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In 1873, the house of Beadle & Adams had introduced a new ten-cent format,, with only 32 pages and a black and white illustrated cover, with the title New and Old Friends.
It was not a success, but the format was so much cheaper to produce that they tried again in 1877 with The Fireside Library and Frank Starr ’ s New York Library.
The first reprinted English love stories, the second contained hardier material but both titles caught on.
Publishers were no less eager to follow a new trend then than now.
Soon the newsstands were flooded by ten-cent weekly “ libraries ”.
These publications also varied in size, from as small as 7 x 10 inches ( The Boy ’ s Star Library is an example ) to 8. 5 x 12 ( New York Detective Library ).
The Old Cap Collier Library was issued in both sizes, plus a booklet form.
Each issue tended to feature a single story, as opposed to the story papers, and many of them were devoted to single characters.
Frontier stories, evolving into westerns, were still popular, but the new vogue tended to urban crime stories.
One of the most successful titles, Frank Tousey ’ s New York Detective Library eventually came to alternate stories of the James Gang with stories of Old King Brady, detective, and in a rare occurrence in the dime novel world, there were several stories which featured them both, with Old King Brady doggedly on the trail of the vicious gang.

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