Seth Jones was the most significant of early dime novels of publishers Beadle and Adams.Columbia Literary History of the United States - 1 p554 Emory, Elliott, Martha Banta, Houston A. Baker - 1988 "It is not insignificant to note, therefore, that while Malaeska is best remembered as the first dime novel, Seth Jones is the far more representative work of the House of Beadle and Adams. Seth Jones has none of Malaeska's moral ambiguities. It is said that Seth Jones was one of Abraham Lincoln's favorite stories.Vicki Anderson -The Dime Novel in Children's Literature 2004- Page 104 "Before many years had passed, however, the author of Seth Jones had accomplished the feat which the writers' world used to describe as “getting between boards.” In Seth Jones the Native Americans who capture Ina are Mohawks." ... It is said that Seth Jones was one of Abraham Lincoln's favorite stories." During the mid-1880s, after a fiction-writing career of some thirty years, Ellis eventually began composing more serious works of biography, history, and persuasive writing. Of note was "The Life of Colonel David Crockett", which had the story of Davy Crockett giving a speech usually called "Not Yours To Give". It was a speech in opposition to awarding money to a Navy widow on the grounds that Congress had no Constitutional mandate to give charity. It was said to have been inspired by Crockett's meeting with a Horatio Bunce, a much quoted man in Libertarian circles, but one for whom historical evidence is non-existent.
