SHERLOCK HOLMES

IN THE PENNY DREADFULS

 

From

The Misadventures of Sherlock Holmes, World Detective

by Nils Nordberg, BSI

 

In 1905 a publisher in Dresden, Germany, Alwin Eichler, bought the rights to publish the American dime novel series Buffalo Bill Stories and Nick Carter Weekly in Europe. The response in Germany was overwhelming, and Eichler immediately went on to exploit his property. In a short time he had the series translated and published in France, Spain, Holland, Belgium, Russia, Italy, the Balkans and the Scandinavian countries. All the editions were produced and printed at Eichler's Dresden printing plant. In fact, Eichler created the first international publishing empire, with offices in Paris, London and New York, and agents everywhere. It crumbled at the outbreak of World War One, but until then it had sold hundreds of millions of issues.

The success of Nick Carter was not lost on other German publishers, and over the next year or two challengers poured out. Despite the fact that these master detectives (and western heroes and gentlemen adventurers) were American or British with names like Nat Pinkerton, Jack Franklin and Bill Cannon (no relation to William Conrad's character), their adventures were all written by anonymous German hacks. And in January 1907, the greatest detective of them all appeared in his own weekly series, the quarto-sized, 32 pages per issue Detectiv Sherlock Holmes und seine weltberühmten Abenteuer - "Detective Sherlock Holmes and His World-famous Adventures".

It was published by the Verlagshaus für Volksliteratur und Kunst (the Publishing House for Popular Fiction and Art) in Berlin. They had made a success of selling printed pictures of royal and religious content as well as Groschenromane - the German equivalent of the dime novel, so called from the price which was usually 10 Pfennig, one Groschen. And who could better match Nick Carter than Sherlock Holmes? He was by far the most famous and popular detective in Germany as anywhere else at the time, and all his original adventures had recently been printed in a series of 34 best-selling cheap paperbacks by Conan Doyle's German publisher.
 

 

 

Hvis nogen skulle have flere oplysninger, modtager vi dem meget gerne. Vi er også interesserede i at modtage scanninger af forsider, vi ikke har  -  eller låne hæfterne til scanning.