A complete, restored issue of Pulp Fiction from 1878 — all 16 pages of painted-cover fiction magazines that launched science fiction, horror, and hardboiled crime, free to page through at ComicBooks.com.

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A complete issue · 16 pages · 1878

Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 53

1878 · Free to read

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About this issue

This dime novel by Edward L. Wheeler (author of "Deadwood Dick" series) follows Sam Morgan, a seventeen-year-old orphaned Bohemian living in poverty on Philadelphia's notorious Alaska Street. The opening chapters introduce a rivalry between Sam and his wealthy cousin Arnold Chelton over inheritance from their dying Uncle Jacob Morgan—worth approximately half a million dollars. When Chelton visits Sam's tenement room to intimidate him with a false burglary warrant, Sam counters with knowledge of Chelton's involvement in a woman's suspicious death. The cousins declare themselves bitter enemies in a contest combining force with cunning. Chelton subsequently courts Miss Louise Lester, a beautiful orphan heiress, seeking her favor before departing for New York. The narrative combines elements of street life, mystery, family intrigue, and romance across Philadelphia's social strata.

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Each page has its own page — the cartoon, who’s in it, and what the satire means.