A recent acquisition of mine is a copy of Old Sleuth’s Freaky Female Detectives (From the Dime Novels).
It’s a collection of three dime-novel stories of female detectives that ran in issues of Old Sleuth Library in 1886 and Old Sleuth Weekly in 1908 and 1911. These stories are reprinted in facsimile, like all of Popular Press’ pulp magazine reprints.
Dime novels were the popular-fiction forerunners of the pulps in the 1860s-1915 that published in each weekly issue a single “novel” all for a dime. These are all by “Old Sleuth,” himself a popular detective character that was later used as the pseudonymous author of other detective stories. All the Old Sleuth works were really written by Harlan Page Halsey, who passed away in 1898.
This collection was edited by Garyn G. Roberts, Gary Hoppenstand, and Ray B. Browne and published in 1990 by Bowling Green State University’s Popular Press.
The book contains a great introduction that provides a good overview of the dime novels, and for that, it’s a great addition to my collection. The Old Sleuth was a popular detective who appeared in The Fireside Companion in 1872 from George Munro Publishing. This was the first time the term “sleuth” was applied to a human detective, and the publisher even copyrighted the term.
The Old Sleuth stories, and the stories “by” the Old Sleuth, were then reprinted in the Old Sleuth Library starting in 1885, also from Munro. These were published in the larger “story paper” format of dime novels, around 8- by 12-inches, as fitting most other “Library” series, and were reprints from prior dime novels. This run for 101 issues.
Then J.G. Ogilivie picked up the material in 1897 and reprinted them with some new stories as the Old Sleuth’s Own. I believe these were a more standard smaller, dime-novel size. And finally, The Old Sleuth Weekly was a later reprint series by Arthur Westbrook that ran 203 issues (so again some new with the old). These ran from 1908 through 1921, had color covers, and were in a larger format (8.5-by-12, later 8-by-10).
As female detectives were fairly rare, not just in the dime novels but in the later pulps, I am sure this was the reason for their selections. We get three different female detectives here.
First up is Lady Kate Edwards, the “dashing female detective,” who has the mental and physical capacity of being a great detective. She is even able to disguise herself as a man. But the story has the usual melodramatic flaws of such works. You almost wonder how much is done to pad the stories. She has a two-part story that runs in Old Sleuth Library #30. It was later reprinted in Old Sleuth Weekly #95 and #96 in 1910.
Next is Miss Kate Goelet, who is similar to Lady Kate, and is working to solve the “Great Bond Robbery.” This one comes from Old Sleuth Weekly #9 from 1908, but is a reprint from 1885, maybe from Old Sleuth Library.
And finally we get Madge the Society Detective, who we learn is really Alice VanCamp, a beautiful and brilliant society girl. But she disguises herself as Madge, to protect her honor. This one is from Old Sleuth Weekly #161 from 1911. Here she is trying to solve the mystery of who had stolen some diamonds.
If you are interested in original dime-novel fiction, as well as female detectives, check out this volume if you can find it. The hardback edition is still available from the Popular Press, but if you look you might find the paperback one at a reasonable price.
