Dime Novels, Story Magazines, Pulps

The dime novel was part of a continuing tradition of popular fiction, growing out of the story papers and cheap romances of the 1830's. Along with their inexpensive cost and convenient size, their slightly sensational treatment of adventure and romance themes which ofered the thrill of the forbidden made them enormously popular. The Nye holdings constitute a sample selection from the period 1860 to 1920. A complete run of the Beadle Frontier series (100 issues) and nearly complete (61 of 64 issues) Deadwood Dick series are included.

The "pulp" magazine, so called because of the poor paper on which it was printed, followed the dime novel in content and popularity in the first decades of the twentieth century. There are strong holdings of Argosy (the first pulp), Railroad Magazine, and Sport Story Magazine. Other titles are housed with the fiction category which they represent (e.g. western, romance, detective).

A large number of confession, teen, tabloid, men's, crime, movie-tv-radio, music, and scandal magazines are also held. These cover a period primarily between 1940 and 1980.

Special Collections Division

Michigan State University Libraries