The Reefer of ’76 by Harry Cavendish
Price: $1.95
ePublished by
August 2020
Originally published 1860
Dime novel, Age of Sail, Revolutionary War
Author: Harry Cavendish
ePublished by
August 2020
Originally published 1860
Dime novel, Age of Sail, Revolutionary War
Author: Harry Cavendish
This novel, The Reefer of ’76; or, The Cruise of the Fire-Fly, about a midshipman—or “reefer”—on a rebel man-of-war operating under the flag of the Colony of New York during the American War of Independence, takes the reader from the early war days before the Declaration of Independence through various adventures in the Caribbean and British Channel, places the hero temporarily on John Paul Jones’s “Bon Homme Richard,” and finishes with a romantic, happily-ever-after ending for the hero at war’s end in France.
This was No. 7 of “Beadle’s Dime Novels” which was 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 a Supreme Court decision ultimately ruled was the publisher’s exclusive and protected trademark. The series started June 9, 1860 and ended November 17, 1874.
Harry Cavendish, the listed author for this novel, was a pen name for Charles Jacobs Peterson (July 20, 1818–March 4, 1887), a well-known author and publisher who also wrote under the names Harry Danforth, J. Thornton Randolph, and Henry R. Shipley.
This was No. 7 of “Beadle’s Dime Novels” which was 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 a Supreme Court decision ultimately ruled was the publisher’s exclusive and protected trademark. The series started June 9, 1860 and ended November 17, 1874.
Harry Cavendish, the listed author for this novel, was a pen name for Charles Jacobs Peterson (July 20, 1818–March 4, 1887), a well-known author and publisher who also wrote under the names Harry Danforth, J. Thornton Randolph, and Henry R. Shipley.