penny dreadfuls

A Bibliography of the Penny Bloods of Edward Lloyd

Submitted by Rebecca Nesvet on
November, 2021

In 1945, book collector John Medcraft (1895-1951) privately published A Bibliography of the Penny Bloods of Edward Lloyd . One of the earliest bibliographies of the lurid fiction publications of penny press magnare Edward Lloyd (1815-90), Medcraft's Bibliography is incomplete and flawed but has profoundly influenced the study of penny fiction. It is also scarce: Medcraft had only 200 copies printed, and there is no open-access facsimile.

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A Mystery in Scarlet: No. 1 (February 10, 1866)

Submitted by Rebecca Nesvet on
August, 2020

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A Mystery in Scarlet: Editorial Introduction

Submitted by Rebecca Nesvet on
August, 2020

Robert Louis Stevenson, celebrated author of Treasure Island  (1882-3), Kidnapped (1886), and "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" (1886) was a lifelong connoisseur of "penny dreadfuls": illustrated serial fiction that targeted working-class readers. In Stevenson's childhood, his nurse Alison Cunningham often read dreadfuls to him. In adulthood, Stevenson was haunted by one serial in particular. This was A Mystery in Scarlet by “Malcolm J. Errym,” the pseudonym of James Malcolm Rymer (1814-84).

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