‘The Dime Novel Detective’

A nice volume of reprints, The Dime Novel Detective comes from Bowling Green State University Popular Press (now part of the University of Wisconsin Press).

Edited by Gary Hoppenstand, who at the time was a doctoral student in the BGSU’s popular-culture program, the book was released in 1982. It reprints in facsimile five different dime detectives. Surprisingly, they feature an issue of Nick Carter Library on the cover, but do not reprint a Nick Carter story.

The introduction by Hoppenstand continues into the introduction for each of the five stories here. After each story, we get a full listing of all the stories that appeared in that particular dime novel “library,” which were sometimes called “story papers.”

Story papers was one of the formats of dime novels, usually larger, about 8- by 12-inches on newsprint, that dime novels appeared in. Many dime novels would be reprinted over the years in different formats from different publishers. Dime novels themselves existed from 1860 to 1912, finally giving way to the pulp magazines.

Detectives were one of the popular types of characters in the dime novels, and largely replaced the western/cowboy stories that first appeared. The first dime-novel detective was The Bowery Detective, who appeared for 10 issues in The Fireside Companion in 1870. But what really kicked things off was when the Old Sleuth appeared there in 1872. This lead to a variety of detectives, such as Old Cap Collier, Old King Brady, Nick Carter (whose father was Old Slim Carter), etc. The Old Sleuth was so popular that he was used as a pseudonym for his author, Harlan P. Halsey, to write other detective stories under.

The editor puts forth the idea of the “avenging detective,” which could be seen as a sort of “proto superhero” that would later be picked up by the pulps and then move into the comics. He sets down eight characteristics:

1. He is a vigilante crimefighter who works outside of official channels.
2. He has an iconic weapon, often a gun.
3. He has great strength, training, and determination.
4. He is a master of disguise.
5. He is a man of great wealth.
6. He fights crime with a group of assistants.
7. He maintains a secret headquarters.
8. He is strongly nationalistic.

So think of how many pulp heroes fit many — if not most — of these.

First up in the book, we get a story with Old King Brady from the New York Detective Library #371 in 1890. Old King Brady was written by Francis Worchester Doughty under the house name “A New York Detective.” Brady started in #154 in 1885. This character was notible for being both physical and cerebral. He solved the cases as he was an extraordinary man. And being called “old” made sense, as he was 60. The publisher noted that issues with this character out-sold ones with more classical detectives. We get a full index of the over 800 issues of the New York Detective Library.

Next is Old Cap Collier from an issue of Old Cap Collier Library. He ran for some 40 of the 800-plus issues of Old Cap Collier Library. The author was a W.I. James, who hid under “the author of ‘Old Cap Collier’.” Old Cap Collier started off as a more comedic character, but transformed into a more serious character. And we get an index of those 800-plus issues.

Then we have the Old Sleuth from the Old Sleuth Library. The Old Sleuth meets all the points of the avenging detective. And the Old Sleuth was actually a young man who often disguised himself as an old man. He used his disguises to go undercover into the criminal enterprise, but was often revealed and had to fight he way out. We get indexes of Old Sleuth Library, Old Sleuth Weekly, and Young Sleuth Library. I’m not sure of the connection between the Young Sleuth and the Old Sleuth.

Next is Bob Brooks, the Detective from Bob Brooks Library. Bob Brooks was created to imitate Nick Carter, and we get a pretty good overview of Nick Carter in the Bob Brooks intro. And again, there’s a complete index of the Bob Brooks Library.

Finally we have both Old and Young King Brady from Secret Service. Here we see the twilight of the dime novels. Old King Brady is now the head of a detective agency, the Brady Bureau, with Young King Brady and a female sleuth Miss Alice Montgomery. As always, we get a full listing of Secret Service.

So overall, despite nothing from Nick Carter, this is a great collection of dime-novel detectives, with a great overview of these characters. The editor has done other works, some of which I’ve reviewed and others which are coming at some point.