Most would hardly be recognizable as a modern western, having more in common with James Fennimore Cooper's Leatherstocking saga, but many of the standard elements originated here: a cool detached hero, a frontiersman (later a cowboy), a fragile heroine in danger of the despicable outlaw, savage Indians, violence and gunplay, and the final outcome where Truth and Light wins over all.
Often real characters — such as Buffalo Bill or the famous Kit Carson — were fictionalized, as were the exploits of notorious outlaws such as Billy the Kid and Jesse James.
The genre continued to evolve as new media came along, and mass market paperbacks and comic books maintained the western story's popularity well into the late twentieth century.
The dime novel focused on the West because of America’s increasing fascination and curiosity with expansion, Native Americans, and pioneers.
This curiosity, combined with new technologies in publishing and distribution, made the western dime novel increasingly popular reading material until 1900.
While young boys were statistically the largest demographic of dime novel western readers, the stories reached a nationwide audience.
Dime novel western readers read to escape daily urban life in exchange for some Wild West action and adventure.
Literary scholars have theorized that reading western dime novels was a way to rekindle the manly spirit of the Frontier.
By the late nineteenth century—the heyday of dime novel publication—the western frontier was coming to a close as white settlers blanketed the region.
For decades historians and scholars dismissed dime novels as a valid source of research for the American West because of their fictional plots and cartoony characters.
[11] Scholars who have studied western dime novels argue that they portray the West as a utopia of cattle ranching, mountain men, blazing sun, and exciting pioneer life.
[12] When action is taking place in a dime novel, the plot is typically set among a western backdrop of snow-covered mountains, expansive deserts, and perhaps a river.
[13] Scholars of dime novels have described the western hero as a man who is above reproach from laws or familial duties and lives freely on the frontier.
Davy Crockett, also known as the "King of the Wild Frontier" and depicted wearing a coonskin cap, was popularized for his efforts in the Texas Revolution.