Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1895-05-09
DIME NOVEL BEADLE.
He WAS A REvoLuTIoNIsT IN THE
LITERARY FIELD.


HOW He Started the saImon Backed
"Dsmersv That Had Such . Big Run
Thirty Year, Ago-Notable Authors Who
Wrote Stories For Beadle.
A man died almost unnoticed the other
day in New York who was, in his prime,
= reyolutionist in the literary field. re-
Ger to the publisher, Erastus r. 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 IS and so 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 IL or
more 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
turc in publishing. The idea OF the dime
sovel occurred to him, he said, in 1859,
1.-THE state of the book market them" he
went on, twas peculiar. Every one was
publishing books with thick paper and
wide margins-trying to SEQ how little
they could give their readers for 81 or
e1.5O. Publishers exchanged books and
took back such as were not sold. Wei, !
took the other tack, and thought Iwould
soc how much could give for 10 cents
c.lsh sales, no credit. Every one said the
project would fail, but it didn't.
1--WE first published dime song books,
cDok books, etiquette books, etc, which
we bound In salmon colorcd cover. Nc
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
dime novel Mrs. Ann S. 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
10. 900 copies right off and then 100000"
Mr.. Beadle had an editor in his employ
named Victor who used to pass upon man
uscripts, order special work and the like
lust as the editor of literary weekly OF
monthly would do it. He was as interest
cd MS his chief in recalling their joint un
dertaking.
"The authors who wrote for us" said
he, "were notable persons in their way.
We had, for instance, one book by q man
who was once a member of the Ohio lcgis
laturc, another by an ex-governor of the
same state. He never wrote us bad liue
Edward S. Ellis-you know him?-wrote
us our most popular novel. He was @
Methodist, and he went to his minister tS
know whether he could write u dime
novel. He was schoolteacher in Tren
ton and was not 81 when he wrote his frs,
dime, for which he got $S5. That was
Seth Jones.
eyes, remember, broke in Mr.. Bea
die, unable to restrain his enthusiasm
"we plastcred tho country with who i.
Seth Jones2' and when the excitement raj
high we answered the question with that
picture you see on that cover-'Pm Setf
Jones' We sold 60, 900 copies Of that story
right Off"
"These novels" Mr.. Victor continued
introduced either historical or local char
acters They followed right after Cooper,
tales, which suggested them. Mrs. A. NJ
Dcnnison wrote historic fiction. Judge
Jared Hall Of Ohio wrote 'The Slave
Sculptor, a story of Mexico In Montezu
mas time--good names. Then there was
Clara Augusta. She was Maine lady
and a clever writer. Ellis wrote exclusive
ly for lis, and we have paid him as high as
$3.50 for rovel of 40, 600 words.
"Why, We paid better, in proportion tc
the quantity of matter we accepted, than
Il, -t,,,
very popular, and our yellow covered rivals
bad tooks--began to spring up. What
did we do then? Oh, we had to kill few
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 Tho North American Review for July,
1864, wherein they are described and criti-
cised. They are pronounced exceptionally
moral, and they do not even obscurely
pander to yice or excite passions. The
SO called cheap libraries have sent these
old style dime novels into the background,
though we keep stock of the best ones
on hand still.
"You ask about Mayne Rcidg We have
n list of his works. He would have sunk
into obscurl.y II we hadn't sustained him.
He has written certainly so stories and
sketches for us. He was working for us ex-
for eight or nine years. We made
n double number Of his Scalp Hunters,
ono Of his most popular stories, rcprinting
1t at his request. He retained, of course,
the English rights in his works. We never
paid him loss than 5000 for story; that
was the standard price, though we may
have paid him more at times.
II remember he brought his White
Squaw' down here one morning and said
no must have 800 for 1t, and we gave hin
u check without reading the manuscript,
which contained only about $4,000 words.
Reid was always in trouble financially,
but he was a prolific writer, and when he
got hard up he would dash off sketch after
sketch and come down here with his peck,
cts stuffed. Here is a lot of his manuscript
now that has never been printed on This
SIDE Kate Fields Washington.