In 1860, brothers Erastus & Irwin Beadle

released a new series of cheap paperbacks, Beadle's Dime Novels.  With increased literacy leading to a higher demand for less expensive reading material, other publishers like George Munro, Robert DeWitt, and Street & Smith soon followed, and their stories of Western border romance, high-seas piracy, railway, circus, gold-digger, and other adventures delighted audiences of all ages.  Writers like Prentiss Ingraham, Thomas C. Harbaugh, Albert W. Aiken, Edward L. Wheeler, Joseph W. Badger, Jr., and Ned Buntline became household names, and the real men that they turned into the heroes of their stories became legends.  Buffalo Bill Cody and Texas Jack Omohundro, the famous buffalo hunter and the famous Texas cowboy, went from scouting for the Army at Ft. McPherson, Nebraska onto the stage in Chicago as The Scouts of the Prairie.  For their second theatrical season, they were joined by their old friend and legendary lawman James 'Wild Bill' Hickok, introducing America and the world to the Western.   Though Dime novels were eventually replaced by comic books and magazines, and western stories by authors like Owen Wister, Zane Grey, and Louis L'amour reached huge audiences, they were fundamental to the way Americans were entertained in the 19th Century, providing stories and heroes that would live forever.  They were the foundation of the Hollywood western, and in them, readers could see the best in themselves.

Matthew Kerns' Dime Library blog, video series, and podcast collect these stories, and present them in written, video, and audio formats, letting you join the excited readers who sat down for the first time after parting with their hard-earned dime to read about the brave scout Buffalo Bill, the dashing cowboy Texas Jack, the heroic lawman Wild Bill, and so many other American heroes.