Library Girls

Something I glimpsed on Facebook this morning (and, of course, couldn't find again) alerted me to the existence of a literary subgenre that had somehow passed me by – midcentury 'library girl' fiction. These are novels following the adventures – too strong a word, in some cases – of improbably good-looking female library assistants. Some of them, such as Molly Qualifies as a Librarian by Bertha Lonsdale or Nancy Runs a Bookmobile by Enid Johnson, are closer to careers information than fiction, but others offer rather more. In Jinny Williams, Library Assistant (1962), which is set in New Jersey, the somewhat saintly Jinny, while not dealing with library-related challenges (e.g. chucking out troublemaking teens), is torn between two lovers – well, boyfriends – one of them blue-collar and uncultured, the other a cultivated Princeton student whom she meets at the library. Which will she choose? No spoiler alerts here, so let's pass on...Kitsy Babcock, Library Assistant by Joan Sargent…

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