John Russell Coryell (December 15, 1851 in New York City – July 15, 1924 in Readfield, Maine) was an American dime novel author. He wrote under the Nicholas Carter and Bertha M. Clay house pseudonyms, and, like many of his fellow dime novelists under many other pseudonyms, including Tyman Currio, Lillian R. Drayton, Julia Edwards, Geraldine Fleming, Margaret Grant, Barbara Howard, Harry Dubois Milman, Milton Quarterly, and Lucy May Russell.
Biography
Background and early life
According to Coryell's son Russell, "The Coryell family was descended from French Huguenots driven out of France. They settled early in America. One ancestor, a Coryell, was a pall-bearer to Washington." However, recent DNA testing has revealed that the Coryells are descended from the Sephardic Jewish Curiel family, and specifically from Jacob Curiel (1587-1664).
John R. Coryell was educated in NYC public schools and city college. In 1869, he abandoned the study of law (presumably at Harvard) to join his father, who was building battleships for the Chinese government. John R. Coryell underwent an arduous sea voyage to China. At age twenty, he became a magistrate in the Shanghai civil courts.
After returning from China, Coryell set up a ship-brokerage business in San Francisco and lost his fortune. He was recruited to Santa Barbara by publisher Harrison Gray Otis to write for the Santa Barbara Press, though Coryell admitted, “I was a mighty poor newspaper man.”
Family
In 1875, after returning from China, Coryell met his future wife, Abby Lydia Hedge (1858-1957).
Following a seven-year engagement, the couple married on December 7, 1882. They had four sons: Harold Hedge Coryell (1884-1948), Roland Smith Coryell (1886-????), Hubert Vansant Coryell (1889-1979), and Russell Miers Coryell (1891-1941). All four attended Harvard University. Following in their father's footsteps, Hubert V. Coryell and Russell M. Coryell both became successful writers.
Early writing career
John R. Coryell's freelance writing career coincided with his marriage. His early works break into two main categories: popular science articles for Scientific American; and juvenile fiction for St. Nicholas. His first known published work was “The Great Tumble Weed of the Prairies” in the December 2, 1882 issue of Scientific American. Meanwhile, Coryell moved his family to Brooklyn.
Nick Carter
Coryell was related to the Smith family of New York publisher Street & Smith. His uncle was Francis S. Smith and his cousin was Ormond Smith. Francis S. Smith asked Coryell whether he could write fiction in the style of dime novelist Ned Buntline. Coryell welcomed the opportunity because, with his new family, his juvenile stories were “not sufficiently lucrative.” Coryell boasted to Ormond Smith that “he could write better detective yarns than any of their established writers. The result was a novel, The American Marquis, or, Detective for Vengeance: A Story of a Masked Bride and a Husband's Quest, bylined “Nicholas Carter.” The proceeds covered the birth expenses for the Coryells’ first son, Harold.
His second novel featured Nick Carter as the detective-protagonist and was also bylined Nicholas Carter. The Old Detective's Pupil; or, The Mysterious Crime of Madison Square, was serialized in thirteen consecutive issues of the New York Weekly, the first dated September 18, 1886. Coryell penned four more Nick Carter stories and then the series was taken over by Frederick Van Rensselaer Dey. Nick Carter became a legendary fictional character with Street & Smith producing new Nick Carter stories into the 1930s.
The creation of the famous fictional detective was frequently attributed to other writers who had authored Nick Carter stories. These claims were made not by the authors but after their deaths. They include: Frederick Van Rensselaer Dey, Eugene T. Sawyer, Thomas C. Harbaugh, George C. Jenks, and Frederick W. Davis.
Coryell was embarrassed by his background in dime novels and concealed his authorship of Nick Carter from his sons. When they discovered in their attic clippings from the New York Weekly featuring Nick Carter, their father swore them to secrecy. Coryell did admit in 1915, though, that “The creation of the now famous Nick Carter was one of my greatest successes.”