Deadwood Dick's Doom

Deadwood Dick's Doom is a dime novel that has it all: roguish gun men, hostile Indians, chivalrous gentlemen to protect the hapless females, and - in Calamity Jane - even a female who can hold her own. The fictional character of the hero, Deadwood Dick, appeared in more than a hundred stories and became so famous the name was claimed by several men who actually lived in Deadwood, South Dakota (Wikipedia).

Edward Lytton Wheeler (1854/5 1885) was a nineteenth century American writer of dime novels. One of his most famous characters is the Wild West rascal Deadwood Dick. His stories of the west mixed fictional characters with real-life personalities of the era, including Calamity Jane and Sitting Bull.

After the Civil War, dime novels were an extremely popular form of fiction. Wheeler mastered their formulaic style and was able to write dozens of them. He created around one hundred novels, of which 33 featured Deadwood Dick, and of these, Calamity Jane, a real-life wild west entertainer, appeared as a character in nearly half. Other real life people such as Sitting Bull also appeared in the stories. He also wrote story series with a number of other characters including Rosebud Bob, Sierra Sam, Kangaroo Kit, Yreka Jim, Denver Doll, and Lady Kate.

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