Dime novels were a type of popular American fiction from the late 1800s to early 1900s. They were sold in cheap paper books as part of a series. The term "dime novel" was used to describe several similar formats, including story papers, weekly magazines priced at five or ten cents, thick book reprints, and sometimes early pulp magazines. These books were similar to British penny dreadfuls and story papers, which were also made during the same time period.

The word "dime novel" was still used as a title as late as 1940 in a short-lived pulp magazine called Western Dime Novels. Today, the term is sometimes used to describe quickly written, exciting but not deep stories. It is often used in a negative way to criticize works that are sensational but lack depth.

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" became a general name for similar 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 and published on June 9, 1860. This book was a reprint of a story Stephens had previously written for the Ladies' Companion magazine in 1839. It sold more than 65,000 copies in the first few months after its release. Dime novels varied in size, but 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 issue 29, woodblock prints were added to the covers, 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 of the traditions for the genre, including exciting and unusual stories and the use of two titles for each book. The series ended in the 1920s. Most stories were reprints of frontier tales from other publications, but some were original stories. As the popularity of dime novels grew, more original stories were written. These books were often reprinted with different covers and sometimes appeared in other series or published by other companies.

During the American Civil War, the literacy rate 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 competing by offering similar books with different titles and paper colors. Beadle & Adams also created alternate series, like the Frank Starr line. However, critics often dismissed the quality of these books, and the term "dime novel" came to describe any inexpensive, exciting fiction, not just the specific format.

Despite this, the small, fast-paced stories about sea adventures, the West, railways, circuses, and gold prospecting were very popular. Author Armin Jaemmrich noted that Alexis de Tocqueville, in his book Democracy in America (1835), predicted that in democratic societies like the United States, lower-class people would seek reading material that was easy to buy, quick to read, and did not require deep knowledge. He believed Americans, who were busy working, would prefer stories that were exciting and emotionally engaging rather than complex or lengthy.

The term "dime novel" became confusing because some series, though similar in design, cost between ten and fifteen cents. Beadle & Adams also sold books with the same salmon-colored covers at different prices. Other ten-cent books from the same time included stories about medieval romances and dramatic tales, making it hard to define what exactly qualifies as a dime novel. Examples of dime novel series include Bunce's Ten Cent Novels, Brady's Mercury Stories, Beadle's Dime Novels, Munro's Ten Cent Novels, Dawley's Ten Penny Novels, and many others.

In 1874, Beadle & Adams introduced color to the covers of their New Dime Novels series, replacing the original series. Each book had two numbers on the cover: one from the original series and another for 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. This series lasted for 321 issues until 1885.

Many dime novels were based on story papers, which were weekly publications similar to newspapers. These papers were popular in the 1850s and often included serial stories, articles, and illustrations. Examples of story papers include The Saturday Journal, Young Men of America, and Golden Weekly.

Most stories in dime novels were standalone, but in the late 1880s, recurring characters began to appear and gained popularity. The Old Sleuth, first introduced in The Fireside Companion in 1872, was the first detective character in dime novels and helped shift the focus from Western stories to detective tales. He was also the first to use the word "sleuth" to describe a detective. Other popular detective characters included Old Cap Collier and Old King Brady. Nick Carter first appeared in 1886 in The New York Weekly. These characters had their own weekly series.

In 1873, Beadle & Adams tried a new format called New and Old Friends, which was larger (9 by 13.25 inches) and had only 32 pages with a black-and-white cover illustration. This format was not successful, but it was cheaper to produce. In 1877, they released The Fireside Library and Frank Starr's New York Library, which were more popular. These books were part of a trend of ten-cent weekly "libraries" that flooded newsstands. These publications varied in size, from small (7 x 10 inches) to larger (8.5 x 12 inches). Some, like The Old Cap Collier Library, were also available in booklet form. Unlike story papers, these weekly libraries usually featured a single story per issue.

Collections

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

• The Library of Congress has collected nearly 40,000 titles through copyright deposit.
• The University of Minnesota’s Hess Collection has over 65,000 dime novels, one of the largest in North America.
• Northern Illinois University’s Rare Books and Special Collections holds over 50,000 dime novels in its Johannsen and LeBlanc Collections. More than 12,000 volumes from these collections have been digitized and made freely available online through Nickels and Dimes.
• Villanova University’s Dime Novel and Popular Literature Collection was started in 2012 when the collection of Charles Moore Magee was rediscovered in storage. This collection grew larger through acquisitions and donations from scholars. Much of the collection has been digitized and is available online through Villanova University’s Digital Library.
• Stanford University has a collection of over 8,000 individual dime novels and a website about the subject.
• The University of South Florida–Tampa Special Collections Department has a collection of nearly 9,000 dime novels, including Frank Tousey’s Frank Reade Library and the Frank Reade Weekly Magazine. Archived 2014-06-06 at the Wayback Machine.
• The Edward G. Levy Dime Novel Collection is kept at the Fales Library at New York University. A complete finding aid to the collection is available online.
• The Fales Library at New York University also holds the Ralph Adimari Papers and the William J. Benners Papers. Adimari was a historian who studied dime novels. His papers include research notes, clippings, and materials related to dime novels. Benners was a writer and publisher of dime novels. Fales Library guide to the Ralph Adimari Papers. Fales Library guide to the William J. Benners Papers.
• The University of Missouri, Columbia, has a small collection of dime novels in its Division of Special Collections, Archives and Rare Books. Archived 2011-07-12 at the Wayback Machine.
• Brandeis University’s Archives & Special Collections Department has a collection of dime novels and juvenile literature dating from 1805 to 1979. A preliminary container list is now available online. Archived 2012-02-02 at the Wayback Machine.
• The Texas Collection at Baylor University has a collection of nearly 350 dime novels from 1861 to 1919.
• The Dolph Briscoe Center for American History at the University of Texas at Austin houses a collection of 212 of Beadle’s dime novels.
• The Athenaeum of Philadelphia holds a small collection of dime novels (11 boxes) collected by the Rev. Roland Sawyer and donated by Roland D. Sawyer, Jr. It includes many copies of Beadle’s Dime Library and Beadle’s Half Dime Library, as well as smaller numbers of Deadwood Dick Library and other titles.
• Syracuse University Libraries holds a collection of Street and Smith novels and the records of the publishers.