Early life Wyckoff was born in
Plainfield, New Jersey, the son of Albert C. and Eva (Thorn) Wyckoff, and later lived in
Elizabeth, New Jersey. He had an older sister and a younger sister and brother Wyckoff attended
Pingry School, where he played on the football team. This school is considered to be the model for the academies in his Mercer Boys series and other books. His father worked for
Fox Film of New York; he died while Capwell was a senior in high school. Capwell had to leave school before graduation, and he and his older sister went to work to support the family. He worked for
Standard Oil for a few years, and then as a switchboard operator at the
Federal Reserve Bank of New York. At the time, he had been in the mission field for only a year or two. Wyckoff is best known for his boys' adventure stories, beginning with the ten-book Mercer Boys series, originally published by
A. L. Burt. The first Mercer Boys book was based on a trip Wyckoff made with some rather well-to-do friends who had a ship at
Bayshore, New York in 1925. Wyckoff did not receive royalties for the books. They were sold outright, and Wyckoff received $200 apiece. With proceeds from the first sales, the Wyckoffs bought their first car and headed for
Arkansas to begin their lives as
missionaries. After the ten Mercer Boys books, Wyckoff wrote the four-book Mystery Hunters series. Also, during the early 1930s, he wrote seven other adventure books. The first two of these feature the same characters, with the book published second,
The Secret at Lake Retreat, as the precursor to
The Secret of the Armor Room.
Life in the Church Wyckoff was ordained in the
Presbyterian Church in 1928. As newlyweds, Wyckoff and Edna went to the southern mountains, first in
Arkansas and then in
Kentucky, as Sunday School Missionaries, filling this post for twelve years. Later, he was for two years superintendent of home missions in Transylvania Presbytery to the south and west of the
Kentucky River in central Kentucky. During the last years of
World War II, he served as pastor of First Presbyterian Church in
Madisonville, Kentucky. In April 1948 he moved to his last pastorate at Columbia-Union Presbyterian Church in
Columbia, Kentucky.
Death and burial He died of a heart attack on January 10, 1953, at age 49. Burial was at
Columbia Cemetery,
Columbia, Kentucky. ==Published works==