Literature of the West

Dime Novels (adapted from Historical Association)

• The first dime novels were initially published around the start of the American Civil War. These sensational stories, full of romance and adventure, became wildly popular in both the US and in England where they were known as "penny dreadfuls."

• Named for their cheap prices, dime novels were distributed in numerical series at newsstands and dry goods stores for a dime or a nickel a piece.

• The books were simple in appearance, bound in cheap paper with a brightly illustrated cover. They were lightweight at only about 100 pages long, easy to carry, and easy to pass around.

• Because of the cheap price for dime novels, publishers geared the books toward the uneducated lower class, producing stories with simple, formulaic plots that opened "new worlds" to their readers.

Dime Novels (from Historical Association)

• Storylines were straight forward and told in physical language that brought to mind concrete pictures and people for the readers. NOTE: these were action-adventure stories with minimal plot or character development, just simple story telling, generally with a "moral" about the battle between "good" and "evil," which of course the "hero" wins.

• Much like today's action movies!

• For the less avid reader, story papers were published with abridged versions of dime novel-like stories. These were shorter and brightly illustrated. Most often they were about eight pages long and serialized weekly in magazines or booklets.

Dime Novels (from Historical Association)

• The earliest stories focused on American Indians, but when Indians were placed on reservations, the public's fascination with them dwindled. Consequently, the novels morphed into stories of cowboys in the Wild West, outlaws and bandits, and train robbers.

• Detective mysteries and working-girl narratives followed later.

Dime Novel Cover Art

• Mustang Sam, the King of the Plains: A Romance of Apache Life (Beadle's Pocket Library), 1879 Beadle and Adams

Dime Novel Cover Art

• The Woman Trapper: Arkansas Sal and the Apaches--

• From the Prentiss Ingraham Collection, University of Mississippi

Dime Novel Cover Art

• Young Wild West and the Railroad Robbers, or Lively Work in Utah

Dime Novels (from Historical Association)

• In Victorian England, many "penny dreadfuls" were written in the macabre Gothic tradition to frighten and thrill readers. But when Great Britain and the US entered WWI, that event provided a whole new field of subject matter and plots for these novels.

• Typically, dime novels focus on the dramatic adventures of a single hero or heroine who often found himself or herself in the midst of a moral dilemma. The novels were ethically sound, endorsing good character and strong moral values when the novel's hero chose virtue over vice.

• Sometimes, the protagonist was an historical figure to spark the interest of young readers. Note: one of the ways history morphs into myth.

Dime Novels (from Historical Association)

• Dime novels for women typically focused on romance and marriage. These stories often featured a romance between a working class woman and a noble, or upper-class man, which sometimes went awry.

• These romantic adventures that ended unhappily were a warning to working-class women, specifically that the emerging concept of female sexuality was in fact unacceptable. In these stories, virtue was protected at all cost, and its importance emphasized for the sake of its readers.

• Note: This is why novels like Kate Chopin's The Awakening were rejected and condemned.

Dime Novels (adapted from Historical Association)

• Publication of dime novels exploded in the last half of the 19th century.

• First, advances in technology allowed for mass production and consumption. Printing was mechanized and newer, cheaper paper allowed publishers to print more books in less time. NOTE: this also accounts for the burgeoning magazine trade, both here and in England. Magazines took over.

• Because of updated shipping methods, these books could also be distributed faster and further.

• But updated transportation methods also impacted readers. More and more people used public transportation with railroads and streetcars for commuting, so they also had more time to read, especially short, light reading.

Dime Novels (adapted from Historical Association)

• Publication of dime novels exploded in the last half of the 19th century.

• Also, American literacy rates were rising because of compulsory education laws and school reform. The working class was more literate than it had even been.

• And, in the home, the use of oil lamps rather than candles made it easier to read at night.

• Additionally, the subject matter appealed to readers. Coming from battles with Indians and the events of the Civil War, readers were looking for action stories out of the West.

Dime Novels (from Historical Association)

• A few publishers decided to cash in on the lucrative business of dime novels. Irwin and Erasmus Beadle and Robert Adams published the first dime novel under their publishing house, Beadle and Adams, in 1860.

• It was a short novel entitled Malaeska, the Indian Wife of the White Hunter, written by Mrs. Ann S. Stephens.

• Between 1860 and 1865 alone, Beadle and Adams published more than five million dime novels. During this time, the Civil War made soldiers a prime audience for the publishers who produced books that catered to the men who wanted reading material during the boredom that often came with camp life.

Dime Novels (from Historical Association)

• Photo from essay on the Beadle Collection, New York Public Library

• The Firm of Beadle and Adams, 1862

• Identified as Erastus F. Beadle, David Adams, Irwin Beadle (?)

Dime Novels (adapted from the Historical Association)

• A falling out between Beadle brothers and Adams led Irwin Beadle to pull out of the partnership. He joined up with George Munro, a bookkeeper in the publishing house, to found their own business, calling it Munro. They published their own version of dime novels, calling them "Ten Cent Novels."

• Another major dime novels publishing house was Street and Smith. This company viewed fiction as a commodity, and editors had strict authority over the authors' work. Authors were required to follow specific formulae for plot lines and styles of writing. NOTE: alias "pot boilers"

• A surprising number of authors were willing to comply; authors such as Horatio Alger, Upton Sinclair, and Jack London wrote for Street and Smith under pen names to make money as writers. NOTE: this phenomenon isn't all that uncommon; it had happened before, and still does (Harlequin romances).

Dime Novels (adapted from the Historical Association)

• Not all authors wrote under pen names to save their reputations. Many were simply semi-professional writers, such as journalists, teachers, clerks, looking to make a little extra money. Some wrote both under pen names and their real names to increase their income. It's still done today, but for other reasons as well.

• See Ruth Rendell/Barbara Vine, J. K. Rowling/Robert Galbraith, Mark Twain/Samuel Clemens, the Bronte sisters, George Eliot/Mary Ann Evans, Mary Westmacott/Agatha Christie, A. J. Finn (Woman in the Window)/Daniel Mallory, Amanda Cross/Carolyn Heilbrun (See "pen names" on Wikipedia)

Dime Novels (adapted from the Historical Association)

• Some of the most well-known dime novel writers were Thomas C. Harbaugh, Albert W. Aiken, Edward L. Wheeler, Joseph W. Badger, Jr., and Colonel Prentiss Ingraham.

• Ingraham was the most successful writer of these dime novels, famous as the creator of Buffalo Bill. He wrote more than 600 novels in his lifetime, as well as a number of plays and poems. Drawing on his own military and travel experience to create the scenarios for his stories, he was a master at this craft. According to one story, he wrote one of his dime novels as a "rush order," producing 40,000 words in only 24 hours, without a typewriter.

Dime Novels (adapted from the Historical Association)

• And when the typewriter was invented, authors churned out stories at a remarkable rate. Frederic Marmaduke Van Rensselaer Dey, who created the street-savvy detective Nick Carter, was rumored to put out 25,000 words every week for almost twenty years, using multiple pen names.

• The high demand for these novels meant the authors made $200-$300 for each successful submission.

Dime Novels (adapted from the Historical Association)

• Most dime novels were sold in the industrial cities and mill towns of the North and West, where the largest groups of lower class people lived and worked. Among the lower classes, these novels were widely read primarily by boys and young men, although some girls, grown men, and groups in the middle class enjoyed the books as well. NOTE: the rise of comic books in the early 20th century, primarily for boys.

• Many people, especially of the middle class, were ashamed to admit they read these novels because they were not exactly "quality" material, but were considered mindless entertainment for passing the time.

Dime Novels (adapted from the Historical Association)

• Because of the financial profits, many respectable authors also contributed to the genre, among them such names as Louisa May Alcott, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Alfred Lord Tennyson left their mark on the deluge of cheap fiction pouring out of the publishing houses. Note: Sir Walter Scott was also known for "churning out" historical novels, because the money supported his life style.

• Women writers gained surprising recognition during this time. While Melville and Hawthorne were selling several thousand copies of their works a year, author Fanny Fern sold 70,000 copies of her book Fern Leaves and 50,000 copies of Ruth Hall.

• Uncle Tom's Cabin, by Harriet Beecher Stowe, sold hundreds of thousands of copies. In 1872, 75% of books published were written by women.

Dime Novels (adapted from the Historical Association)

• Although not widely acknowledged today, young women also read these dime novels. Many working and middle class girls and women enjoyed stories of pioneer love affairs, murder mysteries, and society romances. Bertha M. Clay, Geraldine Fleming, and Laura Jean Libbey were the more prominent female writers, with novels like All for Love of a Fair Face, The Story of a Wedding Ring, A Charity Girl, The Unseen Bridegroom, and Only a Mechanic's Daughter.

Dime Novel Cover Art

• A Dangerous Flirtation; Or, Did Ida May Sin? by Laura Jean Libbey

Dime Novel Cover Art

• Pretty Madcap Dorothy; Or, How She Won a Lover by Laura Jean Libbey

Dime Novel Cover Art

• Jolly Sally Pendleton; Or, the Wife Who Was Not a Wife by Laura Jean Libbey

Dime Novels (adapted from the Historical Association)

• Although the popularity of the dime novel faded, its influence probably has not been lost. During the 1890s, pulp fiction magazines came into the publishing arena, heavily influenced by dime novels.

• Rising postal rates may have caused a decline in publication of dime novels, but the content and sentiment behind them continued.

• Even today, we have celebrity gossip magazines, romance paperbacks, horror movies and ghost stories, not to mention mystery novels, directly or indirectly influenced by the dime novel craze.

Dime Novels (adapted from the Historical Association)

• If you would like to read a dime novel, Project Gutenberg has several online for free.

• Thanks to Bill Sperati for providing this link. And by the way, he read Delaware Tom: or the Traitor Guide, for obvious reasons.

• https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/search/?query=dime+novels&submit_search=Go%21.

• The New York Public Library has a notable collection of these novels, particularly the Beadle novels.

• See also the Library of Congress

Literature of the American West

• In an article published in The Guardian in 1961, writer John Williams asks:

  • Given the dense history of the American West, nearly unexplored in its most fundamental aspects and potentially the richest of American myths, why has there not emerged a modern novelist of the first rank to deal adequately with the subject?

  • Why has the West not produced its equivalent of New England’s’ Melville or Hawthorne—or, in modern times, of the South’s Faulkner or Warren [Robert Penn]?

Literature of the American West

• By the way, John Williams is the author of the novel Stoner, a volume known only to the "bookish cognoscenti," according to an article, October 2013, in The New Yorker. The article continues that "Stoner is undeniably a great book, a kind of "anti-Gatsby," whose "protagonist is an unglamorous, hardworking academic who marries badly, is estranged from his child, drudges away in a dead-end career, dies, and is forgotten: a failure."

Literature of the American West

• Williams continues:

  • It is true that the Western subject has had the curious fate to be exploited, cheapened, and sentimentalized before it had a chance to enrich itself naturally.

  • It is true that the subject of the West has undergone a process of mindless stereotyping by a line of literary racketeers that extends from the hired hacks of a hundred years ago who composed . . . Dime Novels . . .pulp writers—men contemptuous of the stories they have to tell, of the people who animate them and of the settings upon which they are played.

Literature of the American West

• Williams continues:

  • It is true that the history of the West has been nearly taken over by the romantic regionalist, almost always an amateur historian with an obsessive but sentimental concern for Western objects and history, a concern which is consistently a means of escaping significance rather than a means of confronting it.

  • In its simplest form, the conventional Western involves an elemental conflict between the personified forces of Good and Evil, as these are variously represented by cowboy and rustler, cowboy and Indian, the marshal and the bank robber, or (in a later and more socially conscious version of the formula) by the conflict between the squatter and the landowner.

Literature of the American West

• Williams continues:

  • It is tempting to dismiss such familiar manipulation of the myth; but the formula persists, and with a disturbing vigor. However cheaply it may be presented, however superficially exploited, its persistence demonstrates the evocation of a deep response in the consciousness of the people. The response is real; but though it may have been widely identified as such, it is not, I believe, really a response to the Western myth. It is, rather, a response to another habit of mind, deeply rooted and essentially American in its tone and application.

  • That is the New England Calvinist habit of mind, whose influence upon American culture has been both pervasive and profound.

  • Beneath the gunplay, the pounding hooves and the crashing stagecoaches, there is a curious, slow, ritualistic movement that is essentially religious.

Literature of the American West

• Williams continues:

  • What has been widely accepted as the “Western” myth is really a habit of mind emerging from the geography and history of New England and applied uncritically to another place and time.

  • Novelists who write about the American West are "guilty of mistaking the real nature" of their subject matter. "It is not that they have hit upon the wrong myth, but that they have failed to recognize in the first place that their subject is mythic. "

  • Later in the article, he writes that "the American frontiersman [ventures] beyond the bounds of his known experience into the chaos of a new land, into the unknown [but] his voyage into the wilderness was most meaningfully a voyage into the self, experimental, private and sometimes obscure.

Literature of the American West

• Williams concludes:

  • Viewed in a certain way, the American frontiersman—whether he was hunter, guide, scout, explorer or adventurer—becomes an archetypal figure, and begins to extend beyond his location in history. He is 19th century man moving into the 20th century; he is European man moving into a new continent; he is man moving into the unknown, into potentiality, and by that move profoundly changing his own nature.

  • He and the land into which he moves may have their counterparts in both Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and in Moby Dick—which is to say that, though the myth which embodies him has its locality and time, it is confined by neither. He walks in his time and through his adventure, out of history and into myth. He is an adventurer in chaos, searching for meaning there. He is, in short, ourselves.

Literature of the American West

• Characteristics:

  • In the western novel, place or setting is again crucial; like the Australian novels that grapple with survival in the outback, these novels grapple with existence in this strange, foreign, challenging landscape.

  • But, whereas Southern novels focus on family and community, in these novels the individual stands alone, for the most part. It's freedom and self-determination, but it's also isolation and reliance upon oneself, for both male and female characters.

  • To paraphrase one reviewer, male writers focus on the epic historical events, women writers on the more "quotidian" elements of everyday life.

  • Note: we are reading female authors, but not reading the journals, letters, and diaries in which women recorded the daily hardships of life in the West.

Literature of the American West

• Ray Callahan on the "epic" story:

  • Historians, confronting the confusion and strangeness of the past, try to make it more comprehensible by organizing their narratives around a significant event or personality. Hence the fascination with "decisive battles," "turning points," and "key figures." The shapers of popular culture--poets, painters, novelists and, in our time, film makers and television producers--take this narrative convenience and spin myths around it. The end result is that what happened and why becomes obscured and what is believed to have happened is often a literary or cinematic construct.

Literature of the American West

• In a book titled The Myths that Made America, author Paul Heike includes chapters that highlight these various myths, such as :

  • the myth of the founding fathers

  • the myth of the melting pot

  • the myth of the promised land

  • the myth of self-made man

  • the myth of discovery

  • and of course the myth of the American west

Literature of the American West

• In a review of The Literary History of the American West, John Milton asserts that:

• "The literature is more than a quaint record of a period in American history. It is a significant part of the world's literary stage."

• On the other hand, he laments the fact that very few Western writers are considered important authors, but blames it on the bias of Eastern publishers and reviewers.

• He also concedes that attempts to define one literature of the west have been evasive, and that this literature might more accurately be described as "many Wests."

• Literature of the American West

• Class member Maryellen Winkler-Gunn passed along this suggestion: It's The Harvey Girls by Lesley Poling-Kempes. Here's the Amazon blurb:

  • From the 1880s to the 1950s, the Harvey Girls went west to work in Fred Harvey's restaurants along the Santa Fe railway. At a time when there were "no ladies west of Dodge City and no women west of Albuquerque," they came as waitresses, but many stayed and settled, founding the struggling cattle and mining towns that dotted the region. Interviews, historical research, and photographs help re-create the Harvey Girl experience. The accounts are personal, but laced with the history the women lived: the dust bowl, the depression, and anecdotes about some of the many famous people who ate at the restaurants--Teddy Roosevelt, Shirley Temple, Bob Hope, to name a few. This is the definitive work on the Harvey Girls and the Santa Fe Railway.

Breakout room question

• Maybe it's not the literature itself, but the myth of the west that's important to the American character and identity.

• After all, it was Walter Scott's myth of the brave, loyal, and fierce fighting Scotsman that kept their national identity alive. And Joe Harman gave the Australians an heroic outback Aussie after the disappointing events of World War II.

• What do you think?

Next week:

The Pioneers, David McCullough