reviews_and_ramblings | Jennifer Wilde (January 8, 1938

Tom Elmer Huff (January 8, 1938 - January 16, 1990) was a best-selling American author of romance novels under the pen names Jennifer Wilde, Edwina Marlow, Beatrice Parker, and Katherine St. Clair.

Huff spent several years as a high-school English teacher before becoming a novelist. He wrote gothic novels for nine years under the pseudonyms Edwina Marlow, Beatrice Parker, and Katherine St. Clair.

In 1976, Huff adopted the pseudonym Jennifer Wilde when he began writing historical romance novels. His first release, Love's Tender Fury, had 41 printings in its first five years, and his second historical romance, Dare to Love, spent 11 weeks on the New York Times paperback bestseller list. His historical romances were noted for being written in first-person, from the heroine's perspective. Many of his books also featured multiple male protagonists, and "the man who first captures the heroine's heart isn't always the one who ends up with it."

Huff earned a Career Achievement Award in 1987-1988 from Romantic Times.

He passed away at January 16, 1990.

"No, Jennifer's the one with the cigarette." Texas novelist Tom Elmer Huff, posed with his mother, Beatrice, in his first public portrait. He became Jennifer Wilde in 1975 when he took to writing historical romances. Huff was only one among many male writers who had wooed romance readers by adopting prettier names, but he is by far the most popular of the bunch.

"In college I wrote trenchant, deep, profound epics," said the soft-voiced, cordial author, whom friends described as a witty "Noel Coward type." Then, he said, "I grew up."

The former high school English teacher, who spent nine years writing gothics under other female pseudonyms before becoming Jennifer, made his arch, sharp-tongued heroines the first-person chroniclers of their exploits ("I forced a lilting, flirtatious tone"), but he insisted that the books "aren't the real Tom Huff. I don't take the genre seriously-but I take my work seriously." He researched laboriously and wrote and rewrote in a tidy workroom in the Fort Worth home he shared with his mother.

"Each book took longer and longer. I've become more painstaking, more professional." There are "mandatory heavy-breathing scenes," of course, "but I don't write down to readers. I'd rather take the time and do it good."" (Excerpt from Life Magazine)

First Book - The Master of Phoenix Hall (1968) as Edwina Marlow: The Master of Phoenix Hall

Last Book - They Call Her Dana (1989): They Call Her Dana

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jennifer_Wilde

Cover Art by James Griffin for Susannah, Beware by T.E. Huff

Jennifer Wilde (January 8, 1938 - January 16, 1990)

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