penny-a-liner
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of penny-a-liner
1825–35; penny-a-line (of writing) paid for at the rate of a penny per line + -er 1
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
MacDonald was an old penny-a-liner, with 50 or 60 paperback thunderations behind him, before he began the Travis McGee series more than a decade ago.
From Time Magazine Archive
After a few disastrous jobs in the Manhattan jungle, the apprentice author be came a penny-a-liner for the pulps; since then he has banged out 70 novels and some 600 short stories.
From Time Magazine Archive
In fact no phase of the Negro's life fails of discussion at the hands of the most flippant penny-a-liner as well as the gravest thinker.
From Twentieth Century Negro Literature Or, A Cyclopedia of Thought on the Vital Topics Relating to the American Negro by Daniel Wallace Culp
But the American penny-a-liner, our readers know, does the thing on the vast scale of his country.
From International Miscellany of Literature, Art and Science, Vol. 1, No. 3, Oct. 1, 1850 by Various
He writes no more great works, but he is hardly less industrious than a penny-a-liner in writing upon all sorts of subjects for the journals.
From The International Monthly, Volume 3, No. 3, June, 1851 by Various
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