The dime novel is a type of American fiction from the late 1800s and early 1900s. These stories were sold in series of cheap paper books. The term "dime novel" is used to describe several related formats, including story papers, weekly magazines that cost five or ten cents, reprinted books called "thick books," and sometimes early pulp magazines. Dime novels share similarities with British story papers and penny dreadfuls, which were also popular during the same time period.

The word "dime novel" was used as a magazine title as late as 1940 in Western Dime Novels, a short-lived pulp magazine. Today, the term is often used to describe quickly written, exaggerated stories that are not deeply detailed. This usage is typically meant to criticize such works as being shallow or overly dramatic.

History

In 1860, publishers Erastus and Irwin Beadle released a new series of inexpensive paperbacks called Beadle's Dime Novels. Over time, the term "dime novel" came to describe similar cheap paperbacks made by other publishers in the early 1900s. The first book in the Beadle series was Malaeska, the Indian Wife of the White Hunter, written by Ann S. Stephens. It was published on June 9, 1860, and was a reprint of a story Stephens had written earlier for a magazine called The Ladies' Companion in 1839. The book sold more than 65,000 copies within a few months of its release.

Dime novels varied in size, even in the first Beadle series. Most were about 6.5 by 4.25 inches (16.5 by 10.8 cm) and had around 100 pages. The first 28 books in the series had no cover illustrations and were wrapped in salmon-colored paper. Starting with the 29th book, a woodblock print was added to the cover, and the first 28 books were later reprinted with illustrated covers. Each book cost ten cents.

The Beadle's Dime Novels series lasted for 321 issues and set many traditions for the genre. Stories often had exciting, unusual plots and used two titles for each book. The series ended in the 1920s. Most stories were reprinted from earlier serials in magazines and other sources, but some were original. As dime novels became more popular, more original stories were written for the series.

The books were often reprinted with different covers and sometimes appeared in other series or published by different companies. Around the time of the American Civil War, the literacy rate in the United States increased, and Beadle's Dime Novels became popular among young, working-class readers. By the end of the war, other publishers, such as George Munro and Robert DeWitt, began producing similar books. Beadle & Adams created different "brands" of books, like the Frank Starr line. However, many critics did not like the quality of the stories, and the term "dime novel" came to describe any cheap, exciting fiction, not just the specific format.

Despite this, the small, inexpensive books featuring stories about the sea, the West, trains, circuses, and gold prospecting were very popular. Author Armin Jaemmrich noted that Alexis de Tocqueville, in his book Democracy in America (1835), wrote that in the United States, people wanted books that were easy to read, quick to finish, and did not require deep knowledge. He believed that in democratic societies, people preferred stories that were exciting and fast-paced, not complicated or slow. His words seemed to predict the style of dime novels.

Some confusion exists about what qualifies as a dime novel. Many series had similar designs and themes but cost between ten and fifteen cents. Beadle & Adams even sold some books in the same salmon-colored covers at different prices. Other ten-cent books from the same time included stories about medieval romance and drama, making it hard to define the category. Examples of dime novel series include Bunce's Ten Cent Novels, Brady's Mercury Stories, Beadle's Dime Novels, Munro's Ten Cent Novels, and others.

In 1874, Beadle & Adams added color to the covers of their New Dime Novels series. These books had two numbers on the cover: one continuing the count from the original series and another showing the number in the new series. For example, the first issue was numbered 1 (322). Most stories in the New Dime Novels were reprints from the original series. The series lasted for 321 issues until 1885.

Many dime novel stories came from story papers, which were weekly publications with eight pages. These papers varied in size and usually cost five or six cents. They started in the mid-1850s and were very popular, with some running for over fifty years. They contained serial stories, articles, and illustrations, similar to television today. Examples of popular story papers include The Saturday Journal, Young Men of America, and Golden Weekly.

Most stories in dime novels stood alone, but in the late 1880s, recurring characters began to appear and became popular. The Old Sleuth, who first appeared in The Fireside Companion in 1872, was the first detective in dime novels. He helped start a trend away from Western and frontier stories. He was also the first to use the word "sleuth" to describe a detective. Other detective characters, such as Old Cap Collier and Old King Brady, became famous as well. Nick Carter first appeared in 1886 in The New York Weekly. These characters had their own ten-cent weekly series soon after.

In 1873, Beadle & Adams introduced a new ten-cent format with larger pages (9 by 13.25 inches) and only 32 pages. A black-and-white illustration was on the cover, and the series was called New and Old Friends. It was not successful, but the low cost of production led to another attempt in 1877 with The Fireside Library and Frank Starr's New York Library. These books were popular and led to many other ten-cent weekly "libraries" being published. These publications varied in size, from small (like The Boy's Star Library) to larger formats (like New York Detective Library). Some, like The Old Cap Collier Library, were even published in booklet form. Unlike story papers, each issue usually featured a single story.

Collections

In the late 1940s and early 1950s, collecting dime novels became popular, and prices increased a lot. At that time, these inexpensive books were falling apart and becoming hard to find. Charles Bragin and Ralph Cummings, two collectors, started to reprint some hard-to-find titles from weekly libraries.