The dime novels emerged in 1860's when publishers Erastus and Irwin Beadle released Malaeska, the Indian Wife of the White Hunter by Ann S. Stephens, launching an affordable paperback revolution priced at a dime (with many later nickel weeklies even cheaper). These sensationalized, paperbound stories—often 100 pages of melodrama, adventure, and frontier action were read by young readers, exploding in popularity during and after the Civil War. Early volumes drew from James Fenimore Cooper's style, focusing on conflicts with Native Americans, but quickly shifted to cowboy heroes, outlaws, train robbers, and Wild West legends like Buffalo Bill.
Dusty Trails of the Old West Publishing brings back the Dime (and nickel) western novel with issue #1 "Wankinyans Fugitives." With two new frontier heroes, Frontiersman-trappers Levi Boone and Jean Cadotte, two bold figures from the old northwest territory, who do battle with the great Dakota Warrior Chief Ackicita, at the sacred ground of Pipestone.
