The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1895-05-31
DIME NOVEL BEADLE
He WAS A REvOLUTiONIST IN THE
LITERARY FIELD.
Ro" He Started the Salmon Backed
dinners" That Had Such a Big Run
Thirty Years Ago-Notable Authors WHO
Wrote Stories For Beadie.

"D,mers" That Had Such Big Bur
Thirty Years Ago-Notable Authors WHO
Wrote Stories For Beadie.
A man died almost unnoticed the othel
day IN New York who was, in his prime,
revolutionist in the literary field. / re,
fer to the publisher, Erastus T. Beadle,
the father of the cheap novel. Those of us
whose memory reaches back to the time;
before the civil war will recall the fact
that the % and 80 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. 10 the idea of paying even 81 OF
more for his treat.
But through all the Beadle dime novel
held its own. 1t was little salmon GOV.
cred duodecimo, rarely illustrated inside,
but often with a 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. The idea of the dime
novel occurred to him, he said, in 1859,
and he began to act upon it in 1860.
The state of the book market then" he
went On, was peculiar. Every one was
publishing books with thick paper and
wide margins-tryirg to see how little
they could give their readers for 81 OF
Si.50. Publishers exchanged books anG
took back such as were not sold. Well,
took the other tack, and thought / would
see how much L could give for 10 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. Nc
yellow covered dimes were ever sent out
by me-the color was salmon. The yellow
covered ones were limitations and We're a
bad lot Wei, after awhile / started the
dime novel. Mrs. Ann 5. Stephens was
the author of the first one Madeska'-a
prize story published 40 years ago in The
Ladies' Companion. l paid her $3.50 fol
the right to reprint the story. We sold
10000 copies right off and then 90, 000."
Mr.. Beadle had an editor in his employ
named Victor who used to pass upon man.
uscripts, order special work and the like,
just as the editor of a literary weekly OF
monthly would do it. He was as interest
ed as his cher in recalling their joint I'm
dertaling.
The authors who wrote for us, said
he, ''were notable persons in their way.
We hau for Instance, one book by man
who was once member of the Ohio legis-
lature, another by an ex-governor of the
salne state. lie never wrote Us a bad line.
Edward 5. Ellis-you know him?-wrote
Us our most popular novel. He was a
Methodist, and he went to his minister to
know whether he could write a dime
novel He was a schoolteacher in Tren-
ton and was Tot 81 when he wrote his first
II r. 81,
Seth Jones 3"
Yes, | remember" broke in Mr.. Bea-
die, unable 10 restrain his enthusiasm,
''we plastered the country with Who is
Seth jones'? and when the excitement ran
high we answered the question with that
picture you see on that coyer-'I'm Seth
Jones' We sold 60, Geo copies of that story
right of"
''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. I
Dennison wrote historic fiction. Judge |
Jared Hall of Ohio wrote The Slave |
Sculptor story of Mexico in Montezu- /
ma S time-good names. Then there was !
Clara Augusta. She was Maine lady /
and clever writer. Ellis wrote exclusive /
ly for Us, ard we have paid him as high as /,
$3.50 for a novel Of 40 600 words.
''Why, we paid better, in proportion to I
the quantity Of matter we accepted, than (
The atlantic Monthly. Our stories were /
very popular, and our yellow covered rivals /
bad bool-s-began TO spring up. What /
did we 90 thcn? Oh, we had to kill few t
moro Indians than we used to- but we held /
our own against them. Ours We're stories /
Of exciting adventure only; there was /
nothing bad about them. See this article |
In The North American Review for .Jgly,
1864, Wherein they are described and criti-
cised. They are pronounced exceptionally
moral and they do not even obscurely
bander to vice or excite passions The
50 called cheap libraries have sent these
did style dime novels into the ackground,
though we keep stock Of the best ones
On hand still
'You ask about Mayne Reid? We have
list Of his works. He would have sunk
into obScurity if we hadn't sustained him.
He has written certainly 30 stories ana
sketches for Us. Hewas working for Us ex-
elusively for eight or nine years. We made
a double number OF his Scalp Hunters,
one Of his most popular Stories reprintinc
1T at his request. He retained, of course,
the English rights in his works. We never
paid him less than $500 for a story; that
was the standard price, though we may
have paid him more III times.
Il remember he brought his White
cqUaw down here one morning and said
BE must have 500 for il, aad we gave him
4 check without reading the manuscript,
which contained only about 90, 600 words.
Reid was always in trouble financially,
but he was a prolific writer, and when he
got hard up he would dash of sketch after
sketch and come Gown here with his peck
sts stuffed. Here is n lot of his manuscript
now that has never been printed on this
side ''=Nafr Eirld'S Mashinrlnn