Dime Novel Collection
Item
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Title
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Dime Novel Collection
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Description
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Albert Johannsen Collection
and Edward LeBlanc Collection
The first dime novels were initially published around the start of the American Civil War, and became wildly popular in both the United States and in England, where they were known as "penny dreadfuls." Named for their cheap prices, dime novels were distributed in numerical series at newsstands and dry goods stores for a dime or a nickel a piece. The books were simple in appearance, bound in cheap paper with a brightly illustrated cover. They were lightweight at only about 100 pages long, easy to carry, and easy to pass around.
Irwin and Erasmus Beadle and Robert Adams published the first dime novel under their publishing house, Beadle and Adams, in 1860. It was a short novel entitled "Malaeska, the Indian Wife of the White Hunter," written by Mrs. Ann S. Stephens.
Irwin Beadle joined up with George Munro, a bookkeeper in the publishing house, and they founded their own house, Munro. Munro began to publish its own version of dime novels, calling them "Ten Cent Novels."
Another major publishing house for dime novels was Street and Smith. Authors like Horatio Alger, Upton Sinclair, and Jack London wrote for Street and Smith under pen names to make the money that would come with their published works.
Some of the most well-known dime novel writers were Thomas C. Harbaugh, Albert W. Aiken, Edward L. Wheeler, Joseph W. Badger, Jr., and Colonel Prentiss Ingraham. Ingraham was the most successful writer of the short novels as the creator of the famous character, Buffalo Bill.
(https://www.history.org.uk/student/resource/4512/american-dime-novels-1860-1915)
Dime novels are located in the Albert Johannsen collection and Edward LeBlanc collection by series title:
*The Buffalo Bill Stories No. 1
*Ned Buntline's Own Series No. 4
*The Five Cent Wide Awake Library Vol. 1 No. 11 (September 30, 1878)
*Buffalo Bill Border Stories No. 211 by Col. Prentiss Ingraham
*Nick Carter Weekly No. 304
*Beadle's Dime Novels No. 1 "Malaeska: the Indian Wife"
*Munro's Ten Cent Novels No. 171
*Nugget Library No. 83 (March 5, 1891)
*Deadwood Dick Library No. 2
*Penny Popular Novels: "Dred; A Tale fo the Great Dismal Swamp" by Harriet Beecher Stowe
*The New Nick Carter Weekly No. 27 (July 8, 1897)
*Irwin P. Beadle's Ten Cent Novels No. 5
