"Books for the Campfires"
The beginning of the Civil War coincided with the rise of dime novel publishing. These cheaply produced paper-bound series books with their sensationalized frontier tales were hugely popular with the troops of both armies. Boston publisher and abolitionist James Redpath initiated his own dime novel series entitled “Books for the Camp Fires.” Redpath’s goal was to expose his readers to works with a greater literary merit than the “blood and thunder” tales of his competitors. An early publication in the series was Clotelle, a strong anti-slavery novel by the African American writer William Wells Brown, originally written in 1853 and published in London.
The beginning of the Civil War coincided with the rise of dime novel publishing. These cheaply produced paper-bound series books with their sensationalized frontier tales were hugely popular with the troops of both armies. Boston publisher and abolitionist James Redpath initiated his own dime novel series entitled “Books for the Camp Fires.” Redpath’s goal was to expose his readers to works with a greater literary merit than the “blood and thunder” tales of his competitors. An early publication in the series was <em>Clotelle</em>, a strong anti-slavery novel by the African American writer William Wells Brown, originally written in 1853 and published in London.