John Dicks (publisher)
John Thomas Dicks (1818–1881) was a publisher in London in the 19th century. He issued popular, affordably priced fiction and drama, such as "shilling Shakespeares and wonderfully cheap reprints of Scott and other standard authors."[1] Earlier in his career he worked with Peter Perring Thoms and George W. M. Reynolds.[1] Employees included illustrator Frederick Gilbert.[2] Readers included Thomas Burt and Havelock Ellis.[3] Dicks retired in the 1870s, when his sons took over the firm[4] which continued into the 1960s.[5][6]
Works issued by John Dicks[edit]
- Musical Treasures (sheet music series); numbered list
Drama[edit]
- The British drama: illustrated, vol. 1–4, John Dicks, 1864–66
- Dicks' British Drama, 1866–, 1866 (series)
Dicks' Standard Plays[edit]
- Dicks' Standard Plays, 1874–1907 (series)[6]
- List of Dicks' Standard Plays and Free Acting Drama, 1883, OL 7225611M – arranged by number, title, author (Ainsworth, Dickens, Lytton, Scott, etc.), and theme (nautical, dumb hero, ghost, Irish, Scotch, military, temperance, fairy, equestrian, etc.)
List of Dicks' Standard Plays
| Number | Title | Author | Image | Fulltext |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | Iron Chest | George Colman | Cover | |
| 14 | Honeymoon | John Tobin | Internet Archive | |
| 354 | Alice Gray, the suspected one | John T. Haines | HathiTrust | |
| 368 | Factory Assassin [7] | |||
| 388 | Bleak House | George Lander, adapted from Charles Dickens [8] | ||
| 398 | Old Curiosity Shop | George Lander, adapted from Charles Dickens [8] | ||
| 400 | Jane Eyre | Cover | ||
| 409 | Culprit; and, The boarding school | HathiTrust | ||
| 432 | The Fairy Circle; or, Con O’Carrolan’s Dream, in two acts | H. P. Grattan | ||
| 460 | Black Doctor [9] | Ira Aldridge | ||
| 465 | St. Patrick's Day | Richard Brinsley Sheridan | Internet Archive | |
| 469 | Nicholas Nickleby | H. Simms, adapted from Charles Dickens [8] | ||
| 485 | Yew tree ruins | John Thomas Haines | Cover | Hathi Trust |
| 561 | Pic-Nic and The Railway Hotel | Google Books | ||
| 571 | Infant Phenomenon [10] | H. Horncastle, adapted from Charles Dickens [8] | ||
| 571 | Captain Cuttle [10] | John Brougham [8] | ||
| 626 | Jane, the Licensed Victualler's Daughter | J.P. Hart | ||
| 636 | Bardell & Pickwick [10] | Adapted from Charles Dickens [8] | ||
| 641 | Factory Boy [7] | John Thomas Haines | ||
| 666 | Bringing Home the Bride | 
|
Google Books | |
| 669 | Angeline | 
|
Google Books | |
| 671 | Noyades | 
|
Google Books | |
| 673 | Love, Law and Physic | 
|
Google Books | |
| 790 | Factory Strike [7] | G.F. Taylor | ||
| 809 | Lesson for Ladies | John Baldwin Buckstone | HathiTrust | |
| 898 | Court Beauties | James Planché | ||
| 930 | Factory Lad [7] | John Walker | ||
| 1001 | Battle of Life [10] | Adapted from Charles Dickens | ||
| 1004 | Nine too many | J.B. Buckstone | HathiTrust | |
| 1004 | Wigwam | Shirley Brooks | HathiTrust | |
| 1052 | No Thoroughfare [11] |
Fiction[edit]
- George W. M. Reynolds. Mysteries of the Court of London.
- Dicks' English Novels (series);[12] numbered list
- Dicks' English Library of Standard Works (series).[12]
- Dicks' English Library of Standard Works, v.33 (via British Library on Flickr)
- WorldCat. Dicks' English Library of Standard Works (series)
- Dicks' Celebrated Works (series); numbered list
Periodicals[edit]
- Bow Bells: A Weekly Magazine of General Literature and Art, 1862, pp. 83 v – authors included George Manville Fenn, George Augustus Sala[13]
- Fashion plate, 1865
- Fashion plates, 1870s
- Reynolds' Miscellany[12]
- Halfpenny Gazette, 1861–1865[4]
- Every Week, 1869–1896[4]
- Penny Illustrated Weekly News
- Fiction, edited by Eliza Winstanley – weekly
Catalogues[edit]
- Shakespeare, William (c. 1860s), List of Books Published by John Dicks
- John Dicks' Catalogue, 1874, OCLC 500243028
References[edit]
- ^ a b "Obituary", The Bookseller, 3 March 1881, hdl:2027/mdp.39015011421453
- ^ "Frederick Gilbert". Yesterday's Papers (blog). 2010. Retrieved 4 July 2014.
- ^ Richard D. Altick (1958). "From Aldine to Everyman: Cheap Reprint Series of the English Classics 1830-1906". Studies in Bibliography. 11: 3–24. JSTOR 40371227.
- ^ a b c Christopher Mark Banham (2009). "John Dicks". In Laurel Brake and Marysa Demoor (ed.). Dictionary of Nineteenth-century Journalism in Great Britain and Ireland. Academia Press. ISBN 978-90-382-1340-8.
- ^ Literary Year-Book. G. Routledge and Sons. 1915.
- ^ a b Department of Early Printed Books (2012). "Dicks' Standard Plays". Tales of Mystery and Pagination (blog). Dublin: Trinity College Library. Retrieved 4 July 2014.
- ^ a b c d Sally Vernon (1977). "Trouble up at t'Mill: The Rise and Decline of the Factory Play in the 1830s and 1840s". Victorian Studies. 20 (2): 117–139. JSTOR 3826152.
- ^ a b c d e f Frederic George Kitton (1886). Dickensiana: a bibliography of the literature relating to Charles Dickens and his writings. G. Redway.
- ^ Bernth Lindfors (2007). Ira Aldridge, the African Roscius. University Rochester Press. ISBN 978-1-58046-258-7.
- ^ a b c d "Dramatized Works of Charles Dickens", List of Dicks' Standard Plays, 1883
- ^ "Wilkie Collins". Victorian Web. Retrieved 4 July 2014.
- ^ a b c Victor E. Neuburg (2013) [1977]. "1800–1897". Popular Literature: A History and Guide. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-136-89434-3.
- ^ Michael Ashley; William Contento (1995). The Supernatural Index: A Listing of Fantasy, Supernatural, Occult, Weird, and Horror Anthologies. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-313-24030-0.
Further reading[edit]
- Guy Dicks (2006). The John Dicks Press. Lulu.com. ISBN 978-1-4116-4285-0.
- "Dicks, John Thomas". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
- Modern English Biography. Vol. 2 (supplement). 1908.
- British Publishing Houses: 1820–1880. 1991.
- Waterloo Directory of English Newspapers and Periodicals
- "Death of Mr. John Thomas Dicks", Reynolds's Newspaper, 13 February 1881
- "John Dicks, Publisher", Times Literary Supplement, 7 November 1942
External links[edit]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to John Dicks.
- Andrew King (25 August 2013). "John Dicks, Publisher, and 'Dicks' English Library of Standard Works'". Greenwich English Prof (blog).
- Marie Léger-St-Jean. "Publisher: John Thomas Dicks". Price One Penny: Cheap Literature, 1837–1860. University of Cambridge.
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