America's Sherlock HolmesDime novels glorified The West when the actual events were happening.
Young Sleuth was a detective who roamed the continent bringing criminals to justice and facing down desperadoes. The character was first seen in BOYS OF NEW YORK MAGAZINE. The character proved so popular that he soon had his own weekly dime book. The first issue came in October 1892 and ran for 143 issues, with the last edition dated November 13th 1896.
The cover opposite shows Young Sleuth arriving in a mining town heavily disguised. Those men outside the saloon are in for a shock if they keep joshing on him.
6 comments:
Was the "wild west" the first great cultural experience that was fed as entertainment to the masses in more civilized climes? Probably not. Probably it happened in Rome too, with the barbarian frontier.
Charles - the mythic wild west was more a European thing than American in the early days.Over in Europe they were mythologising the West while the Americans were actually living it.
Gary,
You might be interested in subscribing to the Dime Novel Roundup, a monthly periodical that covers various historical subjects about dime novels and other periodicals during the 19th century and early 20th century. They also have several book reviews in every issue. Randy Cox is the editor; if you want info on how to contact him, let me know. I can also send you a few back issues if you want.
Laurie
Yeah laurie email the contact details - thanks.
Gary, I would be very interested in this Dime Novel Roundup that Laurie is talking about and great post on the Young Sleuth. This was new to me.
DAVID - I found the info while browsing through an old magazine last night. There don't seem to be many dime novel web sites but Wiki has a pretty good piece.
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