Dime Novels and the Roots of American Detective Fiction

Crime Files Series

General Editor: Clive Bloom

Since its invention in the nineteenth century, detective fiction has never been more popular. In novels, short stories, films, radio, television and now in computer games, private detectives and psychopaths, prim poisoners and overworked cops, tommy gun gangsters and cocaine criminals are the very stuff of modern imagina-tion, and their creators one mainstay of popular consciousness. Crime Files is a ground-breaking series offering scholars, students and discerning readers a com-prehensive set of guides to the world of crime and detective fiction. Every aspect of crime writing, detective fiction, gangster movie, true-crime exposé, police proce-dural and post-colonial investigation is explored through clear and informative texts offering comprehensive coverage and theoretical sophistication.

Published titles include:

Maurizio AscariA COUNTER-HISTORY OF CRIME FICTIONSupernatural, Gothic, Sensational

Pamela BedoreDIME NOVELS AND THE ROOTS OF AMERICAN DETECTIVE FICTION

Hans Bertens and Theo DíhaenCONTEMPORARY AMERICAN CRIME FICTION

Anita BiressiCRIME, FEAR AND THE LAW IN TRUE CRIME STORIES

Ed Christian (editor)THE POST-COLONIAL DETECTIVE

Paul CobleyTHE AMERICAN THRILLERGeneric Innovation and Social Change in the 1970s

Michael CookNARRATIVES OF ENCLOSURE IN DETECTIVE FICTIONThe Locked Room Mystery

Barry ForshawBRITISH CRIME FILMSubverting the Social Order

Barry ForshawDEATH IN A COLD CLIMATEA Guide to Scandinavian Crime Fiction

Emelyne GodfreyFEMININITY, CRIME AND SELF-DEFENCE IN VICTORIAN LITERATURE AND SOCIETYFrom Dagger-Fans to Suffragettes

Emelyne GodfreyMASCULINITY, CRIME AND SELF-DEFENCE IN VICTORIAN LITERATUREDuelling with Danger

Christiana GregoriouDEVIANCE IN CONTEMPORARY CRIME FICTION

Lee HorsleyTHE NOIR THRILLER

Merja MakinenAGATHA CHRISTIEInvestigating Femininity

Fran MasonAMERICAN GANGSTER CINEMAFrom Little Caesar to Pulp Fiction

Fran MasonHOLLYWOOD’S DETECTIVESCrime Series in the 1930s and 1940s from the Whodunnit to Hard-boiled Noir

Linden PeachMASQUERADE, CRIME AND FICTIONCriminal Deceptions

Steven Powell (editor)100 AMERICAN CRIME WRITERS

Alistair Rolls and Deborah Walker FRENCH AND AMERICAN NOIRDark Crossings

Susan RowlandFROM AGATHA CHRISTIE TO RUTH RENDELLBritish Women Writers in Detective and Crime Fiction

Melissa SchaubMIDDLEBROW FEMINISM IN CLASSIC BRITISH DETECTIVE FICTIONThe Female Gentleman

Adrian Schober POSSESSED CHILD NARRATIVES IN LITERATURE AND FILMContrary States

Lucy SussexWOMEN WRITERS AND DETECTIVES IN NINETEENTH-CENTURY CRIME FICTIONThe Mothers of the Mystery Genre

Heather WorthingtonTHE RISE OF THE DETECTIVE IN EARLY NINETEENTH-CENTURY POPULAR FICTION

R.A. YorkAGATHA CHRISTIEPower and Illusion

Crime FilesSeries Standing Order ISBN 978–0–333–71471–3 (hardback) 978–0–333–93064–9 (paperback)(outside North America only)

You can receive future titles in this series as they are published by placing a standing order. Please contact your bookseller or, in case of difficulty, write to us at the address below with your name and address, the title of the series and one of the ISBNs quoted above.

Customer Services Department, Macmillan Distribution Ltd, Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS, England

This page intentionally left blank

Dime Novels and the Roots of American Detective Fiction

Pamela BedoreDepartment of English, University of Connecticut, USA

© Pamela Bedore 2013

All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of thispublication may be made without written permission.

No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmittedsave with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of theCopyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licencepermitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency,Saffron House, 6–10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS.

Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publicationmay be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

The author has asserted her right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

First published 2013 byPALGRAVE MACMILLAN

Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited,registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke,Hampshire RG21 6XS.

Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin’s Press LLC,175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.

Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companiesand has companies and representatives throughout the world.

Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States,the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries.

This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fullymanaged and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturingprocesses are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of thecountry of origin.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.

Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2013 978-1-137-28864-6

ISBN 978-1-349-44993-4 ISBN 978-1-137-28865-3 (eBook)DOI 10.1057/9781137288653

To my parents, who always believed in me

This page intentionally left blank

ix

List of Appendix Tables xi

Acknowledgments xii

1 The Case of the Missing Detectives; or, Reassessing the American Contribution to Detective Fiction 1Introduction 1Construing the absence of the dime novel detective 5Who is the American dime novel detective? 9Disrupting existing narratives about detective fiction 13Some organizing principles 31

2 The Happy-Ending Deception; or, Uncovering the Subversive Potential of Detective Dime Novels 35Introduction 35The primacy of endings: a theoretical excursion 37Methods and trends: (de)coding the dime novel detective 41A shadowy detective and a police captain: gender

bending and genre blending 51Forced marriages, faked weddings, and gendered

problems of closure 58The detectives that don’t work out: death and corruption

in the detective position 66A Terrible Ending: an unambiguous antidote to happy

endings 75In conclusion … 77

3 The Case of the Contaminated Icon; or, Allan Pinkerton’s Dangerous Detective Doubles 79Introduction 79Allan Pinkerton’s iconography: all-seeing eyes,

Civil War spies, and the Underground Railroad 80Pinkerton’s generic breadth: classical, hardboiled, police,

and diverse detectives 84Contamination and the problems of deep cover 96Outlaw doubling lite: the humorous logic of bodily

substitution 100

Contents

x Contents

Outlaw doubling darkened through the prism of graphic torture 108

Conclusion 114

4 Playing with the Ace of Hearts; or, Mentorship, Sportsmanship, and Nick Carter’s Epistemological Dilemmas 117Introduction 117Nick Carter’s school for detectives: mentorship

and fair play 120The mediating power of games 128The ethical and erotic mediations of the femme fatale 135Proto-postmodern epistemological investigations 140Conclusion 150

5 Faulkner, Twain, and the Legacy of Dime Novel Detectives 152Introduction 152White elephants, doubled barrels, and Mark Twain’s

detective obsessions 155Chasing the unknown gambit; or, mentorship and games

in Nick Carter and Gavin Stevens 166Conclusion 176

6 Conclusions and Directions for Future Research 177

Appendix Tables 180

Notes 183

References 189

Index 197

xi

1 Setting 1802 Crimes 1803 Characters by gender 1804 The roles of ethnic others 1815 Female criminal roles 1816 Common and interesting detective fates 1817 Most common criminal fates 1828 Causes of criminal deaths 1829 Means of criminal suicide 182

List of Appendix Tables

xii

I am grateful to many friends and colleagues for their help in the com-pletion of this book. From the University of Rochester, where the project originated, I’d like to thank especially John Michael, Jeffrey Tucker, George Grella, and the late Frank Shuffelton for generous mentorship. For invaluable assistance in the University of Rochester’s Rare Books and Special Collections, special thanks to Phyllis Andrews, Jean Lombard, and Melissa Mead.

I am greatly indebted to many colleagues at the University of Connecticut for invigorating conversations about this project and for continued mentorship. Special thanks to those who provided feedback on chapter drafts, especially Clare Eby, Thomas Lawrence Long, and Robert Tilton, to those who discussed the project at length, especially Margaret Breen and Wayne Franklin, and to my writing buddies for regular feedback and support, especially Anita Duneer, Serkan Gorkemli, Kathy Knapp, Helen Rozwadowski, and Jennifer Terni. And to Susan Lyons, a writ-ing buddy and an invaluable reader of numerous drafts, a very special thanks. I’ve also had superb research assistance from Dana Canastar, Valerie Doughty, Arianne Magro, Cory Mastrandrea, and Deborah Macintosh and outstanding all-round support from Mary Heckman. I’d also like to thank the students of my American Detective Fiction and Popular Literature classes for lively and thoughtful discussion of detective fiction in general and of some of the dime novels discussed here in particular.

My friends and colleagues from the Dime Novel area of the Popular Culture Association have also been invaluable, and I’d like to thank especially Randy Cox, for answering all my questions, no matter how detailed, and to Deidre Johnson and Lydia Schurman for reading drafts and providing guidance throughout. And thanks to the rest of the Dime Novel group for years of great presentations and conversations, especially Henri Achee, Marlena Bremseth, Kathleen Chamberlain, William Gowen, James and Kim Keeline, Alan and Ellie Pickrell, and Frank Quillen.

Many friends have provided distractions and various kindnesses, including Graeme Campbell, Amelia Lord, Phyllis Mancini, Brian and Jennifer O’Sullivan, Lisa and Tim Russell, Domenic Serravite,

Acknowledgments

Acknowledgments xiii

and Kathleen Tonry. And, of course, I could not have completed this project without my family. For unflagging support, I thank Claire Ross and Ange-Aimé Caron, Jim and Elizabeth Bedore, Jean and Gary Phelps, and Jenny and Ray Hyland. For making me forget about this project sometimes, my beautiful daughters Isabella and Zoe, and for always asking the right questions, providing the right feedback, and giving the right kind and amount of support as needed, my husband Andrew Phelps.