Romance Fiction Has a History

(Author’s note- this post had been sitting in drafts for far too long, for reasons. But Gwen’s story deserves better than that.)

There are a countless number of romance authors who I wish I’d had a chance to met while they were alive, but Gwendolyn Johnson-Acsadi, who wrote as Gwynne Forster, is at the top of the list. The North Carolina native with degrees from Howard and American Universities was a talented sociologist and demographer before turning her skills to writing romance in later life. The biographical note for the finding aid to her papers only scratches the surface of how amazing she was. Gwendolyn was an incredible woman who spent more than 30 years working at the U.N. before retiring to start her own demography consulting business with the love of her life, George, AND serving as chairperson of the International Programme Committee of the International Planned Parenthood Federation. It wasn’t until the 1990s, when she was in her 70s, that she embarked on a writing career that would last for more than a decade.

I really want someone to write a book about Gwendolyn’s life, including her romance-novel worthy love story. Her daughter-in-law told me that Gwen and George met at a population conference and fell in love, but had a long-distance relationship for years because he lived behind the Iron Curtain in Hungary. He was finally able to emigrate and the two were married twice- once in Nigeria and then again in New York. The couple lived on Roosevelt Island in New York until George passed in 2012. The book almost writes itself!

I could carry on, but I’m trying to keep it short and sweet! So today, I wanted to highlight two things from Gwen/Gwynne’s history that I think are really interesting.

Gwen’s first published book was Sealed With a Kiss, published by Kensington in 1995 as one of the early entries in their Arabesque line. The story she tells is that Walt Zacharias sat down next to her at a conference and asked when she was going to write a book for him. A fruitful partnership was born! (I also recommend checking out this longer interview with Walt where he talks about creating Arabesque)

But as with many writers, Sealed With a Kiss wasn’t Gwen’s first manuscript. In 1991, she submitted a manuscript called Heather’s Prize to Silhouette, about a woman who worked at the U.N. falling in love with a wealthy European businessman. The characters in this initial manuscript were white, as at this point Silhouette hadn’t published any stories with Black characters. Silhouette rejected the book, and the manuscript seems to have gone in the drawer.

Twenty years after first submitting the manuscript, Heather’s Prize finally saw the light, published as Reckless Seduction by Kimani in 2012. This time Heather was named Haley, a beautiful young Black woman rising through the ranks at the United Nations. The book would be Gwen’s last full-length publication, bringing her writing career full circle.

Now for my favorite. Alongside Gwen’s papers, her family donated copies of all of her books, and many of them are signed. Several of them have more than a signature as they were gifts from Gwen to her husband, George, who was by all accounts her biggest fan. He managed her mailing lists, and also kept lists of publications that he would bug to review her books. We could all use a hype man like George. You can almost imagine his smile when Gwen gave him a copy of her second book, Against All Odds, and he read this:

To my husband-
my friend, my love
who loves, supports
and encourages me.
I couldn’t do it without you.
Love, Gwen

Sigh. Now it’s gotten all dusty in here.

I did also want to add that one might expect a proper lady like Gwen, writing while she was in her 70s, to keep the content of her books pretty tame. Let’s just say that IS NOT the case. She brought the heat when she wanted to! I’ve certainly read a few of her scenes while blushing.

Gwendolyn Johnson-Acsadi was a trailblazer throughout her life, and brought that spirit to her third career, as a romance author, eventually publishing more than 50 novels and novellas. As one of the earliest Arabesque writers, who continued on with the imprint when it moved to BET and finally its rebranding as Kimani when it was purchased by Harlequin, she’s certainly earned a place in romance history.