I distinctly remember, as a child, hearing the “yellow-back railway novel” spoken of as the ultimate degradation in bookmaking. Yet, as applied to the early stages and heyday of the movement, this verdict is very unfair, as anyone will realize who has the patience and the good fortune to hunt out specimens in really fine condition from the earlier and better period.

—Michael Sadleir

The railroad brought many social and economic changes to Victorian society. Once the rail network was completed, book distribution to both large cities and outlying villages became cheap, simple and efficient. Postal service improved too so that ordering and paying for books became easier.

When Parliament in 1844 required every railroad in Britain to run at least one train along its entire route every day, making all stops, and charging a penny per mile, it afforded travel opportunities previously unavailable to large segments of Britain’s populace. Passengers found that reading was easier in a rail car than the bumpy coach so they brought candles on board for illumination.

Concurrently, a far-sighted entrepreneur, W. H. Smith, began opening bookstalls at the train stations to sell inexpensive reading matter to the traveler. By 1852, Smith’s stalls were commonplace; the company continues today to retail books, magazines and stationery in and near train stations, airports and bus terminals in the U.K.

Between 1853 and 1855, a new format for fiction appeared alongside the array of magazines, periodicals and part issues on display. Nicknamed the “yellow-back” because its glazed paper covers were often yellow, it made an immediate impression. The color illustration on the cover distinguished the yellow-back from any other book of the time and the concept was rapidly imitated by others.

FEATURES OF A YELLOW-BACK

  • Work of fiction in one volume
  • Costs 2 shillings or less
  • Bound in colored glazed paper (yellow, or less often, pink, green, blue, grey)
  • Cover shows a picture illustrating the story within, overprinted in 2-4 colors
  • Spine features decorative titling and a picture or design
  • Back cover mirrors its front cover or lists publisher’s titles and series and eventually it displays unrelated advertising