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Wild West Weekly…Young Wild West: The Prince of the Saddle. No. 1.

New York: Frank Tousey, 24 October 1902. Sm 4to (11.25” x 8.5”), color pictorial wrappers. 30 pp., 2 pgs. of ads. CONDITION: Good, some leaves uncut, split along bottom quarter of spine but  holding firm, chip to head of spine.

A popular tale of Western adventure recounting the heroism of a born-in-the-saddle cowboy, “Young Wild West,” as told by an “Old Scout.”

This five-cent weekly is the first publication in the series of Toussey’s highly successful “Young Wild West” series. In this debut title, the “Prince of the Saddle” is found “Talking to a Wild Horse,” “Trailing the Sioux” and catching them by surprise, taking “A Leap for Life or Death,” defeating the nefarious “Buck Wood,” and otherwise galavanting throughout the West. As in Toussey’s other juvenile series, the main character’s adventures are equal parts a search for justice and for love, the latter appearing here in the form of “pretty Arietta Murdock.”

Frank Toussey (1853–1902) ranks among the most popular American publishers of dime novels and five cent weeklies of the mid- to late-nineteenth century. In 1881 his firm became the first to issue a dime novel featuring Jesse James, entitled “The Train Robbers; or, a Story of the James Boys, which appeared in No. 440 of the Wide Awake Library” (Adcock). In 1885, Tousey was arrested and his firm sued by Anthony Comstock, secretary of the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice, for their publication of G.W.M. Reynold’s “The Mysteries of the Court of London.” After the proceedings “Tousey’s lawyer claimed the raid was in retaliation for caricatures of Comstock published in [The] Judge” (Adcock). 

OCLC records seven copies.

REFERENCES: Adcock, John. “Frank Tousey (1853–1902),” Yesterday’s Papers online.

Item #9049

Price: $275.00

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