Mills & Boon is a London romance publisher founded in 1908, known for its 1930s lending-library hardbacks and owned since 1971 by Harlequin, now part of HarperCollins.
Mills & Boon is a publisher based in Richmond, founded in 1908. We track 2,332 editions it published between 1910 and 2017, 11 of them first editions across 2,315 books. How Mills & Boon marked its first editions is set out below, with a checker for the year on your title page.
About Mills & Boon
Mills & Boon is a London romance publisher, founded in 1908 by Gerald Mills and Charles Boon, who had both worked at Methuen. It has belonged to Harlequin, itself now part of HarperCollins, since 1971.
The partners began with £1,000 as a general publisher, with textbooks, travel and craft books on the list as well as novels, although their very first book, Sophie Cole's Arrows from the Dark, was a romance. Victor Bridges and Hugh Walpole were early authors, and between 1912 and 1923 the firm issued many of Jack London's adventure stories in Britain.
After a hard 1920s the firm moved into romance, as Depression readers looked for escape and commercial lending libraries multiplied. In the 1930s it became a library house turning out more than 160 titles a year, its hardbacks known as "the brown books" from their bindings and sold in brightly coloured jackets.
When the commercial libraries faded in the late 1950s it turned to newsagents, and paperbacks followed in the 1960s, reaching half of turnover by 1966. Harlequin of Canada began reprinting its romances for North America in 1957, and the Boon family sold to Harlequin in 1971. Its current lines include Modern, Historical and Medical, and it now issues more e-books than printed books.
Holding a copy? The first edition checker shows Mills & Boon's practice for the year on your title page.
Identification
How to identify Mills & Boon first editions
What to look for
For most of its life Mills & Boon has been a high-volume romance house, first in hardback for the lending libraries and later in paperback. Collector interest centres on the early general list and on 1920s and 1930s titles in their jackets.
Before 1930
The early list was general: novels by authors such as Hugh Walpole and Jack London appeared beside textbooks and travel and craft books, so an early Mills & Boon first need not be a romance.
1930s to 1940s
The firm sold mainly to commercial lending libraries in these years, so copies that passed through those libraries are part of the surviving stock.
How the firm worded first edition statements in these years has not been confirmed from two independent sources.
1950s to 1960s
From 1957 Harlequin of Canada reprinted Mills & Boon romances for North America. For a romance first issued in London, the Harlequin paperback is a later North American issue, not the first edition.
Mills & Boon's own paperbacks began in the 1960s and ran alongside its hardbacks, so for a title of this period check whether a hardback came first.
From 1971
Harlequin now owned the firm, and the same romance can carry either name depending on the market. Establish which imprint and country issued it first before calling any copy a first edition.
For most of its life Mills & Boon has been a high-volume romance house, first in hardback for the lending libraries and later in paperback. Collector interest centres on the early general list and on 1920s and 1930s titles in their jackets. Before 1930 - The early list was general: novels by authors such as Hugh Walpole and Jack London appeared beside textbooks and travel and craft books, so an ea
How many Mills & Boon books does MyVolumes track?
We track 2,332 editions published by Mills & Boon, 11 of them first editions, across 2,315 books.
