New-York tribune., 1922-05-14
The late Edward Van Rensselaer, Dey,
author of the Nick Carter stories,
Whlch sold by the millions before the
aduent of the r1ouies

aduent of the r,ouies
TO take justifabe pride in their creations.
They suffered or trumphed with the person.
ages they had created, and naturally they
were averse to having others breaking in and
spelling things.
When considers it, the situation is quite
the same in higher lines of work DR.. Arthur
Conan Doyle created Sherlock Holmes, and q
feverish public nearly drove him to despera-
ton writing new stories. E. w. Hornung had
the same experience with Rafies, who had 10
teep committing crimes in order to satisfy the
demands Of magazine readers. To-day any
magazine editor will assure writer that if
said writer create character that is
worth running a series about the reputation
and fortune Of the author are as good as
made.
If any one thinks the dime novel writer
should not be brought into such comparisons
he is mistaken. 1t is no small gift this sue
cessful writing of dime novels More people
are born to tight rope walking than to dime
novel writing. To keep incident moving in
lively fashion and to make ones characters
seem vital the while requires something more
than mere knack. Many good writer's have
tried it--men who have made regulations in
higher lines of work-and have fallen down.
Here is the way dime novels are written:
The author calls the editor and hands over
a list Of titles, with descriptive sub-titles.
These may read as follows: "Old King Brady's
Great Triumph; or, the Mystery of Night
hawk Cab; Old Cap Golfers Fight; or,
the Wharf Rats of New York; Young Wild
West; or, Defying the Blackfeet"
There may be twenty titles or more in the
list submitted by the author The editor
checks off the titles that sound interesting to
him. These titles are forwarded to the artist
VINO does the covers, and pictures are drawn
without regard to any story. In fact there
isn't any story-not even in the authors head.
The story IS to come later.
The author starts work on the titles which
have been selected While he is writing the
story the artist is busy making the cover
The artist, like the author, must be gifted with
imagination. He takes his cue from the title
and subtitle of each story Nothing else
guides him. If the title concerns hansom
cab street fight is drawn, with cab in the
foreground. The artist knows the characters
in the series under way. He draws each of
The author, Who is now pretty we'll along
with his story, my be given look at the
picture which is to 20 on the front cover. r.
he hasn't as yet put anything in the story
which might fit the picture, he proceeds 10
do so. IN fact, the artist may have suggested
something which will bridge a hard place in
the plot. Thus in the construction of dime
novel, there IS perfect team work among
editor, author and artist.
Early in the game it was discovered that
cleanliness was the best policy in the dime
novel business. Some of the less scrupulous
publishers were inclined to overstep all bounds
of good taste. They had their heroes com
mitting murders and piling one atrocious
crime atop of another. Then an element of
sex began 10 creep into some Of the stories.
TO the credit of the publishers it is to be said
that these things were corrected.
I'VE never get protest about dime novels
to-day" said Mr.. Senarens. "The stories sr.
kept absolutely clean. Nor do they glorify
crime. The oldtime hero who waded through
blood is no more. The stories are kept lively
and full of incident. About the most the hero
does in physical way is to give the villain
punch on the jaw. The most successful
writer's are those who keep their storiea free
from anything which would give offense
Where do we get the writer's of these storiesy
Well, a newspaper man now and then demon
strates the gift. AS one gets accustomed to
the work it is possible to turn it out rapidly
We have had some very good writers doing
the work for us-inen who have made consid-
cradle successes in literature"
The dime novels are printed as regular
weekly publications, under general titles, some
OF which are "Pluck and Luck" "Work and
VIM" "Fame and Fortune" and "Wild West"
A historical series is printed under the gen.
eral title Of "The Boys of TO" In this are
printed historical romances of the Revolution,
similar to those made popular in book form
IContinned "a, a,n ne tcal -