The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1895-05-09
DIME NOVEL BEADLE.
He WAS A REvoluTloNlST IN THE
LITERARY FIELD.



A man died almost unnoticed the other
day in New York who was in his prime,
a revolutionist In the literary field. re-
fer TO the publisher, Erastus Il. Beadle,
the father of the cheap novel. Those OF us
whose memory reaches back to the times
before the civil war will recall the fact
that the 25 and 90 cent novel was the rule
in those days, and the cost of paper and
printers ink, which went up with every
thing else, soon accustomed the novel
reader to the idea of paying even 81 or
moro for his treat.
But through all the Beadle DIME novel
held its own. 1t was little salmon COW
cred duodecimo, rarely illustrated inside,
but often with startling picture under
meath the title. In an Informal chat with a
visitor about ten years ago, Mr.. Beadle told
most entertainingly the story Of his ven-
ture in publishing. Tho idea of the dime
novel occurred to him, he said, In 1859,
and he began to aot upon IL Ia 1850.
1.-THE state Of the book market then, he
went on, was peculiar. Every one was
publishing books with thick paper and
wide margins--trying to see how little
they could give their readers for 81 or
81 CO. Publishers exchanged books and
took back such rs were not sold. Well, 1
took the other tack, and thought would
see how much / could give for 10 cents
cash sales, no credit. Every one said the
project would fail, but il didn't.
"we first published dime song books,
cook books, etiquette books, ETC., which
we bound in salmon colored cover. No
yellow covered dimes were ever sent out
by me-the color was salmon. The yellow
covered ones were limitations and were q
bad lot. Well, after awhile / started the
dino novel Mrs. Ann $. Stephens was
the author Of the first one Madeska IA
prize story published 40 years ago In The
Ladies' Companion. / paid her $3.50 for
the right to reprint the story. We sold
10, 900 copies right of and then 20, 900.
Mr.. Beadle had an editor In his employ
named Victor who used TO pass upon man.
uscripts, order special work and tho like,
just as the editor of a literary weekly or
monthly would do it. He was as interest.
ed as his chief In recalling their joint un-
dertaking.
"The authors who wrote for us" said
he, "wcrc notable persons In their way.
We had, for instance one book by man
who was once member Of the Ohio legis'
lature, another by an ex-governor OF the
came state. Ho never wrote us bad line.
Edward 5. Ellis--you know himS-wrotc
us our most popular novel Ho was q
Methodist, and he went TO his minister tc
know whether he could write q dime
novel. He was schoolteacher In Trcn
ton and was not 2l when he wrote his first
dime, for which he got $S5. That was
Seth Jones.
Eyes, / remember" broke in Mr.. Boa
die, unable TO restrain his enthusiasm,
I'VE plastcred the country with Who II
Seth Jonesp and when the excitement rar
high we answered the question with that
picture you see on thot cover-'Im Setl
Jones. We sold 80, 900 copies Of that story
right off,"
"These novels" Mr.. Victor continued
introduced either historical or local char
acters 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
Sculptor, story of Mexico In Montezu
mas time--good names Then there wa.
Clara Augusta. She was Maine lady
and a clever writer. Ellis wrote exclusive
ly for us, and we have paid him as high q:
$3.50 for novel OF 40, 900 words
"Why, we paid better, In proportion tC
the quantity Of matter we accepted, thar
The Atlantic Monthly. Our stories were
very popular, and our yellow covered rival:
bad books-began to spring up. What
did we do thens oh, we had to kill n few
more Indians than we used to, but we held
our own against them. Ours were stories
Of exciting adventure only; there was
nothing bad about them. See this article
In The North American Review for July,
1864, wherein they are described and criti
cised. They are pronounced exceptionally
moral, aud they do not even obscurely
pandcr 70 vice or excite passions The
SO called cheap libraries have sent these
old style dime novels into the background,
though we keep N stock Of the best ones
on hand still.
"You ask about Mayne ReidP We have
list Of his works He would have sunk
into obscurity II we hadn't sustained him.
He has written certainly 90 stories and
sketches for us. He was working for us ex
clusively for eight or nine years. We made
a double number of his Scalp Hunters,
one Of his most popular stories, reprintine
IL at his request He retained, OF course,
the English rights In his works We never
paid him less than 5000 for n story; that
was the standard price, though we may
have paid him more at times.
81 remember he brought his White
Squaw' down here one morning and said
he must have 800 for Il, and we gave him
q check without reading the manuscript,
which contained only about 90, words.
Reid was always I'm trouble financially,
but he was prolific writer, and when hc
got hard up he would dash of sketch afte,
sketch and come down here with his pock.
cts stuffed. Here is n lot Of his manuscript
now that has never been printed on this
at.l. - Et.,llfs Nnskf,ut.,,