Nick Carter first appeared in the
story paper New York Weekly (Vol. 41 No. 46, September 18, 1886) in a 13-week serial, "The Old Detective's Pupil; or, The Mysterious Crime of
Madison Square"; the character was conceived by Ormond G. Smith, the son of one of the founders of
Street & Smith, and realized by
John R. Coryell. Coryell retired from writing Nick Carter novels and the series was taken over by
Frederick Van Rensselaer Dey, who wrote 1,076 novels and stories from 1890 until his suicide in 1922. The character proved popular enough to headline its own magazine,
Nick Carter Weekly. The serialized stories in
Nick Carter Weekly were also reprinted as stand-alone titles with the imprint of New Magnet Library. By 1915,
Nick Carter Weekly had ceased publication and Street & Smith had replaced it with
Detective Story Magazine, which had a more varied cast of characters. There was a brief attempt at reviving Carter in 1924–27 in
Detective Story Magazine, but it was not successful. During the 1930s, due to the success of
The Shadow and
Doc Savage, Street & Smith revived Nick Carter in a
pulp magazine (named
Nick Carter Detective Magazine) that was published from 1933 to 1936. Since the Doc Savage character had basically been given Nick's background, Nick Carter was now given new characteristics. Novels featuring Carter continued to be published through the 1950s, by which time there was also a popular radio show,
Nick Carter, Master Detective, which was broadcast by the
Mutual Broadcasting System network from 1943 to 1955.
Killmaster revival Due to the success of the
James Bond series during the 1960s, the character was updated for a long-running series of novels featuring the adventures of
secret agent Nick Carter, aka the Killmaster. The first book,
Run Spy Run, was published in 1964 and more than 260 Nick Carter adventures were published until the series ended in 1990. The 100th Killmaster novel —
Nick Carter 100 — was accompanied by an essay concerning the 1890s version, and a short story featuring the character; that marked one of the few times the Killmaster series acknowledged its historical roots. None of these Nick Carter series of books had author credits, although it is known that several of the earliest volumes were written by
Michael Avallone, and that Valerie Moolman and
New York Times bestselling author
Gayle Lynds wrote others, making this the first series of its kind to be written in significant part by women.
Bill Crider is another author identified with Nick Carter. The Nick Carter name was treated as if it were a pseudonym, and many of the volumes were written in the
first person. ==Authors==