Robert M. DeWitt began publishing in his own right in New York in 1857, having previously published in partnership with James Davenport as DeWitt and Davenport. DeWitt published 28 numbered series which included a large range of dime novels and a series of plays, in which an edition of the play
Plot and Passion by John Lang was published in 1857. He also published B. L. Farjeon's
Grif in 1880.