Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1922-06-09
STEAM MAN CREATED
Hero of Dime Novel Writer Vas an
Expert MaChanlC.
dime NOVELS Are COMING BACH
Lu Senarens, Editor and Author Has
Been in "ThriIIer' Business Since IL
Started HAS Written 35,O0Oy0O0

Been in 81 hriiler' BUSINESS oince "
Started HAS Written 35,000,0O0
Words. 'e
The old-time paper backed n"thtil
Ter" is coming into it's own again, ac-
cording to publishers and dealers,
writes Arthur Chapman in the New
York Tribune.
Lu Senarens, who has been editor
of the Tousey publications for years
and who has been writing and edit
| ing dime novels and their like since
the game began, probably knows
more than any other man about this
class of literature. But Mr.. Senarens
says he doesn't know what has made
the dime novel come back. He does
know that he is glad to see the revi-
val, as he believes the dime novel
never has done harm and certainly
has been the means of providing un-
told thousands with Gilbertian source
of innocent Inerriment."
Mr.. Senarens knew the dime novel
publishing business in its golden
days. Besides Tousey there were sew
eral firms in the business. There was
Beadle & Adams, who published many
popular successes from their house in
William street and thrived from 1870
to 1891 Street & Smith had several
characters that went over big" chief
of these being Nick Carter Tousey
BESIDES publishing Old King Brady
and other hits, was bringing out q
weekly entitled Happy Days. Then
there was the Monro house, that
brought out thrillers and more pre-
tentious books in paper covers. Other
houses in New York were in the field.
Cleveland had no less than three pub
fishers of dime or nickle Libraries.
A Literary Marathon.
The great essential was to find a
character that would do well to serial
iZe. When that was done the game
was plain enough sailing. All that
was necessary was for the author to
bring out one of these stories-from
10000 to $4,000 words-eyery week.
That sounds like lot of wordage,
but in reality 1t Is not so difficult, ac-
cording to those "in the know"-pro-
vided the author has the trick OF
writing incident. But IL he, hasn't the
knack 1t Is hopeless to try 1t, as they'll
carry him out raving after week of
effort. Frederick Van Rensselaer, Dey,
author of the Nick Carter Series, who
committed suicide a short time ago in
New York hotel, had the necessary
| gifts Of inauguration and facility OF
composition to make success of
dime novel writing. But he had not
written any such stories for years be-
fore his death. The market for his
wares had almost vanished and he
was too old to wait for the comeback.
Most of the firms that published
dime novels went out Of business al
together when the movie competi-
tion swept the boards almost clean.
Some of them took to publishing 8
higher type of magazine. A. new, au--
dience was found for these magazines.
as it is hardly reasonable to suppose
that the readers of the cruder publi-
cations would follow along in such
radical changes.
Mr.. Senarens long ago Recognized
the pulling power OF the story of in
vention- the Jules Verne story re-
duced to 10000 words, and sihhplif-
ed in proportion. His first hero was
Frank Reade, who devised wonder
full steam man-something that came
as a suggestion from a steam. manfex-s
hibited at the Centennial Exposition.
I'M the sos. when electricity came In.
there were variations of the idea, car
ried on by younger hero. Frank
Reade, jr. The dirigible balloon the
airplane, the submarine and the ar
mored car all figured at one time or
another in these stories. f."
Mr.. Senarens' stories were written
under the pseudonym of mo Name"
Nearly all writer's adopted some such
name. Mr.. Senarens estimates that
he has written more than 1000 of
these novels-or about 35 million
words. Nc
There are calls for dime novels
from all over the world. They are
shipped to Europe and the orient, to
South Africa and South America. All
of which indicates that no one sec
tion Of this globe has monopoly OF
boys who never grow up.
his