The Nelson Lee stories
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.