author
Arthur L. (Arthur Livermore) Meserve
1838–1896
A prolific 19th-century dime-novel writer, he turned out fast-moving frontier and adventure fiction for popular publishers of his day. His surviving work still carries the flavor of the era’s weekly story papers: dramatic, rugged, and built to keep readers turning pages.
1 Audiobook
Death-Dealer, the Shawnee Scourge; or The Wizard of the Cliffs
by Arthur L. (Arthur Livermore) Meserve
About the author
Born in Bartlett, New Hampshire, on April 18, 1838, Arthur Livermore Meserve became a familiar name in the world of American dime novels. A biographical entry from Northern Illinois University’s American Dime Novel Project describes him as a writer who was more important for Munro than for Beadle, even though one of his Beadle novels was reprinted several times.
Meserve wrote frontier adventures and sensation fiction for the mass audience that devoured inexpensive story papers in the late 1800s. The Online Books Page and Project Gutenberg both list him under Arthur L. (Arthur Livermore) Meserve, 1838–1896, and identify Death-Dealer, the Shawnee Scourge; or, The Wizard of the Cliffs as an available work.
He died in 1896, but his fiction remains part of the surviving dime-novel tradition: vivid, energetic, and closely tied to the popular reading culture of its time. For listeners curious about forgotten pulp-era storytellers, he offers a glimpse into the fast-paced entertainment readers once bought for a few cents.