Dime Novels and Pulp Fiction

Dime Novels and Pulp Fiction, with 192 books, includes such authors as Horatio Alger, B.M. Bower, Max Brand, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Howard Garis, O. Henry, Charles Alden Seltzer, Garret Serviss, and Burt Standish. It also includes Stratemeyer Syndicate series books written under the names of Victor Appleton, Allen Chapman, Alice Emerson, Laura Lee Hope, Margaret Penrose, Roy Rockwood, Arthur Winfield, and Clarence Young.

Intended for use with PCs (Windows or Linux) and recent Macs (OS X), these books are in plain-text format, organized for easy access.

Dime novels and pulp fiction are ephemeral works of popular fiction, frequently published under pseudonyms. They were published in large quantities, sold at low prices, and were printed on the cheapest paper, which deteriorates quickly. Many turned to dust and were lost. Others have recently been preserved in electronic form.

According to the Wikipedia Encyclopedia, "In the United States in the late 19th century and very early 20th century, a dime novel was a low-priced novel, typically priced at 10 cents (a dime). The original dime novels were published in a tabloid format, but later evolved into a more standard book format. In the United Kingdom similar books were called penny dreadfuls, a term also referring to the denomination of coin needed to buy one from a vendor.

"Dime novels and penny dreadfuls often involved melodramatic tales of vice and virtue in conflict, often with strong elements of horror and cruelty. Their main audience consisted of young and/or unsophisticated readers, primarily male.

"Many American dime novels had inspirational themes, most notably those written by Horatio Alger, Jr.. Respected writers such as Theodore Dreiser and Upton Sinclair often wrote dime novels under pseudonyms. New York City-based firm Street & Smith, founded in 1855, was one of the most prolific publishers of the genre."

Also, according to Wikipedia, "The name 'pulp' comes from the cheap wood pulp paper on which such magazines were printed. Magazines printed on better paper and usually offering family-oriented content were often called "glossies" or "slicks". Pulps were the successor to the "penny dreadfuls" and "dime novels" of the nineteenth century. Although many respected writers wrote for pulps, the magazines are perhaps best remembered for their fast-paced, lurid, sensational and exploitative stories. Parallels between comic books and pulp magazines can be drawn; for example, magazines often featured illustrated novel-length stories of heroic characters such as The Shadow, Doc Savage, and The Phantom Detective.

"Because of the copyright laws at the time, there were distinct lines of this sort of magazine in Britain as well. These magazines, called "story papers", were distributed throughout the British Empire. Characters such as Sexton Blake and Nelson Lee were similar characters there. At the time, there was no global media market, so even though these were written in the same language, there was no recognition of the characters by each nation, just as in much of television today.

"Pulp covers were famous for their half-dressed damsels in distress, usually awaiting a rescuing hero."

This collection is just the beginning. I plan to add new titles as they become available. Suggestions welcome. Please contact me at seltzer@samizdat.com

You can see the complete table of contents below. Please use the Find function in your browser (under Edit) to look for a specific author or book.

You can see suggestions on how to get the most out of your plain-text books on CD ROM at our home Web site. Use the back button on your browser to return here.

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Table of Contents

Horatio Alger, Jr. (1834-1899)

• Andy Grant's Pluck
• Bound to Rise
• Brave and Bold
• The Cash Boy
• Cast Upon the Breakers
• Do and Dare
• Driven from Home, or Carl Crawford's Experience
• The Errand Boy, or How Phil Brent Won Success
• Facing the World
• Frank's Campaign, or the Farm and the Camp
• From Canal Boy to President or the Boyhood and manhood of James Garfield, 1881
• Hector's Inheritance
• Helping Himself
• Herbert Carter's Son
• Jack's Ward
• Joe the Hotel Boy, or Winning by Pluck
• Joe's Luck
• Making His Way
• Nothing to Eat
• Only an Irish Boy
• Paul Prescott's Charge
• Paul the Peddlar, or the Fortunes of a Young Street Merchant
• Phil the Fiddler
• Ragged Dick
• The Story Boy
• Timothy Crump's Ward
• The Young Explorer
• The Young Musician

Victor Appleton (pseudonym used by the Stratemeyer Syndicate)

• The Moving Picture Boys at Panama or Stirring Adventures Along the Great Canal, 1915
• Tom Swift Among the Fire Fighters
• Tom Swift and His Aerial Warship
• Tom Swift and His Air Glider
• Tom Swift and His Air Scout
• Tom Swift and His Airship
• Tom Swift and His Big Tunnel
• Tom Swift and His Electric Locomotive
• Tom Swift and His Electric Runabout
• Tom Swift and His Electric Rifle
• Tom Swift and His Giant Cannon
• Tom Swift and His Great Searchlight
• Tom Swift and His Motor Boat
• Tom Swift and His Motor Cycle
• Tom Swift and His Photo Telephone
• Tom Swift and His Sky Racer
• Tom Swift and His Submarine Boat
• Tom Swift and His Undersea Search
• Tom Swift and His War Tank
• Tom Swift and His Wireless Message
• Tom Swift and His Wizard Camera
• Tom Swift and the Diamond Makers
• Tom Swift in Captivity
• Tom Swift in the Caves of Ice
• Tom Swift in the City of Gold
• Tom Swift in the Land of Wonders

B.M. Bower (pseudonym of Bertha M. Sinclair)

• Cabin Fever
• Casey Ryan
• Chip of the Flying U
• Cow-Country
• The Flying U's Last Stand
• The Flying U Ranch
• Good Indian
• The Gringos
• The Heritage of the Sioux
• Her Prairie Knight
• Jean of the Lazy A
• Lonesome Land
• The Lonesome Trail and Other Stories
• The Long Shadow
• The Look-Out Man
• The Lure of Dim Trails
• The Phantom Herd
• The Range Dwellers
• Rowdy of the Cross L
• Skyrider
• Starr, of the Desert
• The Thunder Bird, 1917
• Trail of the White Mule
• The Uphill Climb

Max Brand (pseudonym of  Frederick Schiller Faust) (1892 - 1944)

• Alcatraz, 1922
• Black Jack, 1922
• Bull Hunter
• Gunman's Reckoning, 1921
• Harrigan, 1918
• The Night Horseman, 1920
• The Rangeland Avenger, 1922
• Riders of the Silences, 1919
• Ronicky Doone
• The Seventh Man
• Trailin, 1919
• The Untamed, 1919
• The Way of the Lawless, 1921

Edgar Rice Burroughs (1875 - 1950)

• At the Earth's Core
• The Beasts of Tarzan
• The Chessmen of Mars
• The Efficiency Expert
• The Gods of Mars
• Jungle Tales
• The Land that Time Forgot
• The Lost Continent
• The Mad King
• The Monster Men
• The Mucker
• The Oakdale Affair
• Out of Time's Abyss
• The Outlaw of Torn
• Pellucidar
• The People that Time Forgot
• A Princess of Mars
• The Return of Tarzan
• The Son of Tarzan
• Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar
• Tarzan of the Apes
• Tarzan the Terrible
• Tarzan the Untamed
• Thuvia, Maid of Mars
• The Warlord of Mars

Allen Chapman (pseudonym used by the Stratemeyer Syndicate)

• Bart Stirling's Road to Success

Alice Emerson (pseudonym used by the Stratemeyer Syndicate)

• Betty Gordon in Washington
• Betty Gordon at Boarding School or the Treasure of Indian Chasm, 1921
• Betty Gordon at Mountain Camp
• Ruth Fielding at Snow Camp
• Ruth Fielding in Motion Pictures
• Ruth Fielding on Cliff Island

Howard Garis (1873 - 1962)

• Buddy and Brighteyes Pigg
• The Curlytops on Star Island or Camping Out with Grandpa
• Daddy Takes Us Skating
• Daddy Takes Us to the Garden
• Sammy and Susie Littletail, 1910

O. Henry (pseudonym of William Sydney Porter) (1862 - 1910)

• Cabbages and Kings
• The Proem
• "Fox-in-the-Morning"
• The Lotus and the Bottle
• Smith
• Caught
• Cupid's Exile Number Two
• The Phonograph and the Graft
• Money Maze
• The Admiral
• The Flag Paramount
• The Shamrock and the Palm
• The Remnants of the Code
• Shoes
• Ships
• Masters of Arts
• Dickey
• Rouge et Noir
• Two Recalls
• The Vitagraphoscope

 
• The Four Million
• Tobin's Palm
• The Gift of the Magi
• A Cosmopolite in a Cafe
• Between Rounds
• The Skylight Room
• A Service of Love
• The Coming-Out of Maggie
• Man about Town
• The Cop and the Anthem
• An Adjustment of Nature
• Memoirs of a Yellow Dog
• The Love-Philtre of Ikey Schoenstein
• Mammon and the Archer
• Springtime a la Carte
• The Green Door
• From the Cabby's Seat
• An Unfinished Story
• The Caliph, Cupid and the Clock
• Sisters of the Golden Circle
• The Romance of a Busy Broker
• After Twenty Years
• Lost on Dress Parade
• By Courier
• The Furnished Room
• The Brief Debut of Tildy
• The Gentle Grafter
•  The Octopus Marooned
•  Jeff Peters as a Personal Magnet
• Modern Rural Sports
• The Chair of Philanthromathematics
• The Hand That Riles the World
• The Exact Science of Matrimony
• A Midsummer Masquerade
• Shearing the Wolf
• Innocents of Broadway
• Conscience in Art
• The Man Higher Up
• A Tempered Wind
• Hostages to Momus
• The Ethics of Pig
• Heart of the West
• Hearts and Crosses
• The Ransom of Mack
• Telemachus, Friend
• The Handbook of Hymen
• The Pimienta Pancakes
• Seats of the Haughty
• Hygeia at the Solito
• An Afternoon Miracle
• The Higher Abdication
• Cupid a la Carte
• The Caballero's Way
• The Sphinx Apple
• The Missing Chord
• A Call Loan
• The Princess and the Puma
• The Indian Summer of Dry Valley Johnson
• Christmas by Injunction
• A Chaparral Prince
• The Reformation of Calliope
• Options
• "The Rose of Dixie"
• The Third Ingredient
• The Hiding of Black Bill
• Schools and Schools
• Thimble, Thimble
• Buried Treasure
• To Him Who Waits
• He Also Serves
• The Moment of Victory
• The Head-Hunter
• No Story
• The Higher Pragmatism
• Best-Seller
• Rus in Urbe
• A Poor Rule
• Roads of Destiny
• Roads of Destiny
• The Guardian of the Accolade
• The Discounters of Money
•  The Enchanted Profile
• "Next to Reading Matter"
• Art and the Bronco
• Phoebe
• A Double-dyed Deceiver
• The Passing of Black Eagle
• A Retrieved Reformation
• Cherchez la Femme
• Friends in San Rosario
• The Fourth in Salvador
• The Emancipation of Billy
• The Enchanted Kiss
• A Departmental Case
• The Renaissance at Charleroi
• On Behalf of the Management
• Whistling Dick's Christmas Stocking
• The Halberdier of the Little Rheinschloss
• Two Renegades
• The Lonesome Road
• Sixes and Sevens
• The Last of the Troubadours
• The Sleuths
• Witches' Loaves
• The Pride of the Cities
• Holding up a Train
• Ulysses and the Dogman
• The Champion of the Weather
• Makes the Whole World Kin
• At Arms with Morpheus
• The Ghost of a Chance
• Jimmy Hayes and Muriel
• The Door of Unrest
• The Duplicity of Hargraves
• Let me Feel your Pulse
• October and June
• The Church with an Overshot Wheel
• New York by Campfire Light
• The Adventures of Shamrock Jolnes
• The Lady Higher Up
• The Greater Coney
• Law and Order
• Transformation of Martin Burney
• The Caliph and the Cad
• The Diamond of Kali
• The Day We Celebrate
• Strictly Business
• Strictly Business
• The Gold that Glittered
• Babes in the Jungle
• The Day Resurgent
• The Fifth Wheel
• The Poet and the Peasant
• The Robe of Peace
• The Girl and the Graft
• The Call of the Tame
• The Unknown Quantity
• The Thing's the Play
• A Ramble in Aphasia
• A Municipal Report
• Psyche and the Pskyscraper
• A Bird of Bagdad
• Compliments of the Season
• A Night in New Arabia
• The Girl and the Habit
• Proof of the Pudding
• Past One at Rodney's
• The Venturers
• The Duel
• "What You Want"
• The Trimmed Lamp
• The Trimmed Lamp
• A Madison Square Arabian Night
• The Rubaiyat of a Scotch Highball
• The Pendulum
• Two Thanksgiving Day Gentlemen
• The Assessor of Success
• The Buyer from Cactus City
• The Badge of Policeman O'Room
• Brickdust Row
• The Making of a New Yorker
• Vanity and Some Sables
• The Social Triangle
• The Purple Dress
• The Foreign Policy of Company 99
• The Lost Blend
• A Harlem Tragedy
• "The Guilty Party" -- an East Side Tragedy
• According to Their Lights
• A Midsummer Knight's Dream
• The Last Leaf
• The Count and the Wedding Guest
• The Country of Elusion
• The Ferry of Unfulfilment
• The Tale of a Tainted Tenner
• Elsie in New York
• The Voice of the City
• The Voice of the City
• The Complete Life of Johns Hopkins
• A Lickpenny Lover
• Dougherty' Eye-Opener
• Little Speck in Garnered Fruit
• The Harbinger
• While the Auto Waits
• Comedy in Rubber
• One Thousand Dollars
• Defeat of the City
• Shocks of Doom
• Plutonian Fire
• Nemesis and the Candyman
• Squaring the Circle
• Roses, Ruses, and Romance
• Four Roses
• City of Dreadful Night
• Easter of the Soul
• Fool-Killer
• Transients in Arcadia
• Rathskeller and the Rose
• Clarion Call
• Extradited from Bohemia
• Philistine in Bohemia
• From Each According to His Ability
• Memento
• Waifs and Strays
• The Red Roses of Tonia
• Round The Circle
• The Rubber Plant's Story
• Out of Nazareth
• Confessions of a Humorist
• The Sparrows in Madison Square
• Hearts and Hands
• The Cactus
• The Detective Detector
• The Dog and the Playlet
• A Little Talk About Mobs
• The Snow Man
• Whirligigs
• The World and the Door
• The Theory and the Hound
• Hypotheses of Failure
• Calloway's Code
• A Matter of Mean Elevation
• "Girl"
• Sociology in Serge and Straw
• The Ransom of Red Chief
• Two Deperate Men
• The Marry Month of May
• A Technical Error
• Suite Homes and their Romance
• The Whirligig of Life
• A Sacrifice Hit
• The Roads We Take
• A Blackjack Bargainer
• The Song and the Sergeant
• One Dollar's Worth
• A Newspaper Story
• Tommy's Burglar
• A Chaparral Christmas Gift
• A Little Local Color
• Georgia's Ruling
• Blind Man's Holiday
• Madame Bo-Peep of the Ranches

Laura Lee Hope (pseudonym used by the Stratemeyer Syndicate)

• The Bobbsey Twins at School
• The Bobbsey Twins at Snow Lodge
• The Bobbsey Twins at the County Fair
• The Bobbsey Twins in the Country
• The Bobbsey Twins in a Great City
• The Bobbsey Twins in the Great West
• The Bobbsey Twins on a Houseboat
• The Bobbsey Twins at Meadowbrook
• The Bobbsey Twins at the Sea Shore
• The Bobbsey Twins in Washington
• Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue
• Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue Playing Circus
• The Moving Picture Girls Under the Palms or Lost in the Wilds of Florida
• The Outdoor Girls in Army Service
• The Outdoor Girls at Rainbow Lake
• The Outdoor Girls at Wild Rose Lodge
• The Outdoor Girls of Deepdale, 1913
• The Outdoor Girls at the Hostess House
• Six Little Bunkers at Grandma Bell's
• The Story of a Bold Tin Soldier
• The Story of Calico Clown
• The Story of a Lamb on Wheels
• The Story of a White Rocking Horse

Colonel Prentiss Ingraham

• Adventures of Buffalo Bill from Boyhood to Manhood

Margaret Penrose (pseudonym used by the Stratemeyer Syndicate)

• The Motor Girls on Cedar Lake
• Motor Girls on Waters Blue
• Dorothy Dale's Queer Holidays
• Dorothy Dale's Camping Days

Roy Rockwood (pseudonym used by the Stratemeyer Syndicate)

• Dave Dashaway and His Hydroplane
• Jack North's Treasure Hunt
• Through Space to Mars
• Through the Air to the North Pole, 1906

Charles Alden Seltzer

• Square Deal Sanderson

Garrett P. Serviss (1851-1929)

• A Columbus of Space
• Curiosities of the Sky, 1909
• The Moon Metal
• The Second Deluge, 1912

Burt Standish (pseudonym)

• Frank Merriwell's Nobility or the Tragedy of the Ocean Tram, 1899
• Frank Merriwell at Yale

Arthur Winfield (pseudonym used by the Stratemeyer Syndicate)

• The Rover Boys in Business
• The Rover Boys in Camp
• The Rover Boys in the Jungle
• The Rover Boys in New York
• The Rover Boys on the Great Lakes
• The Rover Boys on the Ocean
• The Rover Boys on the River
• The Rover Boys Out West
• The Rover Boys at School
• The Rover Boys at College
• The Rover Boys in the Mountains
• The Rover Boys on Land and Sea

Clarence Young  (pseudonym used by the Stratemeyer Syndicate)

• Jack Ranger's Western Trip
• The Motor Boys on the Pacific