description: Dime Novels and Pulp Fiction, with 192 books, includes such authors as Horatio Alger, B.M. Bower, Max Brand, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Howard Garis, O. Henry, Charles Alden Seltzer, Garret Serviss, and Burt Standish. It Stratemeyer Syndicate series books written under the names of Victor Appleton, Allen Chapman, Alice Emerson, Laura Lee Hope, Margaret Penrose, Roy Rockwood, Arthur Winfield, and Clarence Young. Intended for use with Windows PCs and recent Macs (OS X), these books are in plain-text format, organized for easy access. Dime novels and pulp fiction are ephemeral works of popular fiction, frequently published under pseudonyms. They were published in large quantities, sold at low prices, and were printed on the cheapest paper, which deteriorates quickly. Many turned to dust and were lost. Others have recently been preserved in electronic form. According to the Wikipedia Encyclopedia, "In the United States in the late 19th century and very early 20th century, a dime novel was a low-priced novel, typically priced at 10 cents (a dime). The original dime novels were published in a tabloid format, but later evolved into a more standard book format. In the United Kingdom similar books were called penny dreadfuls, a term also referring to the denomination of coin needed to buy one from a vendor. "Dime novels and penny dreadfuls often involved melodramatic tales of vice and virtue in conflict, often with strong elements of horror and cruelty. Their main audience consisted of young and/or unsophisticated readers, primarily male. "Many American dime novels had inspirational themes, most notably those written by Horatio Alger, Jr.. Respected writers such as Theodore Dreiser and Upton Sinclair often wrote dime novels under pseudonyms. New York City-based firm Street &amp; Smith, founded in 1855, was one of the most prolific publishers of the genre." Also, according to Wikipedia, "The name 'pulp' comes from the cheap wood pulp paper on which such magazines were printed. Magazines printed on better paper and usually offering family-oriented content were often called "glossies" or "slicks". Pulps were the successor to the "penny dreadfuls" and "dime novels" of the nineteenth century. Although many respected writers wrote for pulps, the magazines are perhaps best remembered for their fast-paced, lurid, sensational and exploitative stories. Parallels between comic books and pulp magazines can be drawn; for example, magazines often featured illustrated novel-length stories of heroic characters such as The Shadow, Doc Savage, and The Phantom Detective. "Because of the copyright laws at the time, there were distinct lines of this sort of magazine in Britain as well. These magazines, called "story papers", were distributed throughout the British Empire. Characters such as Sexton Blake and Nelson Lee were similar characters there. At the time, there was no global media market, so even though these were written in the same language, there was no recognition of the characters by each nation, just as in much of television today. "Pulp covers were famous for their half-dressed damsels in distress, usually awaiting a rescuing hero."
title: Dime Novels and Pulp Fiction
titlecomplete: Dime Novels and Pulp Fiction
publisher: B&R Samizdat Express