 Cover The Nelson Lee Library #1 from 1915 | |
| Categories | Story paper |
|---|---|
| Frequency | Weekly |
| First issue | 1915 |
| Final issue | 1933 |
| Company | Amalgamated Press |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Based in | London |
| Language | English |
The Nelson Lee Library was a story paper of the first third of the 20th century, published by Amalgamated Press. It featured the adventures of private detective Nelson Lee and his boy assistant Nipper.
Nelson Lee was created by John William Staniforth, writing under the name Maxwell Scott, in 1894. Lee made his debut in A Dead Man’s Secret in The Halfpenny Marvel #46. The detective was an immediate sensation and continued to feature in many of the Amalgamated Press papers over the next twenty years. [1] In 1915 the Amalgamated Press acquired the exclusive right to use the name Nelson Lee from Staniforth for £50. That same year it launched The Nelson Lee Library, a weekly paper devoted to stories about Nelson Lee and Nipper. Despite wartime restrictions, the paper achieved a circulation of 70,000 within its first three months. [2]
The first issue of The Nelson Lee Library was published on 12 June 1915, entitled The Mystery of Limehouse Reach and written by Sexton Blake writer A. C. Murray. Many other popular Blake writers would pen Lee tales including William Murray Graydon, William J. Bayfield, George Hamilton Teed, Norman Goddard, and Edwy Searles Brooks.
Series 1 ran from 12 June 1915 until 24 April 1926, a total of 568 issues.
Series 2 ran from 1 May 1926 until 18 January 1930, a total of 194 issues.
Series 3 ran from 25 January 1930 until 18 February 1933, a total of 161 issues.
Series 4 ran from 25 February 1933 until 12 August 1933. The Nelson Lee Library then merged with The Gem .
Maxwell Scott wrote just four adventures for the paper that bore his greatest creation's name, A Miscarriage of Justice (1915), The Convict's Dilemma (1915), In Borrowed Plumes (1915), and When Rogues Fall Out (1916).
The Spendthrift was George Hamilton Teed's first Nelson Lee tale. It was followed by Twenty Fathoms Deep Edwy Searles Brooks debut Lee tale.
Teed following on the wild success of his Sexton Blake creation Yvonne Cartier, gave Nelson Lee his first female foe: The Black Wolf, a cross-dressing martial arts aristocrat. She would match wits with Lee and Nipper in various locations around the world. [3]
Not to be outdone, Brooks introduced Eileen Dare the female detective in Nelson Lee's Lady Assistant (1916). [4] She appeared with Lee in 14 adventures.
Brooks was instrumental in launching the second phase of Lee's career. In "Nipper at St. Frank's," (Nelson Lee Library #112, 28 July 1917,) Lee and Nipper while fleeing from a Chinese Triad hide out at St. Frank's, a "venerable public school" in the Bellton area of Sussex. When the case at last was solved, Lee joined the faculty as headmaster and Nipper enrolled as a student. The two remained there for the next sixteen years solving mysteries and having advanetures around the world, often with friends and Nipper's classmates. [5]
John James Brearley Garbutt introduced Nighthawk, a superhero that began appearing as a backup feature in The Nelson Lee Library (New Series) No. 11, April 5, 1930 in a self-titled story. The hero was rich scientist Thurston Kyle who built an armored, winged flying suit to fight crime. He is considered one of the earliest examples of a flying armored superhero. [6] [7]
Sexton Blake is a fictional character, a detective who has been featured in many British comic strips, novels and dramatic productions since 1893. Sexton Blake adventures were featured in a wide variety of British and international publications from 1893 to 1978, comprising more than 4,000 stories by some 200 different authors. Blake was also the hero of numerous silent and sound films, radio serials, and a 1960s ITV television series.
Charles Harold St. John Hamilton was an English writer, specialising in writing long-running series of stories for weekly magazines about recurrent casts of characters, his most frequent and famous genre being boys' public school stories, though he also wrote in other genres. He used a variety of pen-names, generally using a different name for each set of characters he wrote about, the most famous being Frank Richards for the Greyfriars School stories featuring Billy Bunter. Other important pen-names included Martin Clifford, Owen Conquest and Ralph Redway. He also wrote hundreds of stories under his real name such as the Ken King stories for The Modern Boy.
The Amalgamated Press (AP) was a British newspaper and magazine publishing company founded by journalist and entrepreneur Alfred Harmsworth (1865–1922) in 1901, gathering his many publishing ventures together under one banner. At one point the largest publishing company in the world, AP employed writers such as Arthur Mee, John Alexander Hammerton, Edwy Searles Brooks, and Charles Hamilton. Its subsidiary, the Educational Book Company, published The Harmsworth Self-Educator, The Children's Encyclopædia, and Harmsworth's Universal Encyclopaedia. The company's newspapers included the Daily Mail, the Daily Mirror, The Evening News, The Observer, and The Times. At its height, AP published over 70 magazines and operated three large printing works and paper mills in South London.
The Gem (1907–1939) was a story paper published in Great Britain by Amalgamated Press in the early 20th century, predominantly featuring the activities of boys at the fictional school St. Jim's. These stories were all written using the pen-name of "Martin Clifford," the majority by Charles Hamilton. Many issues also included a shorter serial story ; these parts of the paper were not written by Charles Hamilton.
Story Paper Collectors' Digest was a journal published from November 1946 until May 2005, and with special intermittent issues continuing on until late 2007. It was created by Herbert Leckenby. With articles on story papers, it heavily featured the work of Charles Hamilton, Edwy Searles Brooks and the tales of detectives Sexton Blake and Nelson Lee. It was published monthly until 2004. The editors were Herbert Leckenby until his death in October 1959, then Eric Fayne until January 1987 when he retired as editor, then Mary Cadogan.
Edwy Searles Brooks was a British novelist who also wrote under the pen-names Berkeley Gray, Victor Gunn, Rex Madison, and Carlton Ross. Brooks was born in Hackney, London. He is believed to have written around 40 million words.
The Boys' Herald was a boy's story paper published by Amalgamated Press in England from 1903. It was a companion paper to The Boys' Friend and The Boys' Realm. It mostly ran adventure stories and sold for 1d. It ceased publication in 1913.
The Boys' Friend was a British story paper of the early 20th century, published by Amalgamated Press from 1895 to 1927.
Eric Robert Parker was a prolific British illustrator and comics artist best known for illustrating the adventures of Sexton Blake in various periodicals.
George Hamilton Teed was a Canadian author who also wrote under the pen-names G. H. Teed, Hamilton Teed, Louis Brittany, Peter Kingsland, and Desmond Reid. Teed was born in Woodstock, New Brunswick. He specialized in adventure fiction and detective stories, but also wrote science fiction and the odd romance. He is best remembered for his tales of Sexton Blake, a popular, fictional British detective who featured in a wide variety of publications in the first half of the twentieth century. He wrote close to three hundred Blake tales, more than any other author, and his creations and writings are considered "the best in Blake history before the Second World War."
Nelson Lee is a fictional detective who featured in the Amalgamated Press papers over a 40-year run. Created in 1894 by Maxwell Scott he appeared in various publications including The Halfpenny Marvel, Pluck, The Boys' Friend, Boys' Realm, The Boys' Herald and the Union Jack In 1915 he was given his own story-paper series, The Nelson Lee Library, which ran until 1933.
John William Staniforth was a British writer who wrote under the pen-names Stain Cortley, John Andrews and Maxwell Scott.
Henry Thomas Blyth (1852–1898) was a British writer who also wrote under the pen-name Hal Meredith. Blyth was born in Greenwich, London. He wrote for many of Alfred Harmsworth's papers of the 1890s, and is mostly remembered for creating detective Sexton Blake.
William Murray Graydon was an extremely prolific American writer who also wrote under the pen-names Alfred Armitage, William Murray, and Tom Olliver. He wrote adventure, historical fiction and Sexton Blake detective stories for boy's story papers.
The Sexton Blake Library was a story paper of the first two-thirds of the 20th century, published by Amalgamated Press. It featured the adventures of private detective Sexton Blake, his boy assistant Tinker and their dog Pedro.
Sexton Blake is a fictional detective who has been featured in many British comic strips, novels, and dramatic productions since 1893. He was featured in various British publications from 1893 to 1978 in a variety of formats: single-issue adventures, short stories, serials, and comic strips. In total, Blake appeared in more than 4,000 stories by over 200 different authors. During its golden age (1920s-1940s), Blake's adventures were widely read and translated into at least twenty different languages, including Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish, Dutch, Spanish, German, Portuguese, Italian, French, Arabic, Hindi, and Afrikaans.
Sexton Blake is a fictional detective who has been featured in many British comic strips, novels, and dramatic productions since 1893. He was featured in various British publications from 1893 to 1978 in a variety of formats: single-issue adventures, short stories, serials, and comic strips. In total, Blake appeared in more than 4,000 stories by over 200 different authors.
During its golden age (1920s-1940s), Blake's adventures were widely read and translated into at least twenty different languages, including Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish, Dutch, Spanish, German, Portuguese, Italian, French, Arabic, Hindi, and Afrikaans.
Sexton Blake is a fictional detective who has been featured in many British comic strips, novels, and dramatic productions since 1893. He was featured in various British publications from 1893 to 1978 in a variety of formats: single-issue adventures, short stories, serials, and comic strips. In total, Blake appeared in more than 4,000 stories by over 200 different authors.
Sexton Blake is a fictional detective who has been featured in many British comic strips, novels, and dramatic productions since 1893. He was featured in various British publications from 1893 to 1978 in a variety of formats: single-issue adventures, short stories, serials, and comic strips. In total, Blake appeared in more than 4,000 stories by over 200 different authors.
Dixon Hawke was a fictional detective who was featured in the DC Thomson publications from 1912 to 2000. Created in 1912 by an unknown author for DC Thomson he appeared in various publications including The Saturday Post, The Sunday Post, Adventure, The Sporting Post, Topical Times, The Evening Telegraph and The Dixon Hawke Library.
