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." Earlier in his career he worked with Peter Perring Thoms and George W. M. Reynolds. Employees included illustrator Frederick Gilbert. Readers included Thomas Burt and Havelock Ellis. Dicks retired in the 1870s, when his sons took over the firm which continued into the 1960s.
Works issued by John Dicks
- Musical Treasures (sheet music series); numbered list
Drama
- The British drama: illustrated, vol. 1–4, John Dicks, 1864–66
- Dicks' British Drama, 1866–, 1866 (series)
Dicks' Standard Plays
- Dicks' Standard Plays, 1874–1907 (series)
- 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.)
| 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 | |||
| 388 | Bleak House | George Lander, adapted from Charles Dickens | ||
| 398 | Old Curiosity Shop | George Lander, adapted from Charles Dickens | ||
| 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 | Ira Aldridge | ||
| 465 | St. Patrick's Day | Richard Brinsley Sheridan | Internet Archive | |
| 469 | Nicholas Nickleby | H. Simms, adapted from Charles Dickens | ||
| 485 | Yew tree ruins | John Thomas Haines | Cover | Hathi Trust |
| 561 | Pic-Nic and The Railway Hotel | Google Books | ||
| 571 | Infant Phenomenon | H. Horncastle, adapted from Charles Dickens | ||
| 571 | Captain Cuttle | John Brougham | ||
| 626 | Jane, the Licensed Victualler's Daughter | J.P. Hart | ||
| 636 | Bardell & Pickwick | Adapted from Charles Dickens | ||
| 641 | Factory Boy | 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 | G.F. Taylor | ||
| 809 | Lesson for Ladies | John Baldwin Buckstone | HathiTrust | |
| 898 | Court Beauties | James Planché | ||
| 930 | Factory Lad | John Walker | ||
| 1001 | Battle of Life | Adapted from Charles Dickens | ||
| 1004 | Nine too many | J.B. Buckstone | HathiTrust | |
| 1004 | Wigwam | Shirley Brooks | HathiTrust | |
| 1052 | No Thoroughfare |
Fiction
- George W. M. Reynolds. Mysteries of the Court of London.
- Dicks' English Novels (series); numbered list
- Dicks' English Library of Standard Works (series).
- 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
- Bow Bells: A Weekly Magazine of General Literature and Art, 1862, pp. 83 v – authors included George Manville Fenn, George Augustus Sala
- Fashion plate, 1865
- Fashion plates, 1870s
- Reynolds' Miscellany
- Halfpenny Gazette, 1861–1865
- Every Week, 1869–1896
- Penny Illustrated Weekly News
- Fiction, edited by Eliza Winstanley – weekly
Catalogues
- Shakespeare, William (c. 1860s), List of Books Published by John Dicks
- John Dicks' Catalogue, 1874, OCLC 500243028
References
- ^ "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.
- ^ 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.
- ^ Department of Early Printed Books (2012). "Dicks' Standard Plays". Tales of Mystery and Pagination (blog). Dublin: Trinity College Library. Retrieved 4 July 2014.
- ^ 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.
- ^ 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.
- ^ "Dramatized Works of Charles Dickens", List of Dicks' Standard Plays, 1883
- "Wilkie Collins". Victorian Web. Retrieved 4 July 2014.
- ^ Victor E. Neuburg (2013) . "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
- 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
- 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.