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Dime Novels: Characters
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Dime novels —as fundamentally American as baseball and jazz—were an inexpensive and inexhaustible source of popular entertainment for millions of Americans in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The five novels in this unique anthology are classic examples of the form, which encompassed Westerns, early science fiction, detective and mystery yarns, and Revolutionary War historicals. From the handsome gambler “Dashing Diamond Dick” and the daring inventor in “Over the Andes with Frank Reade, Jr., in His New Air-Ship” to the mythic baseball player in “Frank Merriwell’s Finish,” here are some of the most valiant heroes and notorious rogues in the pantheon. Read together, these novels are fascinating time capsules from a young nation in love with its larger-than-life characters.
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Women who displayed initiative were acceptable in dime novels if their initiative remained within proper bounds and did not become ruthless ambition. Proper bounds stopped just short of the prerogatives exercised by male characters. A woman who interfered with the course of action defined by a male protagonist defied acceptability. Barbara Warner in Daring Davy allows her ambition to become uncontrolled as she seeks revenge on Davy Crockett for his supposed spurning of her love. Rosebud, Davy's fiancee, displays the proper attitude when she expresses her view of her relationship with her husband-to-be as she begs: "Pray Heaven that no harm may come to my Davy, my king." [28]
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No one would claim that dime novels represent high art. They were often hidden in barns or under mattresses, and many thought them immoral and even dangerous to the youth of society. More so than that, the novels were simply poorly written. Like the later radio dramas and Hollywood movies based on them, dime novels used worn, improbable plot formulas and cliché characters ("virgins, villains and violence"). What makes the dime novel interesting is that it mirrors the tastes, values and stereotypes of its era. And, one sees for the first time in dime novels a rejection of traditional European models of literature.
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In most dime novels, it would be an impossible feat to remember the past, bitter or imbitter, for only a professional genealogist could untangle the characters, so profuse that they could barely be kept from marrying their own disguised blood relatives. Such scenes were called “grand reunions” in the trade, and were generally followed by double and triple weddings. Even then, characters would be left over and need disposal in a postscript. These quasi-social notes laconically listed those now engaged in ranching, hunting, managing their manorial estates or simply pushing up the daisies. “This last spring,” concludes
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Richard Tanner, a marksman and long distance rider, appropriated the name "Diamond Dick," a character in several dime novels. Tanner toured the U.S. from about 1895 to 1905 with his target-shooting act. Tanner's dime novel collection, featuring real and fictional frontier figures, is highlighted here. Other examples can be found in the Richard J. Tanner Collection (RG1345) in the Library / Archives.
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The fact is that dime novels are not what they were. Publishers have ceased working over the adventures of the James boys, and along with them have died such characters as Bowery Billy the Bunco Bouncer, Buck Bumblebee the Harlem Hummer, and Hurricane Bill
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