Talk:Dime novel
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I seem to remember from my studies in American history that penny dreadfuls here were nasty letters sent through the mail at the payment (one penny) of the recipient. Since the recipient paid for the insult, they were especially frustrating. I'm still looking for a web reference for this. --Davidstrauss 15:34, 3 Jun 2005 (UTC)
I personally seriously wonder why 'penny dreadful' redirects to 'Dime novel', instead of the other way around... last time I checked the first penny dreadfuls in the UK both preceded dime novels in the US by a few decades AND the penny dreadfuls were far more popular in the UK than dime novels ever were. But the reason for that is probably the same as the reason why half the articles on the english language wiki describe only the situation as it is in the US without stating such. (my own personal opinion for why that is would be 'because unlike Canadians, Brits and non-first language anglophones, contributors from the US are much less likely to realise that there's a world outside the US and that things here are different from there') Robrecht 00:52, 12 December 2005 (UTC)
Both "Story paper" and "Dime novel" should be merged into one big article, "Penny dreadful", which would cover both subjects. Ashibaka tock 03:24, 23 May 2006 (UTC)
I don't see that it matters much which directs to which, but I do think that all three topics you mention are deserving of their own article. "Penny dreadful" has a specific meaning in the UK, but not in the US, and the reverse is true of "dime novels" here. And neither of them resemble storypapers, even though both drew on the material printed in those publications. The Storypaper entry deals almost exclusively with the British papers and from what I read there, there are certainly differences between the Uk and US versions. I'd like to see the Storypaper article enlarged for that reason, not for any nationalism. For all I know, each country in the world had its own version of storypapers, but the topic is tough to research. I also am curious about the source for the comment that penny dreadfuls were more popular than dime novels ever were. I can't dispute it as I don't have any figures, but dime novels were phenomenonly popular over the course of their entire history. I know penny dreadfuls were likewise widely bought and read. But I don't think it's a contest as to which was "more popular." And by the way, in my collection I have runs of several later English titles, such as Dick Turpin Library, New Black Bess Library, Spring Heel'd Jack, Claude Duval and Sexton Blake.Double-L tock 04:24, 1 June 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Blood and Thunders
PBS American Experience on Kit Carson says (8 'graphs above end of "Scene Four")
- in 1849, came a new literary hero, Kit Carson: The Prince of the Gold Hunters -- a giant of a man who referred to Indians as "redskins," "critters" and "varmints," and cheerfully slaughtered them by the dozen.
- Written by an East Coast hack who claimed it had been "founded on actual facts," the book was a smash hit. Almost overnight, it became the template for a brand new genre of adventure stories -- hair-raising, action-packed and set in the uncharted wilds of the far West. Americans called them "blood and thunders."
Seems to me i recall from the visual that accompanied these words a display of actual publications, at least one with the title "Blood and Thunder".
--Jerzy•t 08:28, 26 February 2008 (UTC)
