Cherry Ames

Cherry Ames is a popular book series for girls published by Grosset & Dunlap from 1943 to 1968. Helen Wells (1910-1986) wrote volumes #1-7 and 17-27, and Julie Campbell Tatham (1908-1999), the creator of Trixie Belden, wrote volumes #8-16. Wells also created the Vicki Barr series.

The series stars a job-hopping, mystery-solving nurse in the Nancy Drew mold, named Cherry Ames. Cherry (short for Charity) hailed from Hilton, Illinois (based on Wells' hometown of Danville, Illinois); her father, Will Ames, was a real estate agent. She was steered into nursing by Dr. Joseph Fortune, an old family friend who delivered Cherry and her twin brother Charlie; Cherry's training at the Spencer Hospital School of Nursing was chronicled in the first two books. There she met the classmates who would become her lifelong friends: Gwen Jones, Ann Evans, Bertha Larsen, Mai Lee, Josie Franklin, and Vivian Warren.

The series was created to encourage girls to enter the nursing profession during World War II, with the third book in the series Army Nurse having Cherry joining the Army Nurse Corps. After the war, Cherry and her friends moved to New York, settling into an apartment at 9 Standish Street in Greenwich Village. Whenever Cherry wasn't working with the Visiting Nurse Service, Dr. Joe would often send her on assignments in various parts of the country.

Unlike other nurses of girls' fiction such as Sue Barton and Kathy Martin, Cherry remained single throughout her career. There were occasional boyfriends, such as Dr. Marius Lexington "Lex" Upham.

Cherry Ames books that are in near mint condition have sold for up to $300 dollars each on eBay, with wartime editions and the last three books especially rare. A new edition of the timeless classic, Cherry Ames, Student Nurse had been released by the Palm Healthcare Foundation, Inc., through its Palm Publishing LLC subsidiary. Proceeds from the sale of the books were used to support nursing scholarships. That edition is no longer available.

In 2005, the Cherry Ames books written by Helen Wells were licensed to Springer Publishing Company. The first four books in the series (Student Nurse, Senior Nurse, Army Nurse, and Chief Nurse) were reprinted in facsimile hardcover editions in October 2005, and are available as a boxed set. In August 2006, the next four (Flight Nurse, Veterans' Nurse, Private Duty Nurse, and Visiting Nurse) were published in the same format, individually and as a boxed set. In June 2007, four more books were published (Cruise Nurse, Boarding School Nurse, Department Store Nurse, and Camp Nurse), with four more planned for August 2007 (At Hilton Hospital, Island Nurse, Rural Nurse, and Staff Nurse). The remainder are due in the months to come.

Books in the series

 * Student Nurse
 * Senior Nurse
 * Army Nurse
 * Chief Nurse
 * Flight Nurse
 * Veterans' Nurse
 * Private Duty Nurse
 * Visiting Nurse
 * Cruise Nurse (the first written by Julie Tatham, but credited to Helen Wells)
 * At Spencer (the first credited to Tatham)
 * Night Supervisor
 * Mountaineer Nurse
 * Clinic Nurse
 * Dude Ranch Nurse
 * Rest Home Nurse
 * Country Doctor's Nurse (Julie Tatham's last)
 * Boarding School Nurse (Helen Wells' return to the series)
 * Department Store Nurse
 * Camp Nurse: The Clue of the Faceless Criminal
 * At Hilton Hospital: The Case of the Forgetful Patient
 * Island Nurse: Mystery of Rogue's Cave
 * Rural Nurse: The Case of the Dangerous Remedy
 * Staff Nurse
 * Companion Nurse
 * Jungle Nurse
 * The Mystery in the Doctor's Office
 * Ski Nurse Mystery

Companion volumes

 * Book of First Aid and Home Nursing

Holiday specials
These were printed and distributed only in the UK, usually before Christmas. Each had two original Cherry Ames short stories by Helen Wells, and other stories by other authors.


 * Cherry Ames Girls Annual, 1957
 * Cherry Ames Girls Annual, 1958
 * Cherry Ames Girls Annual, 1959
 * Cherry Ames Girls Annual, 1960
 * Cherry Ames Girls Annual, 1961
 * Cherry Ames Girls Annual, 1962
 * Cherry Ames Girls Annual, 1963
 * Cherry Ames Girls Annual, 1964

Board games

 * Cherry Ames' Nursing Game