Want fewer ads?

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

He was born in Watkins Glen, New York to David Peter Dey and Emma Brewster (Sayre) Dey. 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. It is said that Dey wrote between one thousand and eleven hundred "Nick Carter" stories. Most of his Nick Carter stories appeared under the pseudonyms "A Celebrated Author" and "The Author of 'Nick Carter'".

Dey also worked in the newspaper industry as a police reporter, general reporter, special correspondent, and at various editorial desks He was Washington corresponded through two administrations.

Writing as "Varick Vanardy", he created the proto-hero pulp character, "The Night Wind", who appeared in stories from 1913 to the early 1920s. Collected into 4 books, these have been recently reprinted by Wildside Press: Alias, The Night Wind (1913), Return of the Night Wind, The Night Wind's Promise, The Lady of the Night Wind (1918). A new story will be published as Behold the Night Wind soon.

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.

Broke, and with no market for his stories after the passing of the dime-novel era, 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. According to sources, the body was found either by Charles E. MacLean, the managing editor for Street & Smith, or by Deputy Police Commissioner Joseph Faurot.

This author page uses material from the Wikipedia article "Frederick Van Rensselaer Dey", which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0