Princeton University

 

In this paper, we track shifts across a collection of three pence Victorian paperback novels, which illustrates the fluidity of the author function in the late nineteenth-century print world. Applying the results of a case study of The People’s Pocket Story Book series, we examine the tenuous connection between content and authorship and analyze the function of the author in Victorian paperback series books. This paper draws its conclusions from databases of bibliographic and series content that we have catalogued and analyzed from The Levy Dime Novel Collection, Fales Library, New York University, and which we have compiled into a wiki. Our data set consists of 68 out of the 370 confirmed volumes published (18%). Tracking shifts in advertisements has enabled us to date these previously undated novels to the 1870s-1890s.

 

After collecting data regarding The People’s Pocket Story Books, we gathered information about reprinting, serialization, and syndication with respect to the works in the series. Out of 68 novels in the Story Books series, 21% noted the author on the cover, 47% included the author on the title page, and only 10% acknowledged the author on both the cover and the title page. These data indicate that marketing of The People’s Pocket Story Books relied principally on the consistent application of format and to a much lesser extent on individual authorship. Our analysis also revealed that many of the stories in The People’s Pocket Story Books were originally published in other Henderson publications or in other magazines, oftentimes in serial and/or under a pseudonym. For example, the work of May Agnes Fleming was published anonymously in The People’s Pocket Story Books as Lord Rory; or, the Lord of Royal Rest, but it was published under her name as Lady Evelyn; or, The Lord of Royal Rest in New York in 1870. These title alterations allowed publishers to market previously published or syndicated material as original work. The practice of reprinting a story in different media, often under different authorship, was indicative of the fluidity of the author function during this period.

 

 Our work with The People’s Pocket Story Books points to the importance of combining bibliographic detail from a specific data set with information about printing practices, such as serialization, syndication, and reprinting, as a methodology to analyze the fluidity of content and authorship in Victorian paperback series books.