Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1884-04-25
JIIE DIME NOVEL.
Interesting Gossip about Its origin and
History.
IN. Y. Cor. Boston Transcript.


History.
IN. Y. Cor. Boston Transcript
| went down into Williams street the
other day and made n visit to the father
of the dime novel-Erastus L. Beadle. i
climbed up the stairs, expecting to be
stopped on every landing and to be asked
for the countersign but, to my surprise,
the office was much like any other. There
were no rifles in the corner, no scalps that
L could see, no "keen, shining blades,
no 'haunch of venison" nothing, alas
but the skin of some little animal that was
stretched over frame in the Office of the
editor This was the only thing in the
rooms that smacked of the ''plains," and
this, am afraid, came from Jersey
swamp. The head of the house, Mr.
Beadle, is an active, pleasant white haired
gentleman, little past the prime of life,
who received me cordially, and told quite
an interesting story about the origin and
development of the dime novel" The
idea, said he, Occurred to me in 80. and
L began publishing in go. The state of
the book market then was peculiar
Every one was publishing books with thick
paper and wide margins-trying to see
how little they could give their readers for
dollar or a dollar and a half. Publish
ers exchanged books, and took back snch
as were not sold. Well, I took the other
tack, and thought would see how much
/ could give for ten cents cash sales, no
credit Every one said the project would
fail, but it didn't. We first published
dime song-books, cook books, etiquette
books, etc, which we bound in salmon
colored cover. No 'yelow-covered dimes
were ever sent out by me the color is sal
mon. The yellow covered ones were im1-
tations, and were bad lot. Well, aftera
while L started the dime novel, Mrs.
Ann S. Stephens was the author OF the
first one-'M 'Madeska,' prize story, pub
lished forty years ago in the Ladies' Com
panion. | paid her $3.50 for the right to
reprint the story. We sold ten thousand
copies right of, and then twenty thousand
more. Our other authors? Why, some
of the best-known writers in the country.
Here is Mr.. Victor, an old friend of Hor-
ace Greedy, my editor for many years; he
knows more about these things than I
do"
Mr.. Victor took up the thread of the
narrative and went on as follows "Our
authors are well-known men. There's n
book by a man who was once mcmbero of
the Ohio Legislature another by an ex-
governor of OHIO. He never wrote us 4
bad line. Edward S. Ellis--you know
him-wrote us our most popular novel.
He was Methodist, and he went to his
minister TO know whether he could write
a dime novel. He was n school teacher IN
Trenton and wasn't twenty one when he
wrote his first dime, for which he got
S75. That was Seth Jones" "Wlv,"
,i-o, NJ ii =,
his enthusiasm, eve plastcred the coun-
try with who is Seth Jones 2 and when
the excitement ran high We aswercd th"
question with that picture you see on
that cover, I'm Seth Jones' We sold
sixty thousand copies of that story rlgny
off.
You see, continued the editor, 'these
novels introduced either historical or To-
cal characters. They followed right after
'Cooper's Tales, which suggested them.
Mrs A. NJ. Dennison wrote historic fic-
ton Judge Jared Hall of Ohio wrote
The Slave Sculptor story of Mexico in
Montezoma's time good names. Then
there was Clara Augusta you know her, OF
course. She is a Maine lady. Don't
: know her? Well, that dose mt speak very
well for Boston culture. She's famous
writer. This was very humiliating, but
| had to bear up under the genial editors
reproaches and defended Boston as well
as | could. Ellis wrote exclusively for
: lis, and we have paid him as high as a25e
for n novel of forty thousand words
Why, We pay better, than in proportion
= the quantity Of matter we accept, thar
I the Atlantic Monthly does Again
= was crushed, and felt the uselessness OF
attempting to match New England cul
r turc against the dime novel. Ourstoriet
q were very popular and our rivals of the
y yellow covers and the Claude Duval serie,
--yAu books began to spring up. Wha
t, -, We do then? Oh, we bad to kill ;
e few more Indians than we used to; W,
; held our own against them. But ours ar,
n stories of exciting adventure only there
{ nothing bad about them. See this articl,
o in the North American Review for July
II 1864, wherein they are described and crit
: icised. They are pronounced exception
/ ally moral, and they do not even obscure
u ly pander to vice or excite passions. Th
!, Libraries have sent these old-style DIM
= novels into the background, though w
keep a atock of the best ones on hand still
n There are three styles the boys' Librar
d five cents1, the Half-Dime Library au'
d the Dime Library-the last being doubl
/. the size of the others. We won't touch
o story that isn't worth $50, and it ought t
e bring S75 or 800. That's s75 story yo
If have there Antelope Abe; the Bo
e Guide. The public is tired of the blood
e and thunder, sensational run mad style
n we give them sweet little stories, of cours
a lively, but not immoral. ! wouldt touc
II y anything of that kind with ten.foot pol
u wouldn't have anything to do with tn
y stuff. For the dime size, containing S75
ie 600 words, we never pay less than Sl5(
is and from that to $3.50, the average
'p p 5000.
&c "Mayne Reid? We have large list ,
If his works. He would have sunk int
is obscurity il we hadn't sustained hin
W He has written certainly fifty stories m
ol sketches for MS. He was working for l
he exclusively for eight or nine years "
n made n double number of his Sea-
- Hunters, one of his most popular storio
sc rcprinting 1t at his request. He retaint
s. OF course the English rights in his work
e- We never paid him less thens600 for
story that was the stsndard price, thoul
- we may have raid him more at times.
y remember lie brought his White Squa
:, down here one morning and sad he mu
10 linve S700 for it, and we gave him che,
nv without reading the manuscript, wicl
TO- contained only about fifty thousai
ar words. Reid was always in moneta
NO troubles, but he was a prolific writer, al
,ty when he got hard up he would dash {
ea sketch after sketch and come down he
ed with his pockets stuffed. Here is lot
Ter his manuscripts now that never has be-
he printed on this side. He sent us sketch
iat up to his death. Here is a story entitl
~ "A Fight in Flood, which with t
e., sketch that st. Nicholas printed recent
are was the last that came from his pen.
Is I think that we published for ten or TWEEN
';n 'm cents about all the stories of his that a
he b pear in the regular editions OF doll
NV books.