Nelson Lee: The Scott Files

Synopsis:
“Birds of Prey was a fine story. It was full of exciting incidents, from beginning to end. No sooner was Nelson Lee free from one desperate situation than he was plunged into another. Maxwell Scott did see to it that his detectives earned their fees." Herbert Leckenby, Memories of Old Boy's Papers, 1943

Nelson Lee was one of the longest-running detectives of the British story papers. Throughout his thirty-year run in the Amalgamated Press papers, he was perhaps second only to Sexton Blake in popularity. Created by Maxwell Scott (the pseudonym of Dr. John Staniforth 1863-1927) he first appeared in A Dead Man's Secret in The Halfpenny Marvel #46, in September 1894. For the next six years he appeared regularly in single-issue tales in The Halfpenny Marvel, Pluck and The Union Jack. From 1901 to 1904 he appeared in longer multi issue tales, serialized in Boy's Friend, Boy's Realm, and Boy's Herald. In 1915 he was given his own story-paper series, The Nelson Lee Library, which ran until 1933.

Lee appeared in over 2500 tales set in every corner of the globe. Scott eventually sold his rights to the character to the Amalgamated Press, which enabled new authors to pen Lee adventures, among them notable Sexton Blake authors A. C. Murray, W. M. Graydon, Edwy Searles Brooks and G. H. Teed.

This collection of tales is comprised of Maxwell Scott's first three great serials: Birds of Prey, The Silver Dwarf, and The Missing Heir. Herbert Leckenby writing in Memories of Old Boy's Papers, (1943) noted that Birds of Prey was "perhaps one of the first of the stories wherein a detective was at grips with some great criminal organisation, a type of story which became very popular." Leckenby considered The Silver Dwarf, and The Missing Heir to be one of the best of all the Boys' Friends serials. Scott considered them among his favourites as well. The three were the most often reprinted tales from his Nelson Lee canon. Enjoy!