HERO FICTION

The Stanley Lieberman Memorial Collection and the Mary Robinson Memorial Collection of Hero Fiction complement each other in the Princeton Library to form a fine collection of Hero Fiction.

As well, there is also the John Murray Reynolds '22 Collection. It consists of 111 issues of various boys, dime-novel, mystery, and other such pulp magazines published in the United States between 1925 and 1947. Each issue contains a story or contribution by John Murray Reynolds of the Class of 1922. A checklist [full text] of the collection was compiled by Bruce Jay Wasser in 1968 and lists the collection contents by subject and periodical. Both collection and checklist are catalogued and are located at call number [stored at ReCAP as of December 2002] (Ex) PS3535.E957 .xA6 1925.

Mary Robinson Memorial Collection of Hero Fiction : this portion of the Hero Fiction collection is composed exclusively of paperback volumes which appeared in series. Besides various short runs, the collection includes the following:

Horatio Alger series: 84 volumes
Beadle's Frontier series: 80 volumes
Buffalo Bill Border Stories: 130 volumes
Burt L. Standish Library (Frank Merriwell): 18 volumes
Deadwood Dick Library: 63 volumes
Great Western Library: 90 volumes
Liberty Boys of '76: 200 volumes
Merriwell Series: 14 volumes
New Magnet Library (Nick Carter): 35 volumes
Pluck and Luck: 100 volumes
Round the World Library: 20 volumes
Wild West Library: 30 volumes

 

There are therefore almost 900 paperback hero fiction books. The Mary Robinson volumes are in ReCAP , also shelved together, in boxes. The volumes are arranged according to authors and series. Call number for the entire collection is [ReCAP] (Ex) PS648.D5 M37. Refer to: An Informal Inventory of the Mary Robinson Memorial Collection of Hero Fiction. (Princeton, 1969).

The above inventory lists the contents of the collection according to the boxes in which the collection is housed. The checklist is available at call number (Ex) PS648.D5 M37. (Box 1 also has checklist.)

The Stanley Lieberman Memorial Collection includes largely, though not exclusively, hardbound volumes. Four authors are especially well represented:

Horatio Alger: 200 volumes
Oliver Optic (pseudonym for William Taylor Adams): 80 volumes
Burt L. Standish (pseudonym for William Gilbert Pattern): 70 volumes
Bracebridge Hemyng: 30 volumes

Other authors are represented in small quantities. The two collections make a total of about 1,300 volumes of hero fiction.

The Lieberman volumes are shelved together in the Rare Books Department, and have the separate location designator of: Lieb. For particulars refer to: Bruce Jay Wasser, compiler. The Stanley Lieberman Memorial Collection of American Juvenile Literature Checklist. (Princeton, 1969) [(Ex) Z1038.P7 .xP7 1969].

Further general discussion of Hero Fiction: Ralph D. Gardner, "Alger Heroes, the Merriwells, et al!" in the Princeton University Library Chronicle XXX, 2 (Winter, 1969) pp. 103-109 [full text] .