ABSTRACT
An example of the way current events helped shape dime novels can be seen through the John L.,Jr., and Gentleman Jack stories published in Street and Smith's New York Five Cent Library. Alfred B. Tozer's pseudonymous boxing tales about a character named John L.,Jr., began while John L. Sullivan was heavyweight champion. After Jim Corbett defeated Sullivan, the John L. stories gradually changed their focus, deemphasizing boxing, and the publisher introduced a new character, Gentleman Jack, in stories ghostwritten by Edward Stratemeyer. Both the John L. and Gentleman Jack stories feature characters and plots that incorporate biographical traits from Sullivan and Corbett, as well as elements from newspaper accounts, popular fiction, and plays about the two pugilists.