The Dime Novel

When most people think of Dime Novels they think of Buffalo Bill, and extravagant Wild West stories with heroes and villains no one would ever believe now. Back then people didn’t only believe them, but considered them fact. Some myths of our Old West legends are born out of those Dime Novels that created seedy stories and were told from generation to generation.

So how did this type of literature begin, and why did it become so popular? It is important to understand that at the time these started being published, times were changing around the world, especially in America where we were fast settling the West. Transportation was made faster and broader by use of railway; the printing press was beginning to really take a solid form with better, faster technology; and literacy rates were up. All of these factors, added to the public’s desire for entertainment and heroes in their new frontier made Dime Novels a complete success form the outset.

In June of 1860, "Malaeska; the Indian Wife of the White Hunter" was published. Considered to be the first Dime Novel, it told the story of an Indian squaw who married a white settler and the tragedy that ensued. Within a few months of its release it had sold over 50,000 copies. The “Buffalo Bill” stories came along in 1865, and created a persona for the public that many people still associate with truth today. During the golden days of the Wild West, from the 1850’s-1880’s, Dime Novels became infamous for glamorizing the lives of outlaws, cowboys, ranchers, and the law. The tales grew larger, and grander with each issue, and Dime Novels flooded the market.

Dime Novels were not just avenues for storytellers to run rampant, but also for political, and moral ideas to be spread and bolstered. By giving heroes certain attributes, or ideals, the readers would come to idolize these characteristics and want to emulate them. For example, the constant issues and battles with the Native Americans were on the settler’s minds. How they should react to these Indians was largely influenced by what the government told them was appropriate, as well as how their heroes of the time reacted to them. Therefore many of the Dime Novels portrayed their heroes as Indian hunters, or ones who fought and won many battles against the Indians, always of course saving the settlers from the danger that they represented. This in turn helped politically. When the government wished to run more Indians off from their land, they had the support they needed because the general public believed that they were out to kill them all anyway. Of course this public support was not entirely due to Dime Novels, but the weekly issues sure helped instill these ideas in everyday people.

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