Gilbert Patten
At this point Patten was still using pen names but he wrote many of his stories under the name Gilbert W. Patten. Dime novels were often about conquest of the west, outlaws, spies, and violent criminals with gory details. Gilbert had a strong dislike for such content. As memories of the Civil War and western expansion faded, and the country became more industrialized, some publishers realized the interests of young American readers were changing.
In the 1890’s the U. S. Postal Service instituted a policy that prohibited using the post office to transport “matter tending to incite murder, arson, assassination, or other immoral practices”. “Publishers used mail to distribute dime novel content to retail outlets across the country. Any arbitrary post office ruling against the usual lurid content could mean financial disaster for publishers.” [1]
“In 1895 O. G. Smith, president of Street and Smith Publishing asked Patten to create a new dime novel hero, morally impeccable, to replace the lurid characters in existing cheap fiction. His hope was to interest young readers in morally acceptable conduct and further education.” [1]
Gilbert took up the task creating his signature character, Frank Merriwell. The Merriwell character was a teenage boy, enrolled as a freshman in a fictitious prep school. He was tall and handsome. He opposed bad actors, supported his friends, excelled at all sports and in academics. The stories were always about Frank, (and later his brother and son) standing up for the weak, defeating the bad guys, struggling to overcome desperate situations and succeeding in every endeavor.
It was said that Frank Merriwell “was the symbol of all that was right and true in America. Girls wanted him and boys wanted to be him.” [2]
The stories were published in the Street and Smith magazine Tip Top Weekly, which sold for five cents or as a yearly subscription for $2.50. The first issue of Tip Top Weekly, dated April 18, 1896 contained the first story in the series, “Frank Merriwell, First Days at Fardale”. Patten published it under the pen name he would use for the entire run, Burt L. Standish. From then on the stories, sometimes called novelettes, sold from 135,000 to 200,000 copies each week. [2] They were traded from boy to boy and girls too, and read to tatters. [7]
Patten turned out a twenty-thousand word Merriwell story each week. Over the years as Frank Merriwell grew in the stories he graduated from Fardale and attended Yale. It is said that the character “probably imbued more American youth of his time with the heartfelt desire to go to college that any amount of formal schooling could have done.” [1] In later exploits Merriwell as an adult fought against evil doers in the Pacific Southwest in thrilling stories of rescues and overcoming great odds.
During the seventeen years from 1896 until 1913 Patten wrote 856 weekly stories, a total of about twenty million words. He never received royalties for the work, Street and Smith paid him $150.00 per story. [2] Later the publisher collected the stories into 208 full length paperback books. These remained in print well into the 1930’s. [3] All told his other stories, novels, and the Merriwell series sold over five hundred million copies making him one of the most popular fiction writers of all time. [2] Later in his career Patten engaged in other enterprises involving his writings, radio shows and movies. These were no where near as successful as the dime novels. At the end of his career he retired to California to live with his son. He passed away at 79 on January 16, 1945.