American Women's Dime Novels, 1870-1920

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Prohibition of Dime Literature

The Hon. Able Goddard, member of the New
York Assembly from St. Lawrence, has made a
bid for immortality by introducing into that
body a bill of which the following is the chief part:

Any person who shall sell, loan, or give to any minor
under sixteen years of age any dime novel or book of fiction,
without first obtaining the written consent of the parent or
guardian of such minor, shall be deemed guilty of a mis -
demeanor, punishable by imprisonment or by a fine not ex-
ceeding $50.

The length of the imprisonment is apparently
left to the discretion of the magistrate, and if he
were the peer of Mr. Goddard in this quality he
might sentence an offender to imprisonment for
life for this heinous offence, for all that appears
in the bill. It will also be observed that no
definition is given of "book of fiction," so that
as the bill stands it prohibits from giving a
copy of "The Pilgrim's Progress" to a minor
without the written consent of his parent or
guardian. The Examiner has never failed to
lift up its voice against the demoralizing ten-
dency of much of the fictitious literature of the
day, but such crude legislation as this is worse
than dime novels. Besides, the bill does not
touch the worst class of demoralizing reading,
the flash newspaper.

Source: Publishers Weekly. April 28, 1883: 500.