Archive... 📚

Here are some of the more notable dime novels I've taken a look at over the past few weeks. All novels mentioned are from the Nickels and Dimes online database.

Malaeska, the Indian Wife of the White Hunter

Cover of the original dime novel.

The oldest recorded dime novel, debuting in 1860. This novel was also written by a woman, Ann S. Stephens! In Telling Western Stories by Richard W. Etulain, Etulain notes how Malaeska's "ethnic feminine focus" (pg.17) was in stark contrast to the more masculine stories of grandeur that followed, describing the story's setting as "a gray and tragic frontier" (pg.17).

Buffalo Bill and his Merry Men

Cover of Buffalo Bill and his Merry Men.

Buffalo Bill was an especially infamous figure in Western dime novel literature. The character is based on the real-life Buffalo Bill, William Frederick Cody, who had a famous Wild West show he took on the road. This garnered him lots of fans, and lots of dedicated dime novels too. Though this particular issue was released in 1892, many stories of Buffalo Bill and his gang precede and follow it. I've read a couple in his anthology, but wanted to archive this specific story for it's name, which is also listed as The Robin Hood Rivals: a Romance of forts, fastnesses, and frontier retributions. A nice callback to the original noble outlaw. If you're looking for extremely cheesy Westerns, Buffalo Bill is a title to look for. Not to be confused with Silence of the Lambs!

Karaibo: The Outlaw's Tale

Cover of Karaibo; multicoloured

This is one story from Pocket Novels , a breed of short novel I encountered many times on the Nickels and Dimes website. I wanted to include at least one here, because I was really struck by their colourful covers. All of them included some interesting variety of primary and secondary colours, despite being quite old. Karaibo was released in 1879, to give some perspective. Also, I referenced this cover when attempting to create my own dime novel cover under the Handiwork tab!

Deadwood Dick's Double: or, the Ghost of Gorgon's Gulch

Cover of Deadwood Dick, featuring some blood

Deadwood Dick is another name that pops up quite frequently in 19th century Westerns. As you can assume from The Deadwood Dick Library title at the top here, he's seen many adventures. This particular story was released just before the turn of the century, in 1899, and written by Edward L. Wheeler. I find its especially interesting for its grim, bloody cover. Deadly cover art is not at all uncommon in the genre, and goes to show how glorified violence was at the time. Not that things are any better today, but its neat to see that humanity's morbid curiosity has always existed.