Street & Smith Publishers' Trade Card, Advertising their "Select Series" of Dime Novels, 1888

1888.

Very good. Chromolithograph trade card, 3 x 5 inches, advertising Street & Smith's "Select Series of Popular American Copyright Stories" and their periodical, the New York Weekly, via an illustration of a pink-cheeked young woman and the motto "Love is the Lord of All." The Select Series was a semi-monthly series of dime romance novels, which actually cost twenty-five cents and ran to 110 titles published between August, 1887 and September, 1891. Street & Smith published "a wide variety of popular literature, including dime novels, pulp magazines, books in series for juveniles, fashion and homemaking magazines, comics, and adventure stories. The company viewed fiction as a commodity, with Street & Smith editors dictating plots, character types, and other conventions to the firm's stable of writers. As a result, Street & Smith authors, including such literary figures as Horatio Alger, Theodore Dreiser, Upton Sinclair, and Jack London were often disguised by house pseudonyms and wrote to carefully calculated formulae, with their respective products subject to extensive rewriting by Street & Smith editors" (Syracuse University Library). Front of card is in very nice condition; there is some soiling on the verso (which is blank).

Item #21325

Price: $45.00