The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1922-05-20
DEY ADMITTED NICK
CARTER WAS ADOPTED
Guided Destiny of Famous Character
Through Thousands of Pages
of Fiction.

Inrough thousands OF Page5
of Fiction.
There was only one Nick Carter,
and Frederic Van Rensselaer, Dey was
his prophet Dey is dead and all
those who love good detective thru
Ter mourn the loss of the man who
created Nick Dey did create Nick
Carter In every sense but one. There
was another before him and he is
still living. His name is John c. Cor
yell.
SO much water and so many words
have flowed over the dam since Nick
Carter made his first appearance in
print that it is only natural that his
origin should be somewhat clouded in
mystery But no one-not even Dey
himself-who knew how the charac
ter happened ever made any mystery
Of it. The first Nick Carter story
was written by Coryell. Likewise the
second
THE Old Detectives Pupil was the
title given by Coryell to his initial
effort In it he introduced old Seth
Carter the veteran detective. who in
h is declining years undertook to tutor
his young and promising offspring
crime detector. Nick (need it be
Nick in the ways of the professional
saidO proved an apt pupil, but Cor.
yell had other work to DO and after
two Of his stories had appeared it was
necessary to find someone else to
chronicle Nick Carriers career 1t
was al this point that Col Dey's work
began
Varying accounts have been gwen
Of how Dey undertook the job Of
turning out one complete Nick Carter
story a week Deys own story was
published in the American magazine
two years ago. In il he gave full
credit to Coryell
According to Dey, it was at a lun-
cheon with o. G. and c. G. Smith Of
Street & Smith, publishers, that he
accepted the challenge to write one
33,000-word story a week around one
character and keep it up indefinite
ly."
AN important thing to conaider
was the selection Of a name for our
detective wrote Dey. 90 G. Smith
had already made that selection, ten
tatiyely- provided it appealed to me
who was to write the stories, one
Of their writer's, John r. Coryell by
name had written two stories for the
firm in which he had named one Of
his characters Nick Carter, son and
pupil Of Seth Carter, an old detective
The name pleased Mr. Smith, and /
fell for it 1t is true that 10 that eX-
tent Coryell created Nick Carter But
took him when he was a kid edu-
Gated him, developed him, brought
him up made a man of him, directed
his destiny through many millions of
printed and circulated copies Of the
stories about him and carried HIM
into dozen languages in translation
This version OF the origin OF Nick
Carter is corro5orated by o. G. Smith.
who however, would be the last to
concede that any one other than Dey
had had hand in the creation of MEX
Carter, the finished product That
JOD Was WI. ltg anu Nia ultht-
Others besides Coryell wrote Nick
Carter stories. it is true, and at times
Dey had men working for him when
the demand for copy" was more than
any one human could meet but the
maker Of Nick Carter and of Chick
and Patsy and Ida Jones and the Jap,
Tenichi who helped him unrayel q
hundred mysteries. to say nothing Of
those super-yilains, Dr.. Quartz and
Dazaar all Of whom were as much a
part Of a Mex Carter novel as Nick
Carter himself, was the man who,
when luck turned, wrote the last chap
ter in his own life the other day by
putting a bullet through his head
Nick Carter, by all the rules of the
game. was the child of Dey's brain
an adopted child perhaps, but adopted
at such tender age that the actual
parentage doesn't much matter. Cor
yell forsook Nick for other things.