The Golden Belt by Colin Barker
December 2020
The Golden Belt; or, The Carib’s Pledge takes the reader to Hispaniola in the days when the young knights and cavaliers left there by Columbus to establish a Spanish colony have an uneasy relationship with the fierce Carib (or Taino) natives. The story is about the Spanish colonists and their beautiful, Eden-like new home; the romance between a young Spanish knight and a mixed-blood native princess; and the final great battle between the colonists and the fierce cacique (or chieftain) Caonabo (a non-fictional, historical person).
This was No. 5 of “Beadle’s Dime Novels,” one of the most popular 19th-century dime novel series, reportedly selling hundreds of thousands of copies and being responsible for coining the term “dime novel.” Literally “coining” the term: each issue of the series carried the imprint of a U. S. coin showing the words “ONE DIME” which the Supreme Court ultimately ruled was the publisher’s exclusive and protected trademark. The series started June 9, 1860 and ended November 17, 1874.
Colin Barker, the credited author, is probably a pseudonym used by a writer who also wrote under the following names: Edward S. Ellis, John Lewis, Henry J. Thomas, and Mrs. Henry J. Thomas.
This was No. 5 of “Beadle’s Dime Novels,” one of the most popular 19th-century dime novel series, reportedly selling hundreds of thousands of copies and being responsible for coining the term “dime novel.” Literally “coining” the term: each issue of the series carried the imprint of a U. S. coin showing the words “ONE DIME” which the Supreme Court ultimately ruled was the publisher’s exclusive and protected trademark. The series started June 9, 1860 and ended November 17, 1874.
Colin Barker, the credited author, is probably a pseudonym used by a writer who also wrote under the following names: Edward S. Ellis, John Lewis, Henry J. Thomas, and Mrs. Henry J. Thomas.