LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Dime Novels: Stories
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The format shrank into small, lightweight booklets, called dime novels, that could easily fit into pockets and averaged around 48 pages in length, says Mr. McPheron. The publications were popular among the working classes -- and, during the Civil War, among soldiers seeking something to read while in the trenches. By the 1870s, the novels had evolved into stories written for young boys and girls, who made popular such long-running series as Boys of America and Happy Days, by a writer named Frank Leslie.
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"Most of us have an idea about what the stereotypical western is," said Bill Brown, Associate Professor in English Language & Literature and editor of the new book Reading the West: An Anthology of Dime Westerns. "But individually, almost every dime western broke the stereotype. These stories violate the status quo, capitalist culture, law. They ... often play with gender. The Deadwood Dick series mythologized Calamity Jane, making her every inch the desperado. And Deadwood Dick himself sometimes dressed in drag."
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Though Mrs. Stephens presents a more complex character than is usual in dime novels, she is unable to change Sybil's fate of inevitable punishment. Sybil's desertion of her husband, her plan to ruin the engagement of another woman and other ruthless deeds doom her. The difference in Sybil's fate from that of most female antagonists is that Sybil survives the end of the story. Her punishment is rather a form of living death -- a solitary widow's life on the remote California ranch she vowed to leave.
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[One] Civil War era connection was the rise of the Dime Novel, which morphed through the years into the popular fiction read today. These "books" were sold in drugstores and department stores in the last part of the 19th century. The dime novels evolved from the stories of frontiersmen battling Indians in the West and were published by James Fennimore Cooper in the magazine, 'The Pilot.' The Beadle brothers published the first dime novel in 1860: 'Malaeska,' written by Mrs. Ann S. Stephens. It tells the story of a beautiful Indian maiden who marries a white settler. All the early dime novels were westerns, but later came stories of pirates, spies and patriots. They were adventures and romances.
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Although they were arguably the most popular reading materials of their day, dime novels and story papers have gone largely unnoticed by modern scholars. Selected from the Cotsen Library’s collection of over 1,700 individual issues, “Cheap Thrills” draws attention to these magazines, focusing on the uniquely American genre of western and frontier adventure, accounts of Ivy League and New England prep-school sports, stories of war and patriotism, and tales of foul murder and mystery. Many of the stories star historical figures like Buffalo Bill and Frank and Jesse James, while others star fictional creations like Nick Carter, perhaps the most famous detective in the history of American mystery fiction, Frank Merriwell, Yale’s all-American sporting hero, and Phil and Ralph Stirling, two cousins who fought on opposing sides during the American Civil War. From the battlefields of the Revolutionary War to the playing grounds of Yale and Princeton, and from the uncharted American West to the mysterious and savage streets of crime-ridden eastern cities, the books on display here capture the essence of popular juvenile fiction at the turn of the twentieth century.
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The religious values of frontier dime novels were far outweighed by the exciting and sometimes violent adventures ... found in the stories. There was no danger of religion overshadowing adventure. Frontier women were usually the guardians of their family's piety since, according to nineteenth-century attitudes, women were emotionally suited for this task. The notes of religion are sprinkled among exciting episodes and are not confined to the camp meeting or coun try church.
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