Outstanding popular writer of nineteenth century America, Sylvanus Cobb Jr (1823-87) contributed abundantly to the New York Ledger, the nation's leading story paper. From 1856 until his death in 1887 the Ledger published Cobb's short stories and serialised novels, adding up to 89,544 pages of manuscript. During his lucrative career he produced 120 novels and over 800 short stories. Cobb is a writer of interest for the worthy reason that he helped lay the foundations of mass readership for American fiction. Millions of readers, particularly young readers, passed through his mass-produced stories to higher things -- John Sutherland in _Lives of the Novelists: A History of Fiction in 294 Lives__ (Yale UP, 2012).
