Dime Novel Project

Presented by Katie George and Sara Steves

ENGL 3308 - 002

April 6, 2017

Dime Novel Introduction

➢ Title: The Lawyer Detective OR The Mystery at Three Oaks Ranch

➢ Author: Will Winch➢ Series: Old Captain Collier Library

○ (1883 - 1899)➢ Publisher: Munro’s Publishing House, NYC

○ Est. 1870 by Norman Munro➢ Publication Date: August 4, 1890

“Great detective stories in book form. Each one complete”(Description of the series. Found on the cover of the dime novel)

Cover Illustration

Brief Plot Summary

➢ Main character is a young and handsome lawyer’s clerk/ detective named Hilton Ragsdale➢ His cousin Olive Chester has been murdered➢ He travels to Cheyenne City, Wyoming to avenge her death➢ Visits Olive Chester’s mother (his Aunt Julia) and her new step-daughter, Rena➢ Initial most likely suspect is lover, Evard Demming➢ Locket is found with photo of Olive and a man (not Demming) inside➢ It is revealed that Olive has a second lover, named Worthland Rivers➢ Rivers confesses to Ragsdale that he is guilty of the crime,

but then rescinds his confession and flees➢ The true circumstance of Olive’s death is revealed:

○ Demming and Rivers duel for Olive’s love, but she jumps between them in an attempt to interfere. One of the bullets accidentally strikes her in the forehead and kills her. Worthland Rivers up to this point that it was his bullet that killed her, but it was actually Demming's.

➢ Story concludes with the arrest of Evard Demming

Dime Novel Discussion - Main Theme

Main Theme: Gender➢ Males

○ Ragsdale■ Ideal male role model■ Gets the girl

○ Demmings■ “The man addressed was not handsome.

He was a smaller man with delicate features and blue eyes. . .” (Winch 7)

■ Ends up being the bad guy

Main Theme: Gender➢ Females

○ Stereotypical role for women○ “‘Have dinner on the table for us when we get

back, Nancy,’ ordered the colonel” (Winch 4).○ “You must obey me, Julia, else I’ll make life too

hot for your comfort, remember that” (Winch 6).○ Only sees some of the males as suspicious,

doesn’t look at any of the women as suspects■ Refuses to believe Rena was involved because she is a delicate woman

○ Rena is constantly described based on her physical beauty

Dime Novel Discussion - Main Theme

Racism➢ How other Native Americans are portrayed in this dime novel➢ “The fellow was about twenty, with tawny skin, black eyes,

and long straight hair, like and Indian’s” (Winch 4).➢ Ragsdale refers to Benay Flash as a “half breed”

several times in the novel because he is half Native American➢ “And, too, he could now account for the deep tint on the cheek

of Miss Mindora Flash. There was Indian blood in her veins. He hated the race and the feelings that had suddenly aroused in his bosom fell as suddenly to zero” (Winch 13)

Minor Theme - Racism

Works Cited➢ “Special Collections and Archives” Dime Novels and Penny Dreadfuls Collection. Kent State

University Department of Special Collections and Archives, 2004. Web. 03 Apr. 2017.

➢ Winch, Will. The Lawyer Detective. Old Cap. Collier Library, 379, August 4, 1890.66

➢ “Munro Starts Publishing House.” Stanford University, n.d. Web. 04 April. 2017.

<https://web.stanford.edu/dept/SUL/library/prod/depts/dp/pennies/1860_munro.html>

➢ Photos:

○ http://www.canstockphoto.com/illustration/old-gun.html

○ http://susannaives.com/wordpress/2012/03/1870s-hodgepodge-his-and-hers-dressing-rooms-

bathing-a-brides-trousseau-rules-of-mourning-and-many-fashion-illustrations/

○ https://www.pinterest.com/pin/286682332504449378/

○ https://www.pinterest.com/pin/151574343682461207/

○ https://www.tumblr.com/search/native%20american%20boys

“As Union and Confederate forces warred on the battlefields in 1863, a battle of a different kind raged among dime novel publishers. Irwin Beadle, who had co-founded the Beadle Publishing House with his brother Erastus, broke with

his brother and established a rival publishing house with George Munro. Irwin left the business shortly thereafter, leaving George Munro the head of a

burgeoning publishing house which was fiercely competitive with that of Erastus Beadle. In 1870, George Munro's brother, Norman, in turn founded a

publishing house to rival that of his brother. A former Beadle employee, Norman Munro was interested in detective stories and achieved great success

with the publication of Old Cap Collier Library, a series featuring the adventures of an ingenious, aging sleuth. The Houses of Munro and Beadle

enjoyed great commercial success until the early 1900s when the popularity of dime novels declined, replaced by the cheaper "nickel libraries.”

Afterthought About Publisher