Frederick Van Rensselaer Dey

Frederick Van Rensselaer Dey (February 10, 1861 – April 25, 1922) was an American pulp fiction writer.

He was born in Watkins Glen, New York to David Peter Dey and Emma Brewster Sayre. He attended the Havana Academy, and later graduated from the Columbia University Law School. He practiced law and was a junior partner of William J. Gaynor. Dey took up writing while recovering from an illness. His first long story was written for Beadle and Adams in 1881. In 1891, Street & Smith hired him to continue a series of novelettes, begun by John R. Coryell, on the adventures of Nick Carter. Dey wrote between one thousand and eleven hundred "Nick Carter" stories. Dey married Annie Shepard, of Providence, Rhode Island on June 4, 1885 and they had two children. After a divorce he married Haryot Holt (c1870-1950) on April 1, 1898.

Depressed and penniless after the collapse of the pulp fiction market, Dey shot himself in his room in the Hotel Broztell in New York City, during the night of April 25, 1922 or the morning of April 26, 1922. The body was found by Charles E. MacLean, the managing editor for Street & Smith.

References

* [http://www.niulib.niu.edu/badndp/dey_frederick.html Biography]
*New York Times; April 27, 1922, Thursday; Creator of 'Nick Carter' Kills Himself; Penniless After Writing 40,000,000 Words. Frederick Van Rensselaer Dey, 61 years old, originator of the "Nick Carter" detective stories, shot himself to death in his room at the Hotel Broztell, 3 East Twenty-seventh Street, late last Tuesday night or yesterday morning. His body was found at 2 P.M. by Charles E. MacLean, managing editor for Street Smith, who first published the "Nick Carter" tales.
*New York Times; June 17, 1950, Saturday; Mrs. Haryot Dey, Author, Dies at 93; Widow of Creator of the Nick Carter Stories Had Been Editor for Many Years. Stamford, Connecticut, June 16, 1950. Mrs. Haryot Holt Dey, author and editor, died here today in the Heagney Nursing Home. She was 93 years old.