Richard Henry Gardyn Bonnycastle (August 25, 1903 - September 29, 1968) was a Canadian lawyer, fur trader, adventurer, and a businessman who helped found and then owned the romance novel publishing company, Harlequin Enterprises.
Harlequin was founded in 1949 as a partnership between Advocate Printers, Doug Weld of Bryant Press in Toronto, and Jack Palmer who was then head of the Canadian distributor for the Saturday Evening Post and the Ladies' Home Journal.
[5] Mary Bonnycastle enjoyed reading the romance novels of British publisher Mills & Boon and believed there was a market for their books in Canada and the United States.
Her idea led to the most important decision in the company's history with the 1957 deal that saw Harlequin become the exclusive North American distributor for Mills & Boon romance novels.
[1] Bonnycastle died in 1968 as a result of a heart attack moments after docking his floatplane at a hunting lodge on Long Island Bay in the southern section of Lake Winnipegosis.