Evening Star Newspaper, June 28, 1937, Page 26

B—6 ROOSEVELT ROES DIVENOVELHOBBY Joins Throng of Notables Collecting Old Paper- Bound Books. B the Associated Press. NEW YORK, June 23 —President Roosevelt for long has been known as an assiduous collector of books re- lating to ships, but that is not his only collecting interest, it has become known; he also acquires dime novels. He bought some new items com- paratively recently, according to word in the dime-novel trade, thus joining & throng of notables, desoribed as “shrinking violets,” who are adding the thrillers of a past generation to their libraries, without saying much about it. The little paper-bound books, how- ever, are no longer simply thrillers; they have climbed the social scale in recent years to a genteel place marked *Americana.” Truant boys, who once shivered to the exploits of “Buffalo Bill” in the safety of woodsheds and barn lofts +eould now find their hero only in the rare book rooms of a few libraries. And “Deadwood Dick,” the one-time pal of the street urchin, has become the steadfast friend of the college professor. Some Items Valuable. A few Injuns still bite the dust be- tween crumbling covers in forgotten' trunks and hidden attic corners. They turn up here and there every now and then. If you locate some, grab them and yell for a book collector. You may be holding $1,000 worth of very scarce literature. At least one dime novel fancier is willing to pay that price for a single copy of “Malaeska, the Indian Wife," the first dime novel ever published. He made the offer recently to another collector, Charles Bragin, of Brook- lyn, who says there are but three copies of “Malaeska” known to exist, including one in the Library of Con- gress and one in the New York Public Library. The top price on record for an actual purchase is $475, almost 5.000 times the original cost of the | book. The purchase was made last | year, but collectors will not disclose the name of the item. Average prices | range from $1 to $10. | The reluctance to name names is | only one example of the secretiveness which envelops dime-novel collecting. | The collectors themselves do not | want to be publicly known in most cases. Charles Jonas of Evanston, Il Teal estate man who is probably the veteran of the game, has the reputa- tion of being “known by every one (of the collectors), yet never seen by any one.” Prof. Albert Johannsen of | Univeristy of Chicago, owner of one | of the largest collections in existence, | shuns public notice and calls most | of the other 1000 collectors in the | country “shrinking violets.” Other Collectors THE - EVENING STAR, WASHINGTON, Collectors Go in for Dime Novels D. C, MONDAY, at each other; they gazed narrowly, their eyes little more than slits. Vil- lians always wore black mustaches, gritted their teeth and invariably muttered their plots to themselves Just loud enough to be overheard by the shrewd detective. JUNE 28, 1937. of his treasures, selling sbout 200 items for $3,100 and donating 1,400 others to the New York Public Li- brary. Since then dime novel values have risen steadily. Collectors have paid as much as $2,000 for & series which originally cost less than $100. America now has turned to other books, but copies of the later dime novels still are shipped to foreign lands. Eel Cuts Water Supply. Lodging in the intake pipe at Bally- doolagh Lake a 7-foot eel shut off the entire water supply of Enniskillen, Northern Ireland. Other collectors include Maj. Lenox Lohr of New York, president of the National Broadcasting Co.. George Hess of Minneapolis, controller of the | Northern Pacific Railway; Bertrand Couch of San Francisco, one of the | first “G-men”; Valta Parma of Wash- ington, D. C. rare book curator of | the Library of Congress; John T. M- | Intyre, the writer of Philadelphi: George Ball, the industrialist, of Mun. cie, In Fulton Oursler, magazine editor, and William Burns of Rock-‘ ford, Me. | Ask collectors which novels are rar- est, and each probably will give a different answer. One may name the | Beadle publications, which were first | in the fleld; another, the Prank | Reade library. Others may pick “Old | Cap Collier,” “Nick Carter,” “Fred | Fearnot,” “Old Sleuth” or “The | James Boys.” It depends largely on | what series of novels the collector | read as a boy, for sentiment and child- | hood memory are almost invariably | the motives for collecting. And once | 8 collector gets hold of his favorites, | he rarely lets go. | This was s0 universally true when Bragin started his collection during | the depression that when he adver- tised that he had & sum to invest in dime novels, only one oollector, Jonas | of Evanston, offered to give him a start. Bragin, thereupon, did what many other collectors did before him. He got mad, and determined to “show them.” He organized his own staft throughout the country, ‘and piled up some 35000 items into what he believes is the largest collection in the country. Many collectors prefer to work alone, rummaging around at auction eales, in trunks, old chests and book- oases; anooping in attics and the lofts of farm buildings. The acope of the collecting business {s enormous. At least 50,000 paper- | bound books are known to have been published between 1860 and 1910. Begun in 1850s. The reason for the sudden surge | of reader interest at the time of the | dime novel's advent has never been explained. A young printer, Erastus | Beadle of New York, decided one day | in the late 1850s that if dime song books, which were then sn popular, could sell, the public would surely buy story books at the same price. He | was right. The first novels he published were pocket size, in bright orange covers. Written in the general style of James Fenimore Cooper, they were published weekly. each about 100 pages long. Millions of them were sold to sol- diers in the Civil War. They went| from hand to hand in the trenches until they were worn out. These books were tame compared to the flood of works which followed. Other publishers came to compete with the Beadles, among them George | Munro, Beadle’s printing house fore- man. Munro pepped up the novels and Beadle was forced to follow suit. The covers of the books assumed more striking colors. The size of the pamphlets increased to 8 by 12 inches to permit better illustrations. Munro's big idea was to make the cover picture sell the book. Then came Frank Tousey, nephew of Sincleir Tousey, founder of the American News Co. Believing he could eell more books to boys than to adults Relief for the Itching of Eczema It's wonderful the way soothing, coolins | Zemo usually brings relief to itching, burning skin. Often in severe cases itch- ing is relieved when Zemo touches tender and irritated skin. To comfort the itching of Bimple Rashes, Ringworms, Eczems and Pimples, always use clean, soothing Zemo. Tt should be in every home. Insist on genuine Zemo. Approved by Good House- keeping Bureau. 35c, 60c, $1, All drug- "™ ZEMoO | hours in the failing light of attics, IP [oP nidead rbli THE JAMES Bovs It was heady stuff, to be read in secret, for to parents the novels were “impossible trash” that warranted a thrashing. Pastors railed against the books in their pulpits. In some places the novels were publicly burned. Today literary students concede ihe hair-raising tales a definite place in | American writing. They point out loose morals of many modern books were never the attributes of dime novel heroes. A R % Although admittedly not concise picturizations of BY DW STEVINS American pioneer THE BANDIT Kfm‘s KR Dy | (oot o (who up to that time were the chief pep into the stories and cut the price from 10 to 5 cents in 1875. Beadle Moved West. While Tousey exploited the dra- matic possibilities of the East, Beadle moved further West. “Buffalo Bill, the Boy Bull Whacker,” appeared, in such company as “Kit Carson, Junior, the Crack Shot of the West”; “Ken- tucky Jean, the Sport From Yellow Pine; or, Blue-Eved Belle of Bended Bow,” and “Deadwood Dick, the Prince of the Road.” Five publishing companies—Beadle, Tousey, Street & Smith, George Munro and Norman Munro—developed into huge institutions of the dime novel through the knack of catchy titles. “Deep Duke, the Silent Sleuth; or, the Man of Two Lives,” was bound to snare any live wire boy with money in his pocket. And who could resist “Belshazzar Brick, the Bailiff of Blue Blazes,” or “Topnotch Tim, the Mad Parson”? To escape those meant only to be confronted by “Hurrah Harry, the High Horse From Halcyon," or perhaps “Solemn Saul, the Sad Man From Santa Sabo; or, The Big Shell Out.” “Handsome Harry,” “Old Cap Col- lier,” “The Liberty Boys of '76,” “Nick | Carter,” “Fred Fearnot,” “Young Wild West,” “Bold, Bad Bandits,” “Frank | Merriwell.” “Young Sleuth” and “Old Sleuth” and “Old King Brady” pro- vided food for the most catholic of tastes. Thousands of boys spent uncounted GIVES N REYON LaChine Muslin, discontinued patterns. Yard Regularly in stock this season, 39¢, 45¢ yard Sheer Voile, chenille design. 39 inches wide. Yard_ Regularly 68c yard Rayon Marquisette, Velvary design. 39 inches wide. Regularly 68¢ yard Printed Sheer Cottons, including lawns, Swisses, voiles and novelty checks. Yard Regularly 35c to 50¢ yard lers for truant boys to read while hidden away in barn lofts and woodsheds, now have become collectors’ items selling for as much as $475 each. Shown are cover pages from two famous series of stories—the exploits of “Frank Merriwell” and those of “The James Boys.” Even President Roosevelt is one of today’s throng of dime novel collectors. . woodsheds and haylofts, shivering at novel readers), Tousey put still more | the exploits of their heroes. lYlard e 39 life than are the works of more for- mal historians. Of the 2,000,000,000 books that went off the presses in that hectic period, only one series, “The James Boys Weekly” of 1900 was barred from the mails. Hobby Credited to D. O’Brien. Collections of dime novels began to eccumulate just as the dime novel publishing era was closing, about 40 years ago. Credit for popularizing the hobby is generally accorded to Dr. Frank O'Brien, New York den- tist. He was first to praise the novels’ literary value. He started collect- ing 30 years ago. He toured 28 " States in search of a copy of “Mal- 7 seska.” In 1920 he disposed of most WALL PAPER 100 Beautifu! patterns to select from. 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See how Pepsodent shows up any other tooth powder—BAR NONE! evealing natural USE PEPSODENT POWDER It alone contains IRIUM for thrilling luster onteeth Yards at EXTRAORDINARY SAVINGS Tootal’s Printed Linens. Yard Regularly $1.75 yard Tootal’s Printed Lystav, spun rayon. Yard Regularly $1.50 yard Tootal’s Printed Robia Novelty Cotton. Yard secinl o Son68c Regularly $1.50 yard . Tootal's Robia Voile. Yard__________44c Regularly 75¢ and $1 yard Tootal's Robia Novelty Voile. Yard___68¢ Regularly $1.25 yard Tootal’s Robia Check Cotton Crepe Voile. Yard Regularly $1.50 yard Luraline Printed Dimity. Yard___ Regularly 39c yard c Everfast Nubby Linen, plain colors. Yard Regularly $1.25 yard Printed Bemberg (Rayon) Chiffon, 42 inches wide. 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