, 1884-05-08
DIME LITERATURE.
Those Who Have Contributed to the
General Demand.
A Talk with old Mr.. ReadIe. the
Father OF the Dime Novel.
Brings to Light Illus
trIOua Names.

/ went down into Williams street the other
day and made u visit to the father of ths
dime novel-Erastus T. Beadle. / climbed
up the stairs, expecting to be stopped on
every landing and to be asked for the counter
sign; but, to my surprise, the office was much
like any other. There were no rifles in the
corner, no scalps that 1 could see, no "keen,
shining blades no "hAunch OF Yenisonr-
nothing, nlasl but the skin OF some little
animal that was stretched over a frame in
the Office Of the editor. This was the only
thing in the rooms that smacked OF the
"plains, - and this, l am afraid, came from a
Jersey swamp. The head of the house, Mr..
Beadle is an active, pleasant, white-haired
gentleman, a little past the prime Of life,
who received me cordially, and told quite an
interesting story about the origin and de-
~velopment Of the dime novel.
"The idea, ~ said he, occurred to me in 80,
aud | began publishing in 90. The state of
the book market then was peculiar. Every
one was publishing books with thick paper
and wide margins-trying TO SEQ how little
they could give their readers for a dollar or a
dollar and a half. Publishers exchanged
books, and took back such as
were not sold. Well, | took the
other tack, and thought l would sec how
much / could give for 10 cents; cash sales,
no credit. Every one said the project would
fail, but it didn't. We first published dime
@ong-books, cook-books, etiquette books, etc,
which we bound in n salmon-colored cover.
No 'yellow-covered dimes were ever sent out
by me; the color is salmon. The yellow COW
erred ones were limitations, and were a bad
lot. Well, after a while l started the dime
novel Mrs. Ann S. Stephens was the au-
thor Of the first one-'Madeska,' a prize story,
published forty years ago in The Ladies'
Companion. ! paid her $3.50 for the right to
reprint the story. We sold 10000 copies
right off, and then 20,OO0. Our other authorsi
Why, some OF the best known writers in the
country. Here is Mr.. Victor, an old friend
Of Horace Greeley, my editor for many years;
he knows more about these things than l do"
Mr.. Victor took up the thread Of the mar
Tative and went on as follows: sour authors
are well known men. There's a book by a
man who was once q member of the Ohio leg
stature; another by an ex-governor of Ohio.
He never wrote US n bad line. Edward S.
Ellis-you know him us our most
popular novel He was a Methodist, and he
went to his minister TO know whether no
could write a dime novel. He was q school
teacher in Trenton, and wasn't 81 when he
wrote his first dime for which he got SIS.
That was Seth Jones'" "Why," broke in
Mr.. Beadle, unable to restrain his enthusiasm,
ave plastered the country with Who is Seth
JOnesf and when the excitement ran high we
answered the question with that picture you
see ON that cover, Pm Seth Jonek' We sold
$1,000 copies OF that story right Off"
You see continued the editor, ~these
novels introduced either historical or local
characters. They followed right after
'Cooper's Tales, which suggested them. Mrs.
A. NJ. Dennison wrote historic fiction; Judge
Jared Hall, of Ohio, wrote The Slave Sculp-
tor n story of Mexico in Montezuma,s time
good names. Then there was Clara Au-
gusta; you know her, OF course. She is a
Maine lady. Don't know heri Well, that doesn't
speak very well for Boston culture. She's a
famous writer. Ellis wrote exclusively for
us, and we have paid him as high as $3.50 for
a novel of 10000 words. Why. we pay bet
ter, in proportion to the quantity of matter
we accept, than The Atlantic Monthly doesi
Our stories were very popular, and our rivals
of the yellow covers and the Claude Duval
series-bad books-began to spring up.
What did we do them oh, we had to kill a
few more Indians than we used to; we held
our own against them. But ours are
stories of exciting adventure only;
there's nothing bad about them. Sec
this article in The North American Review
for July, 1884, wherein they are de-
scribed and criticised. They are pronounced
exceptionally moral and they do not even
obscurely pander to vice or excite passions
TIL libraries nave sent these od-style dime
novels into the background, though we keep
II stock of the best ones on hand still. There
are three styles-the Boys Library five
cents, the Half inn Library and the Dime
LibrRry-the last being double the size of the
Others. We won't touch a story that is MT
worth $50, and 1t ought to bring SIS or 500.
That $ IA sI5 story you have there-'Antelope
Abe; the Boy Guide The public is tired of
the Observation-Disclosures, sensational run mad
style; we give them sweet little stories, of
M liURlp hnN No fnnnI --Il-1N
touch anything OF that kind with a ten-foot
Pole-wouldn't have anything to do with the
stuff. For the dime size, containing 75, 900
word, we never pay less than 1880, and
from that to $3.50; the average is 5000.
"Mayne Reidf We have IA large list of his
works He would hive sunk into obscurity
il we hadn't sustained him. He has written
certainly fifty stories and sketches for us. He
was working for us exclusively for eight or
nine years. We made u double number of
his scalp Hunters one Of his most popular
stories, reprinting it at his request. He re-
tainei of course the English rights in his
works. We never paid him less thar 500
for n story; that was the standard price,
though we may have paid him more ut times.
l remember he brought his White Squaw'
down here one morning and said he must
have 500 for 1t, and we gave him q check
without reading the manuscript, which con-
tanned only about 5000 words. Reid was
always in monetary troubles, but he was q
prolific writer, and when he got hard up he
would dash of sketch after sketch and come
down here with his pockets stuffed. Here is
"A lot Of his manuscripts now that never has
been printed on this side. He sent us
sketches up TO his death. Here is a story en-
titled "A Fight in a Flood, which, with the
sketch that st. Nicholas printed recently,
was the last that came from his pen. l
think That we Published for 10 or ~ cents
about all the stories of his that appear in the
regular editions of dollar books"