[crashryan]

Any story that starts out, "Phwoot! Phwoot! Bzoom! Bzoom!" is all right in my book. Actually, this is written in a brisker, more "modern" style than many stories from the 'teens. A satisfying read. Obviously Nelson Lee was well-established by 1915. When did he first appear?

BTW, just what is the "multi-plate free engine clutch" on the Rudge motorbike I'm going to win?

Link to the book: Nelson Lee Library - Series 1 - 001

[paw broon]

Nelson Lee seems to have appeared in the weekly, The Detective Library, pre WW1.  Lee shared the "pulp" with Fawcett Milford, yet another detective.  The book was the same size as Nelson Lee Library and featured a colour cover for a while plus, in some issues, a coloured centre spread illustrating a scene from one of the stories.  If anyone can help with dates, etc., please do.

[crashryan]

Aha! I discovered a brief history of Nelson Lee, as follows:

"Nelson Lee first appeared in The Halfpenny Marvel in 1894.  He was the creation of Maxwell Scott, the pseudonym of a Yorkshire medical man, Dr. John Staniforth (1863-1927).    When Amalgamated Press sought to purchase the rights to the character, Staniforth at first refused.  However, Hal Meredith, the creator of Lee's nearest rival, Sexton Blake, agreed to sell the rights to his character and Sexton Blake rapidly gained a recognition that Nelson Lee, when Staniforth finally yielded, never again equalled.  In 1915 the detective was given his own story paper - The Nelson Lee Library - and Edwy Searles Brooks was an early contributor.  Within a year, Brooks was writing all the stories, a situation that continued until 1933.  In 1917, with the introduction of St. Frank's School and Lee's conversion to a schoolmaster detective, his popularity increased to such effect that the stories also appeared in a number of other publications."

[paw broon]

Nice one, crash.  I looked up my copy of Lofts and Adley  and the info. was there all the time.  See age and a mind like a sieve?
Scott also wrote for Union Jack; Boys Friend Weekly; Boys Herald; Boys Realm; Gem 2nd. series; Comic Home Journal; Wonder; Chums; Boys Leader; Big Budget; Jester, according to Lofts nad Adley.  Frustratingly, there is no info. on what characters he wrote but Union Jack was Sexton Blake's paper, so i suppose he must have written Blake stories also.
Wonder when he found the time for doctoring.