The Deadwood Dick Library Collection - Volume One

by Edward L Wheeler

An Omnibus of Dime Novels from the Nineteenth Century. Once avidly devoured by youth across the States, these short novels are home to one of the greatest heroes in American literature, though his thrilling exploits are now sadly largely lost to time. Once upon a time, the adventures of Deadwood Dick, outlaw and Prince of the Road, were read by millions of boys, who awaited his next adventure hungrily. Originally published as weekly dime novels, these short novels are now being republished in a series of volumes, each containing 4 works by Edward L. Wheeler from the Deadwood Dick Library. The eponymous hero makes an appearance in many of the stories, though quite a few star other weird and interesting characters. Now you can own a piece of American literary history. This Volume, the first in the series, contains the dime Deadwood Dick, the Prince of the Road; Or, the Black rider of the Black Hills.
Introducing Deadwood Dick, outlaw. Enemies from Dick's past return in this tale of vengeance, gold mines, duels, and Calamity Jane. The Double Daggers; Or, Deadwood Dick's Defiance.
After Deadwood Dick is seemingly caught and hanged his spirit returns to exact vengeance on the people of Deadwood and its Regulators, while a young woman gallantly flees her controlling uncle and a forced marriage, in this tale of treachery and mistaken identity. The Buffalo Demon; Or, The Border Vultures.
A squad of rangers head deep into Indian country in pursuit of a gang of outlaws led by a buffalo headed man who claims to be a demon from hell. All is not as it seems in this tale of action and mystery set in the old West. Buffalo Ben, the Prince of the Pistol; Or, Deadwood Dick in Disguise.
The tale of a man's search for his kidnapped sister and of another man's quest for vengeance on their behalf. Duels and gunfights abound in this classic dime novel. This work is not a cheap scan or the result of copying and pasting; It contains no missing pages, areas of blurred or missing text, photocopier's fingers, coffee stains, or other scanning artifacts. It has all of the original text , reformatted in an easy to read format. Note that this work contains terms and language in common use in the 19th century that some people may find offensive.

282 pages, Paperback

Published October 8, 2017

Reviews

[Cropredy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Another one of my anthropological dives into fiction as read by Americans of the past. Here we return to those thrilling days of yesteryear when the West was being won and the tales from the frontier were raising heartrates in the breasts of citizens comfortably in their homes back East.

Well, sort of. The Deadwood Dick collection Volume I is four short novels written by Edward Wheeler starting in 1877. They were called dime novels and were the precursors to modern paperbacks. As the Deadwood Gold Rush started in 1876, these novels capitalized on the public's desire to be further titillated by all the stories coming out in newspaper reports. From the back cover, the publisher of this reprint asserts they were read by millions of boys. In my own life, I found boyhood delight in the supermarket Tom Swift Jr novels so I can see the appeal.

I only read the first novel - Deadwood Dick: the Prince of the Road: Or, The Black Rider of the Black Hills. I suspect the other three novels in this collection would be received the same by me had I bothered.

Is this great literature? No. Is this good literature? No. Does Wheeler equal the skill of Mark Twain (a contemporary writer)? No. Is it entertaining to a 21st century reader? No. Is it awful? Actually, no. It delivers some surprising craft by someone who clearly was cranking out fiction for a mass audience.

I won't bother to go into the plot which is unexpectedly complicated with quite a few characters, hidden motives, shocking reveals, and a happy ending despite some dead bodies and hangings along the way. It captures the public's thirst for stories about gold mining, stage coaches, highway robbers, saloons and gambling cheats, Indians, revenge, honor, and a couple of "fair maidens". Calamity Jane (a real person and someone who would have been familiar to the audience), shows up at opportune times.

Reader sensibilities of the time kept Wheeler from mentioning the rampant prostitution in the saloons. But drinking, card sharking, fisticuffs, and gunslinging are prolific. Noteworthy to me was a relatively equitable treatment of the Indians (at least more equitable than I would have thought given that Custer's troop was massacred the year before).

Dialog is a mix of proper English and western vernacular such as sentences like these:

Disgraceful! Waal, young man, ter tell the solid Old Testament truth, more or less -consider'bly less o' more 'n more o' less - I admire yer cheek, hard an' unblushin' as et ar'..

Fortunately. most of the dialog is in "normal" English as it wer hard sloggin' through dat vernac'ula.

There are way too many unlikely convenient coincidences in the novel. But to an 1877 15 year old, I doubt this mattered and probably made it more discussable amongst mates at the local hang out.

Should you read this? Maybe - I picked it up after reading the true history of Deadwood by Peter Cozzens a few months back as Cozzens called out these dime store novels as part of his account on how the gold mining at Deadwood influenced American culture. Hence, my curiosity. (See Deadwood: Gold, Guns, and Greed in the American West). Thus if you liked the book or were entranced by the HBO series or maybe you want to read "westerns" written before Reagan's favorite author Louis L'Amour, then Deadwood Dick is for you.