Primary Materials for the Study of Women's Dime Novel Fiction


     "Alderson's Famous Author: Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller" by Kathleen Kennedy, Journal of the Greenbrier Historical Society, Volume VII, Number 5, pages 28-34, 2003.

     "Biographical Sketch of America's Most Talented and Popular Authoress -- A Plucky American Girl's Successful Struggle for Literary Fame." The Fireside Companion. April 19, 1890. (A promotional piece for Laura Jean Libbey.)

      Burt, A.L. "Obituary." Publisher's Weekly, January 3, 1914, p. 21. (This links to a page outside the Dime Novel Project.)

     "Dime Novels; or, Following an Old Trail in Popular Literature" Edmund Pearson. Boston, Little, Brown, and Company, 1929. [A Gaslight Etext.]

      Dime Novel Roundup. A list of articles published in Dime Novel Roundup from February 1989 to June 2004.

    Dora Thorne, a novel by Charlotte Brame, prepared for the web by Project Gutenberg. [Unfortunately, the project did not provide information about exactly which book was used for this e-text. Dora Thorne was reprinted many, many times!]

    "I Have the Misfortune to Be Poor." Girls of Today. 12, February 9, 1876: 4. (Letter to the editor from a reader hoping to improve herself.)

    Mischievous Maid Faynie, by Laura Jean Libbey, a Project Gutenberg eBook.

    "My Wife's Piano." Girls of Today. December 18, 1875: 8. (Short story in one of the first women's storypaper.)

    "Obituary. George Munro." The Fireside Companion. (Newspaper Clipping. No reliable date.) (An obituary for one of the most successful cheap fiction publishers.)

     "Old and New Pirates." Publishers Weekly, February 10, 1883: 175.   (Editorial on whether cheap fiction publishers are hurting or helping the publishing business.)

     "Prohibition of Dime Literature." Publishers Weekly. April 28, 1883: 500. (Editorial on an attempt to outlaw giving dime novels to minors.)

     Britts, Mattie Dyer. "Nameless Love." Girls of Today. (A poem on love.)

     Harvey, Charles. The Dime Novel in American Life. The Atlantic Monthly 100 (1907): 37-45.  (A well-known commentary on dime novel fiction.)

      Libbey, Laura Jean. "Chapter II: I Have Risked My Life to Save You." Willful Gaynell. New York: Norman Munro, 1890. (An excerpt from one of Libbey's working girl novels.)

     Libbey, Laura Jean. "When Love Takes Wings." (Newspaper Clipping. No date.) (A reader clipped this column out of her local newspaper and included it in a love letter to her fiancé.)

    Edwards, Julia. Sadia The Rosebud. "Handing Sadia His Card." An illustration from the front page. New York: Street & Smith, 1890.