Erastus Flavel Beadle

Erastus Flavel Beadle (September 9, 1821 – December 18; 1894) was a pioneer in publishing pulp fiction.

He was born in Oswego County, New York, United States, in 1821. He had a sibling: Irwin Pedro Beadle (1826-1882). They were the grandsons of Benjamin Beadle, a Revolutionary War soldier. After a temporary move to Michigan, the Beadle family returned to New York, and lived in Chautauqua County, New York. Erastus worked for a miller named Hayes, where he began his printing career when cutting wooden letters to label bags of grain. In 1838, he was apprenticed to H & E Phinney, a publishing firm in Cooperstown, New York. There he learned typesetting, stereotyping, binding, and engraving. He married Mary Ann Pennington in 1846, and in 1847 the couple moved to Buffalo, New York, where Erastus worked as a stereotyper. In 1849 Irwin went to Buffalo too, and found a job as a bookbinder. The next year, the brothers set up their own stereotype foundry. Irwin left the company in 1856.

Erastus retired to Cooperstown, New York, in 1889, where he died on December 18, 1894.

Archive

His papers are archived at the University of Delaware.

External links

* [http://www.lib.udel.edu/ud/spec/findaids/beadle.htm University of Delaware archive]
* [http://www.niulib.niu.edu/badndp/ Northern Illinois University Libraries' Beadle and Adams project]

References

*New York Times; February 29, 1884, Wednesday; A singular case of domestic misery was brought up for settlement in Judge Massey's court, Brooklyn, yesterday. The wife of Irwin F. Beadle, a son of Erastus Beadle, the dime novel publisher, sues him for abandonment. The couple were married about nine years ago, and ...
*New York Times; December 20, 1894, Wednesday; Erastus Flavius Beadle. Erastus Flavius Beadle, the senior member of the publishing house of Beadle Adams, died at his home in Cooperstown, New York, Tuesday night. Mr. Beadle was born in Otsego County in 1821.