Burns Library has a smaller collecting focus on American popular fiction across different eras, such as dime novels, mysteries, and comics.
In 2009, Boston College Professor of Finance Edward Kane donated a collection of more than 11,000 issues of comic books. Marvel, DC, and other publishers from the golden, silver, bronze, and modern ages of comic book production are represented, ranging from the early 1940s through the early 2000s.
Mystery and detective fiction are represented by collections donated by Allan P. Kirby, Jr. and Thomas J. Shamon
Burns Library also holds primary archival collections pertaining to Rex Stout, an American writer noted for his detective fiction, particularly the 33 novels and 40 novellas that featured the detective Nero Wolfe and his assistant Archie Goodwin published between 1934 and 1975.
