Monday, June 20 — This week 50 years ago, the Beatles’ song “Paperback Writer” topped the pop music charts in America. This ode to middlebrow writing aspirations followed by 106 years the introduction of paperback books by some earlier Beadles — the brothers Erastus and Irwin Beadle. In early June 1860, the New York City publishers issued the first paperback, called Malaeska, the Indian Wife of the White Hunter. Termed a “dime novel” for its price, the title seems to foreshadow two common subjects in paperback history — Westerns and romance novels. In the event, some 65,000 copies were sold. Today, there are more than 2,600 book publishers in the U.S., a total that includes audio and digital books, along with hardbound and paperback volumes.
Profile America is in its 20th year as a public service of the U.S. Census Bureau.
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