Erastus Flavel Beadle

Erastus was born in Otsego County, New York, United States, in 1821, and had a brother, Irwin Pedro Beadle (1826-1882), who assisted him in various business undertakings. They were the grandsons of Benjamin Beadle, a Revolutionary War soldier. After a hiatus in Michigan, the Beadle family moved to New York, and lived in Chautauqua County, New York. Erastus worked for a miller named Hayes, where he began his printing career when cutting wooden letters to label bags of grain. In 1838, he was apprenticed to H. & E. Phinney, a publishing firm in Cooperstown, New York. There he learned typesetting, stereotyping, binding, and engraving. He married Mary Ann Pennington (d.1889) in 1846, and in 1847 the couple moved to Buffalo, New York, where Erastus worked as a stereotyper. In 1849 Irwin went to Buffalo too, and found a job as a bookbinder. The next year, in 1850, the Beadle brothers set up their own stereotype foundry. Their first publishing venture was the magazine "Youth's Casket", started in 1852. Irwin left the company in 1856 and went to the Nebraska Territory where he acted as a secretary for a company settling the town of Saratoga. The town was busted in the Panic of 1857, and Beadle returned to New York shortly thereafter. ==Books for the millions==

In 1860, after finally settling down in Brooklyn, Irwin came with an idea to publish, first, ten-cent booklets, and then, a series of paper-covered novels at the same price, which brought him recognition and commercial success. On June 7, 1860, the New-York Tribune advertised the first book in the dime novel series, Indian Wife of the White Hunter written by Ann S. Stephens by printing the following, "Books for the Millions! A dollar book for the dime. 128 pages complete, only Ten Cents!!! Beadle's dime novels No. 1 Maleska." Many established as well as aspiring writers took part in the project geared towards the masses, including William Jared Hall, Frances Fuller Victor, John Neal, Mayne Reid, A. J. H. Duganne, Edward S. Ellis, William Reynolds Eyster, William W. Busteed, James L. Bowen, Mary A. Denison, Charles Dunning Clark, among others. Orville James Victor served for nearly thirty years as the series' editor. ==Later life==

Erastus became a millionaire and retired to his estate ==Recognition==

At first, dime novels were denounced as "pernicious and evil" by literary purists. His papers are archived at the University of Delaware. ==The Home==

In 1856 Robert Adams joined the Beadle brothers' company in Buffalo. In 1858 the company relocated to New York City. In 1872 the name "Beadle & Adams" was used for the company run by Erastus Beadle with William and David Adams. After Erastus Beadle died in 1894, Williams Adams became the sole owner of Beadle & Adams. William Adams died in 1896. In 1897 the company Beadle & Adams ceased to exist, the executors of Williams Adams's estate sold the assets of Beadle & Adams to M. J. Ivers & Co., and the Ivers name replaced the Beadle name on the Dime Library and the other publications formerly belonging to Beadle & Adams. In the 1870s, the series "Lives of Great Americans" presented biographies of Ethan Allen, Daniel Boone, Kit Carson, Davy Crockett, Ulysses S. Grant, John Paul Jones, Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette, Abraham Lincoln, Israel Putnam, Pontiac, Tecumseh, George Washington, and Anthony Wayne. ==References==