The Beadle Collection of Dime Novels. New York Public Library
of each are shown, the Speaker No. 1 being dated 1861.
Erastus Beadle was himself a great lover of out-door sports and out-door life (due, no doubt, to his immediate pioneer ancestry), and in addition to the baseball guides he published many other similar hand-books. The Library exhibition contains copies of the Beadle “Book of Cricket,” of “Football,” of “Croquet,” of “Skating,” of “Curling,” of “Pedestrianism,” and of “Riding and Driving.” All these appeared in the ’60’s.
With the outbreak of the Civil War the publisher began the issuance of little volumes designed to inform the Northern public regarding its military leaders, and this phase of Beadle activity continued until 1865. Among books of this sort shown in the exhibition are biographies of the principal Union Generals, the “Report of General Grant,” and the “Story of the Grand March” made by Sherman. All were published at ten cents, and each contains about 100 pages of text.
Most important of all the Beadle series, from the historical standpoint, is that known as Type C and entitled “Lives of Great Americans.” It appeared monthly, in the 70’s, for about a year, and contained thirteen different titles. All these are rare, yet the Library file, as shown, contains no less than eleven of them and embraces the lives of Washington, Paul Jones, Anthony Wayne, Ethan Allen, Lafayette, Israel Putnam, Crockett, Tecumseh, Lincoln, Pontiac and Grant. Those lacking are the lives of Boone and Kit Carson. This series is attractively bound in colored illustrated covers, much of the coloring having been done by brush. There was also issued a Life of General McClellan, and a memorial edition of the Life of Grant, issued after his death. Both of these are shown.
The other manifestation of Beadle’s early activities after his removal to New York was his issuance of popular song books. One of the first of these was the “Dime School Melodist” of 1859. The Library copy (a later edition) is dated 1860.
Following it came three distinct series of song literature. The first was a collection called the “Dime Song Book,” which began in 1859 and embraced some twenty or more separate numbers that came out periodically. The earliest shown by the Library is Number 3, dated 1859. They were 12mos in salmon colored covers, and each number contained sixty or seventy of the popular ballads of that time.
The second series of songsters was named the “One Cent Song Book,” of which nine different numbers are known to exist, and of which the Library shows eight (lacking only No. 6). As its name indicates, it was sold for a cent, and was a 16mo eight-page pamphlet. All numbers are extremely rare. It was published in 1868. Previously, in 1861, the “Dime Union Song Book” in two numbers had been brought out, containing the war songs of the North.
The third and last songster series was a pretentious royal octavo in size, and named “Beadle’s Singers’ Library.” Beginning in 1878, it continued weekly into 1879, and 43 separate numbers are known. Of these the Library possesses an almost complete file, lacking only numbers 3 and 20, with nearly all the numbers in first edition. The first editions of these items had large colored vignette illustrations on the front page, with much of the coloring done by hand. Each number contained fifty or more songs of the day, the entire series, therefore, embracing more than two thousand of the songs most popular with the Americans of 43 years ago.
For that reason it is also a historically invaluable collection, since the song literature it contains discloses, in striking manner, the prevailing thoughts and manners of society. Many of the songs themselves, both in title and text, reveal the prevalence of an artificial sentimentality, a tolerance of crime and vulgarity, a worship of alcohol, and a laxity of morals decidedly in contrast with ideas now prevailing. A column might be filled with the peculiar titles to these interesting ditties. Among them are “The Crackman’s Chant,” “Pull Down the Blind,” “Battle of the Kegs,” “Since Terry First Joined the Gang,” “Grease the Griddle, Birdie, Darling,” “When Brown Comes Rolling Home,” “She Was Clerk in a Candy Store,” “Billiards and Pool,” “See that my Nose is kept Red,” “The Way my Daddy Went,” “I’m Dancing Mad,” “The Old Whisky Jug,” “Go It While You’re Young,” “The Rat Catcher’s Daughter,” “On Coney Island Beach,” “She Wept her Life Away,” “Charge the Can Cheerily,” “Bright, Bright Wine,” “I Fancy I’ve seen you Before,” “Charley the Masher,” “Please Father don’t Drink Any More,” “Come Home Mother,” and “Dear Father, Come Down with the Stamps.”
Although the preceding outline of Beadle activities sufficiently suggests that his career was not confined to the publishing of adventure tales, according to the general impression, there still remain to be noticed the items which terminate the distinctively Beadle phase of the Library’s exhibition. They are four in number, of which three are newspapers and one is a pretentious monthly magazine. The magazine in question is “The Home Monthly,” four volumes of which appeared in Buffalo during the years 1856–1860, before Beadle came to New York City. It ranked among the best periodicals of the country. The Library shows it in completeness.
The newspapers were all published in New York City. “Belles and Beaux” was a home weekly issued during 1874. It is represented by Number 3 of Volume I. Only a few scattered numbers are known. “Girls of Today,” which came out in 187⅚, is shown in a complete volume. The “Young New Yorker,” which was issued in 1878/9, is also on view in the shape of a complete volume. It was an excellent illustrated journal intended to foster a love of nature and out-of-door life, and completes the cycle of Beadle literature, which, for extent and variety, has scarcely been approached by any other American publisher.
The remainder of the collection (not exhibited) consists of numerous series of adventure tales and other dime novels, nearly all of which were inspired by, and followed, in the wake of the Beadle imprints. First in this section come thirty-two of the tales published by DeWitt in imitation of the original salmon-colored Beadle books. Robert DeWitt began their publication in New York in 1867, closely following the outward appearance of the Beadle books, and they continued to appear, to the number of more than 118, during the following ten years. To some degree, also, the DeWitt volumes dealt with the same pioneer subjects and conditions, although they were frankly fiction, and not nearly so well written as the Beadle books.
Another imitator of Beadle had appeared in Boston in 1864 or 1865, in the shape of the publishing firm of Elliott, Thomes and Talbot, which then began the issuance of a series of little blue bound books of adventure. Some thirteen of this series are known. They are excellently made volumes, well printed, of about 120 pages each, and were sold for ten cents. They, however, were not wholly confined to American life in their subject matter, but included stories dealing with other lands.
Still a third imitator of Beadle was Sinclair Tousey of New York, who, in 1864, began publishing a series called “American Tales.” These were octavos in colored illustrated covers, and were sold for 15 cents. They (doubtless due to the date of their appearance) relate to the Civil War and its events.
Following are fifty-six numbers of the most famous of the later generation of American dime novels. These are the “Old Cap Collier Stories,” first published by the house of Munro in 1883. George Munro, the originator of the house, was at first a bookkeeper for Erastus Beadle, but in 1866 Munro left the Beadle establishment, and, in conjunction with Irwin Beadle, set up a competing enterprise and began the issuance of Munro’s Ten Cent Novels. They likewise covered the same historic ground, were put out in the same general form, and acquired great popularity. Later, however, the Munro books underwent a radical change, and the “Old Cap Collier” stories took the place of the more solid historical material. The first of the Cap Collier series dealt with the Savin Rock Mystery of New Haven, and the ensuing numbers of the series did not bear any numerical designation until several had appeared. It continued as a semi-weekly issue for several years, as an octavo, and later became an imperial octavo. A copy in the large size, as it appeared 31 years ago, is also included. This title is “The Death of Sitting Bull, or, General Custer Avenged,” and is number 391 of the entire Munro output.
Other series of similar later publications are the “Old Sleuth Library,” the “Wide Awake Library,” the “War Library,” the “Five Cent Weekly Library,” the “Comic Library,” the “Army and