Col. Prentiss Ingraham 
Major Works
- California Joe, the Mysterious Plainsman
- Buffalo Bill series
- Afloat and Ashore
- The Cuban
- Buck Taylor series
- Merle Monte series
- Dick Doom series
- Jean LaFitte
- Girl Rough Riders
- Ingraham wrote a total of 600 hundred novels and 400 hundred novelettes
----------------------------------------------------------
Biography of Prentiss Ingraham
By Charlie Hill (SHS)
 Prentiss
Ingraham was born in Adams County, Mississippi, on December 28,
1843. The son of the Reverend Joseph Holt Ingraham, who was also
an author, and Mary Brookes Ingraham, he was educated at St. Timothy's
Military Academy in Maryland, Jefferson College in Mississippi, and
Mobile Medical College in Alabama. When the Civil War began,
Ingraham left school to join the army of the Confederate States of
America in April of 1961. While a soldier for the
South, Ingraham was wounded and captured at Fort Hudson. He
escaped only to be wounded for a second time at the Battle of Franklin,
Tennessee, on November 30, 1864. During the war, he served in
Withers’ Mississippi Regiment, and he attained the rank of
lieutenant. He then became commander of scouts in Ross’s Brigade
of the Texas cavalry (Lloyd 252).
When the war
ended, Ingraham decided to live the life of a soldier of fortune.
He served under Juarez in the Mexican rebels’ revolution against
Maximillian. He also served in Crete against the Turks, in the
Austrian army during the Austro-Prussian War, in Egypt with the
Khedive's army, as a colonel in the Cuban army, and as a captain in the
Cuban navy. While fighting for the Cubans against Spain, he was
captured and sentenced to death. Once again, however, he escaped
his persecutors (Salmonson 1).
 After
his career as a soldier ended, Ingraham began his writing in 1870,while
he was in London. At first he wrote satiric sketches of the
British social scene. However, this endeavor did not
succeed. He moved to New York City and married Rose Langley, who
was also an author at the time. In New York City, he began
writing dime and half-dime novels. Then, in 1881, he went west
(Lloyd 252). There, he met “Buffalo Bill” Cody, who hired
Ingraham as an advance agent for the Wild West Show. Ingraham
later wrote many novels on based on the life of Cody as well as a
biography about him (Col. Prentiss... 1). Ingraham is
perhaps most famous for this romanticized version of the life of
"Buffalo Bill."
In his later years, Ingraham
lived in Maryland and Illinois. As a Confederate veteran, he was
able to live out his days at Beauvoir Confederate Home in Biloxi, Mississippi. Prentiss Ingraham died there of Bright's Disease on August 16, 1904 (Lloyd 252).
Throughout his career, Ingraham wrote a total of six hundred
novels and four hundred novelettes. He was famous for
being able to write so many words in such little time. He once
wrote a seventy-thousand word novel in a week and even produced
the manuscript of a thirty-five thousand word novel in twenty-four
hours. However, this "speed of composition did not allow
for niceties of plot, neither did it permit subtlety of character.
Indians are invariably treacherous, foreigners foolish, beautiful
women good." Nevertheless, cowboys themselves began to
act and dress the way they were described in Ingraham’s
widespread novels. "Ingraham helped start what was to
become the most powerful and characteristic of American myths"
(Robertson 253-254). Known as the King of Dime Novels,
Prentiss Ingraham is an author who will be forever remembered
for the image he created of the American West.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Timeline
Dec 28, 1843- Born in Natchez, Mississippi
April, 1961 – Joined army of Confederate States of America
 After war – Joined Juarez against Maximillion in Mexico. Also fought in Cuba, Crete, Austria, and Africa; wounded several times
1870 – London, started literary career
1881 – Moved west (America), wrote hundreds of novels for Beadle and Adams
1884 – Started traveling with Buffalo Bill Cody in Wild West Show
1891 - Wrote Buck Taylor, the Comanche Captive
1897 – 1902 – Lived in Easton, Maryland
1902 – 1904 – Lived in Chicago
1904 – Moved to Beauvoir Confederate Home (once the residence of Jefferson Davis) in Biloxi, Mississippi
- Died in August of Bright's disease at the age of sixty
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A Review
of California Joe, the Mysterious Plainsman
by Charlie Hill (SHS)
California Joe, the Mysterious Plainsman
by Col. Prentiss Ingraham is a dime novel, a very short novel, about
the life of a young man who acts as if he is immortal. At first,
many characters in the book think that Joe is a ghost or a “spook”
because of his all black clothes and solid white horse. This
behavior makes the reader curious because it is unclear who this
ghost-like man is. Soon, however, Joe introduces himself to a
group of people who are laying train tracks across the prairie.
He guides them and saves them from Indians on many occasions. On
one of these occasions, Joe steals the entire Indian war party's horse
herd and takes them to a fort in order to sell them to the army.
There he makes the acquaintance of an officer with whom he becomes very
good friends.
Every
character in the book is either afraid of Joe or respects him for the
great things he does. He is constantly leaving without saying
good-bye, which puts much of the mystery into the novel.
Throughout the entire book, Joe is saving somebody from Indians or
capturing thieves. He is the stereotypical cowboy who saves the
day and rides off into the sunset. However, the end of the story
is surprising.
California Joe, the Mysterious Plainsman
is an interesting novel, but it lacks the twists that keep readers on
the edge of their seats. Everybody in the story is a
stereotypical type of character. The Indians are savages who have
a thirst for blood, of course. Joe is the good guy who
saves the day time after time. I did enjoy the book, but it does
need a few more unpredictable moments. I would recommend this
book to anybody who enjoys western books or movies because it is easy
to read, and it is interesting. I had to read the book online, however,
as the only other place I could find the book was in a special
collections section of the Mississippi State Library and it could not
be checked out.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Related Websites
You
can read his great dime novel Adventures of Buffalo Bill
from Boyhood to Manhood and
get more information about it here.
Here
is some interesting information about many of Ingraham’s
exciting novels set in Illinois, including The Gentleman
Crook in Chicago; or, Nick Norcross, the River
Rat, Dick Doom's Shadow Hunt, by Col[onel] Prentiss
Ingraham. New York: Published Weekly by Beadle and Adams; No.
98 William Street, June 23, 1893. 16p. (Beadle's Half
Dime Library, No. 829)
Stanford's
site about Dime Novels provides more author information in "Colonel
Prentiss Ingraham and the World of Dime Novel Authors."
RETURN TO TOP OF PAGE
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bibliography
"California Joe, the Mysterious Plainsman. Online." Internet. 20 April, 2001. Available
HTTP://www-sul.stanford.edu/depts/dp/pennies/texts/ingraham2_toc.html. Get to it from here:
http://www-sul.stanford.edu/depts/dp/pennies/texts/dimes_toc.html
"Col. Prentiss Ingraham: King of the Dime Novels." Online. Internet. 28 March, 2001.
"Ingraham, Prentiss." Biography Online Database. 14 April, 2001. Available HTTP://www.biography.com.
Robertson, Richard. Lives of Mississippi Authors 1817-1967. Ed. Lloyd, James B. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1981: 252-267.
Salmonson,
Jessica Amanda. "The Pirate Novels of Col. Prentiss
Ingraham." Online. Internet. 19 April, 2001.
Available HTTP://www.violetbooks.com/ingraham.html.
---------------------------------------------------------
|
