Hi. I'm Ann S. Stephens. Born in 1810 in Connecticut, died in 1886. I lived a long happy life, supported my family (and husband) as a writer for 30 years, and oh by the way I INVENTED THE WESTERN. Does anybody namecheck me? Oh, nooo. Well, pay some respect to my name, punks.
Can't even get a damned shoutout for that in my own Wikipedia page. Well, R-E-S-P-E-C-T for me, or I'll start writing Gothics from the grave. I did that, too. Also helped fund some of the Union's murker Civil War activities. (the "S" in my name was for "spy-master," bitches).
She’s awesome & got a really cool story but I’d always read that the first Western(s) considered written were by James Fenimore Cooper with: Last of the Mohicans (1826) & The Prairie (1827). Did she publish something before that?
Fair enough, I’d just read a few times that many associate Stephens as kind of being the start of that genre. Either way it’s going to make me check out Cooper’s work now, so thanks for the post!
I always thought of Stephens as the creator of pulp fiction, which was what the dime novel spawned. I think the classic "Western" genre, the Gary Cooper & John Wayne variety, was first written years earlier by James Fenimore Cooper, only in his day upstate New York was part of the Wild West.
I draw a distinction between frontier fiction (which for me is what Cooper wrote) and the formal Western (which is what Stephens got started).
Completely agree about the dime novel to pulp fiction connection.
I'm a big fan of pulp fiction. Some excellent wriring there. One type I especially like is humor pulp, like with cute, hapless gangsters and wise-cracking dames.
Yes! I spent a lot of time reading pulp fiction and have come to adore it, even with all its flaws.
Dime novels, conversely, are hard to love but are extremely interesting to write about.
