The Beadle Collection of Dime Novels: Given to the New York Public Library By Dr. Frank P. O'BrienNew York Public Library
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The Beadle Collection of Dime Novels: Given to the New York Public Library By Dr. Frank P. O'Brien
New York Public Library
American fiction -- Bibliography
These tales are sixteen-page pamphlets of royal octavo size, with
the front page almost always filled by a strongly-drawn and dramatic
illustration portraying some vital incident of the narrative. Although
the series, as a whole, is mainly devoted to far western life and
conditions, it also contains numerous stories dealing with New York
City. Among these the exhibition shows copies of “Broadway Billy’s
Boodle” (No. 514); “Broadway Billy in Clover” (No. 678); and “Bicycle
Bob’s Hot Scorch, a Story of the Schoharie County Hayseed in New York”
(No. 989); all by Cowdrick; “Bowery Ben in Chinatown” (No. 892), by
Harold Payne; and “Buck Bumblebee, the Harlem Hummer” (No. 623); and
“The Big Four of the Bowery” (No. 837), both by Joseph Pierce.
The far western tales and biographies in this series are particularly
interesting. Among the biographical issues are “Buffalo Billy, the Boy
Bull-whacker” (No. 191), by Captain Taylor; “Buffalo Bill’s Bet” (No.
194), by Taylor; “Bison Bill” (No. 216), by Ingraham; “California Joe’s
First Trail” (No. 376), by Col. Monstery; “California Joe’s War Trail”
(No. 395), by Captain Whittaker; Ingraham’s narrative of Joe Bruce, the
Texas Ranger, under the title of “Arizona Joe” (No. 495); and the same
author’s story of William L. Taylor of Texas, under the title of “Buck
Taylor, King of the Cowboys” (No. 497). The illustrations borne by all
the titles of this series will be found to possess unusual interest,
but some of the drawings have an especial fascination. Notable in such
regard are “Giant George” (No. 246); “Sierra Sam’s Pard” (No. 253);
“The Scalp King” (No. 288); and “Ker-Whoop, Ker-Whoo” (No. 318).
The largest group of all, in the Library exhibit, is that representing
the Type M publications of Beadle. These were collectively known as the
Dime Library, of which each issue was an imperial octavo of thirty-two
pages, with an illustration on the front cover. Nearly one thousand
titles were issued in this series, of which the Library possesses
and shows 356, or considerably more than one-third of all that were
published. Probably a majority of the Dime Library tales portray
the conditions and famous characters of the Far West, and among the
pioneer phases of western life with which its titles deal are overland
emigration, fur trapping, lumber-camp life, gold hunting, the Texas
War, the exploits of the Texas Rangers, the stage coach era, cattle
rustling, ranch life, vigilante rule, the depredations of road-agents,
Indian fighting, and conditions in all the new states and territories.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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