This post is part of a series on a selection of fictional books from the Yellowstone Research Library collection. The series started with Mysteries – Adult Fiction.
Today’s post starts off with a rollicking good romance from 1907 – Chaperoning Adrienne by Alice Harriman-Browne – a book I also discussed on our February 25, 2014 post Cupid in Yellowstone (https://www.nps.gov/yell/blogs/Cupid-in-Yellowstone.htm). This is an epistolary novel, a story told in letters and diary entries with wonderfully descriptive paragraphs about Yellowstone and artwork by Charles M. Russell (yes, that Charles M. Russell)
Yellowstone Park Romance by William Popham is another title that regular blog readers will recognize (https://www.nps.gov/yell/blogs/Yellowstone-Park-Romance-Day-1.htm). The story of Clara Denhart and her Gentleman Hobo is, as one of our interns noted, a lesson in wading through purple prose. But, again, there are some fantastic descriptions of Yellowstone and the Dedication (https://www.nps.gov/yell/blogs/Yellowstone-Park-Romance-Day-3.htm) is not to be missed.
Longtime romance readers will recognize the trope of “compelled to marry” in The Maid, the Man, and the Mystic by Marguerite Louise Verdier. In this book, a niece and nephew were both named after a wealthy uncle. When that wealthy uncle dies, Meriwether Lewis and Lewis Meriwether Clarke need to marry in order to inherit his money. If one of them refuses, the other gets all the money. They haven’t seen each other in over a decade and Meriwether isn’t sure she wants to marry a cousin she doesn’t remember fondly so she takes off for Yellowstone. A provident gust of wind carries her plans to the feet of Lewis who decides to follow…
Misty McCall is the heroine in Yellowstone Park Nurse by Colleen L. Rice. She has just graduated from nursing school and also survived a plane crash(!) She's looking forward to a summer in Yellowstone but immediately offends the head doctor, Dr. Neil Rogers. Of course, he is a forceful personality, not showing any kindness in word but only through fleeting touches of the hand. When Misty’s stay is extended through the winter, Dr. Neil will have to figure out how to work with this young woman; maybe even how to love.
Richard Bartlett wrote Yellowstone: a Wilderness Besieged about the history of the park and it really informed his fictional story, Yellowstone Holiday. Prudence Snowden is on a family vacation with her father, a judge, her mother, his beleaguered wife, and her pesky younger brother, Rusty. Also coming along is her spinster aunt who has a military beau. Bartlett’s grasp of the history of the park really makes this story come alive.
What do a high-fashion magazine editor and a backcountry ranger have in common? Not much until Zeke Lonetree rescues Katherine Seymour from a rushing river while she’s visiting Yellowstone Park. Nine months later, Katherine gives birth make Zeke a Bachelor Father in the book by Vicki Lewis Thompson.
There are several contemporary romance series set in Yellowstone but only Peggy Henderson’s series includes a bit of time travel. Her series starts off with Yellowstone Heart Song when contemporary nurse (and avid backpacker) Aimee Donovan is given the chance to visit the early days of Yellowstone Park. It’s there that she meets Daniel Osborne. But is he worth staying in the past?