, like the rest of us, usually need to get a job.

Careers in old-time girls' series books tend to reflect somewhat limited choices for women--but not quite as limited as one might think. Typically "feminine" pursuits and seemingly glamorous careers are probably overrepresented in series books; professional white-clad nurses (Cherry Ames, Sue Barton, Kathy Martin, Penny Marsh, Nurses Three), globe-trotting flight attendants (Vicki Barr, Shirley Flight), determined reporters (Peggy Foster, Beverly Gray, Sally Baxter), attractive actresses (Carol Page, Kay Dale, Peggy Lane), hardworking advertising personnel (Connie Blair), and stylish models (Sara Gay) abound.

In addition to these series with continuing casts of characters, two publishers presented sets of career novels for the edification of young girls: Dodd, Mead offered the Career Books series (some multivolume series such as Penny Marsh and Peggy Foster were included under the Career Books rubric, along with stand-alone titles), and Julian Messner issued Career-Romances for Young Moderns (individual titles). A third publisher, Avalon, concentrated on nurse-romances.

Dodd, Mead Career Books

What Do You Want to Be?
Here is a group of CAREER BOOKS which present in interesting story form the requirements, problems, pleasures and future possibilities of selected fields of work that are worth while for young people today.

From the 1930s through the 1960s, the Dodd, Mead Career Books were written by people who had actually worked in the same field as their fictional heroines. For example, Dorothy Deming, who wrote books about nurse Penny Marsh--and several other nurse stories--had a distinguished nursing career, and Emma Bugbee, who wrote five books about young newspaper reporter Peggy Foster, was a noted journalist who had covered First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and had faced discrimination against women in the newsroom.

The Career Books included specific details on requirements and training for different careers, and sometimes even what salary one might expect (Dorothy Deming in particular offered salary information, usually in footnotes; in Linda Kent, Student Nurse, written in 1952, Linda is impressed when a fellow nursing grad takes a $3,600-a-year post).

The career possibilities considered in the various books run an interesting gamut. Girls could learn about careers in the performing arts in Yankee Ballerina by Marie-Jeanne and Hollywood Starlet by Dixie Wilson; about business careers in Patsy Breaks into Advertising by E. Evalyn Grumbine, Polly Tucker, Merchant by Sara Pennoyer, and Shirley Clayton, Secretary by Blanche L. Gibbs and Georgiana Adams; about health-related careers in Dorothy Deming's various nursing books, Karen Long, Medical Technician by Mary Ellis Turner, and Susie Stuart, M.D. by Caroline A. Chandler.

In addition, other titles examined areas as diverse as fashion design (Frills and Thrills by Louise Barnes Gallagher); home economics (Sally and Her Kitchens by May Worthington); library science (Marian-Martha by Lucile F. Fargo); and even military service (Bars on Her Shoulders by Jean Stansbury and Jackie Martin).

The books tend to depict young unmarried women and offer dollops of romance against the career backdrop, but career quests do not always end with marriage. For example, news reporter Peggy Foster, upon becoming engaged to Peter McPherson, worries:

"Think I could successfully combine matrimony and a career?" she had asked, pouring his second cup of coffee.

"There's no one I'd rather see try it," he had answered promptly. ... "You love your job. Why should you give it up?" (Peggy Covers the News, p. 251)

Despite the tone of deference--as though a career for a woman is a privilege, not a right--considering the times, the characters are quite forward-thinking.

Julian Messner Career-Romances for Young Moderns

Like the Dodd, Mead Career Books, the Career-Romances for Young Moderns in the late 1940s through the 1960s offered a dazzling array of possibilities for girls to discover both satisfying careers and true love. Unlike the Career Books authors, the Career-Romance writers were not necessarily veterans of the vocations they described; many penned novels about several careers.

The careers examined are similar to those in the Dodd, Mead books, but often several books explore different aspects of the same career: nursing (Flight Nurse by Nell Marr Dean, Aerospace Nurse by Virginia B. McDonnell, Cheryl Downing, School Nurse by Ruth McLeod); dance (Ballet Teacher by Lee Wyndham, Prima Ballerina by Gladys Malvern); acting (On Stage, Miss Douglas by Lisa Howard); library work (Miss Library Lady by Ann McLelland Pfaender, Nancy Runs the Bookmobile by Enid Johnson); teaching (A School for Suzanne by Marjorie Mueller Freer, Tomboy Teacher by Miriam Parker Betts); secretarial work (Marcia, Private Secretary by Zillah K. Macdonald, Washington Secretary by Alice Rogers Hager).

But some clearly nontraditional occupations are represented. Along with the story of a flight attendant (Jet Stewardess by Jane Gerard), there's a novel featuring a pilot (Girl Pilot by Kathlyn Gay). Introducing Patti Lewis, Home Economist by Helen Wells--who wrote mystery series about career girls Cherry Ames and Vicki Barr--features a traditionally "feminine" career, but women venture into male-dominated areas in Jean Libman Block's Linda Jordan: Lawyer, Lee Wyndham's Lady Architect, and Wells's Doctor Betty.

Though the Career-Romances for Young Moderns do have a heavy emphasis on romance, the young women depicted in them are often nontraditional in their thinking and behavior, and do not regard their careers as something to fill time until Prince Charming swoops in. For example, when career demands conflict with romance, the heroine of On Stage, Miss Douglas chooses her acting career instead of her boyfriend.

And in Doctor Betty, Betty Eaton bluntly tells her disapproving fiancé, "I'll be a good wife and a good mother, and I'll be a good doctor" (p. 33). When he demands that she choose between him and her career, she returns his ring, thinking, "I've made the only self-respecting choice" (p. 36). Though she must deal with adjustment problems and career-related conflicts, Betty later does find true love with someone else:

"Are you sure you want to be married to a wife who's a physician?"

"Why not? I think it's terrific that you're a doctor." (Doctor Betty, p. 138)

Many of the books do offer fairly realistic models for young women; though they emphasize romance, they do not belittle women's career strivings.

Avalon Nurse-Romances

Avalon published scores of nurse books over an extended period, well into the 1980s, many by seasoned practitioners of the genre like Adelaide Humphries (A Feather in Her Cap), Arlene Hale (The Lady Is a Nurse), and Adeline McElfresh (Nurse Kathy). These books generally offer romance or romantic suspense and are rather weak on realistic depictions of careers.

Avalon today is still publishing a line of career romances ("Avalon Career Romances explore the myriad of professions women undertake, while never losing sight of those things that matter most: love, happiness, & fulfillment"); though nurses (Vital Signs by Sandi Haddad) ballet dancers (Brooklyn Ballerina by Zelda Benjamin), and teachers (The Tycoon and the Schoolteacher by Ludima Gus Burton) are still well represented, women are also shown as police officers (A Time for Love by Joye Ames), research scientists (Love Runs True by Rachel Evans), and naval officers (A Command of the Heart by J. P. Mathews), and one intrepid heroine is even a major league baseball umpire (Making the Call by Pat Hines)!

Sources:
Avalon Books Career Romances, accessed 19 August 200l.
Bugbee, Emma. Peggy Covers the News. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1947.
Dodd, Mead. Blurb from back of dust jacket for Penny Marsh and Ginger Lee, Wartime Nurses, by Dorothy Deming. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1943.
Wells, Helen. Doctor Betty. New York: Julian Messner, 1969.

A Time for Love by Joye Ames	Brooklyn Ballerina by Zelda Benjamin	Gray-Eyed Glory by Alison Blake	Unwanted: Husband by Sandra D. Bricker	The Tycoon and the Schoolteacher by Ludima Gus Burton	Woven Hearts by Glen Ebisch
Love Runs True by Rachel Evans	Born for Each Other by Darlene Gardner	Love Undercover by Jean C. Gordon	In a Wink by Lacey Green	Vital Signs by Sandi Haddad	There's a Cupid in My Soup by Gail Hamilton
Making the Call by Pat Hines	A Command of the Heart by J. P. Mathews	Matters of the Heart by Terry Zahniser McDermid	Jessie's Wedding by Kathryn Quick	My Fair Lady Vet by Jeannette Sparks	The Boy Next Door by Mary Anne Taylor

Authors and Booksfor Children

Authors and Books
for Children