Dime novels were a nineteenth-century American publishing phenomenon: short potboiler fiction, in lurid covers, that typically sold for ten cents. They are the antecedents of both modern paperbacks and comic books. The Ransom Center's Dime Novels Collection contains 857 of these early titles put out by publisher Beadle and Adams, who originated the concept in 1860; the collection was formed by Frank P. O'Brien. The collection is arranged by publisher's series with the volumes arranged numerically within each series: I. Dime Novels; II. New Dime Novels; III. Pocket Novels; IV. Dime Libraries; V. Half Dime Libraries; VI. Pocket Library; VII. Lives of Great Americans; VIII. Twenty Cent Novels.
Two copies of the scarce first dime novel,
Purchase, 1967 (R3899b)
Open for research
John B. Thomas, III, 2006
Many dime novels put out by other publishers are located in other book collections at the Ransom Center; the Ellery Queen collection is especially rich. Although a number of authors wrote exclusively for the dime novel genre, others were also published in more traditional formats. These latter, especially, are well-represented in the Ransom Center's general run of American nineteenth-century literature.
Ancillary Beadle and Adams items acquired with this book collection were transferred to other units of the Ransom Center: 11 photographs of Buffalo Bill (William F. Cody), who wrote for the series; a snuff box, a black wooden walking stick, and the mounted head of a buffalo shot by Cody; 12 engraved steel plates used for printing cover illustrations; and the large Beadle & Adams publisher's sign, which showed the way to their premises.