John Russell Coryell

John Russell Coryell (December 15, 1851, in New York City – July 15, 1924, in Readfield, Maine) was an American dime novel author. He wrote under the Nicholas Carter and Bertha M. Clay house pseudonyms, and, like many of his fellow dime novelists under many other pseudonyms, including Tyman Currio, Lillian R. Drayton, Julia Edwards, Geraldine Fleming, Margaret Grant, Barbara Howard, Harry Dubois Milman, Milton Quarterly, and Lucy May Russell.

Background and early life

According to Coryell's son Russell, "The Coryell family was descended from French Huguenots driven out of France. They settled early in America. One ancestor, a Coryell, was a pall-bearer to Washington." However, recent DNA testing has revealed that the Coryells are descended from the Sephardic Jewish Curiel family, and specifically from Jacob Curiel (1587-1664).

John R. Coryell was educated in NYC public schools and city college. In 1869, he abandoned the study of law (presumably at Harvard) to join his father, who was building battleships for the Chinese government. John R. Coryell underwent an arduous sea voyage to China. At age twenty, he became a magistrate in the Shanghai civil courts.

After returning from China, Coryell set up a ship-brokerage business in San Francisco and lost his fortune. He was recruited to Santa Barbara by publisher Harrison Gray Otis to write for the Santa Barbara Press, though Coryell admitted, “I was a mighty poor newspaper man.”

Family

In 1875, after returning from China, Coryell met his future wife, Abby Lydia Hedge (1858-1957).