Dixon Hawke was a fictional detective who was featured in the

DC Thomson DC Thomson is a media company based in Dundee, Scotland. Founded by David Couper Thomson in 1905, it is best known for publishing ''The Courier (Dundee), The Courier'', ''Evening Telegraph (Dundee), The Evening Telegraph'' and ''The Sunday Pos ...

publications from 1912 to 2000. Created in 1912 by an unknown author for DC Thomson he appeared in various publications including ''The Saturday Post'', ''

The Sunday Post ''The Sunday Post'' is a weekly newspaper published in Dundee, Scotland, by DC Thomson, and characterised by a mix of news, human interest stories and short features. The paper was founded in 1914 and has a wide circulation across Scotland, U ...

'', ''Adventure'', ''The Sporting Post'', ''Topical Times'', ''

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'' and ''The Dixon Hawke Library''. In 1989, researcher and author W. O. G. Lofts stated that Hawke had been running continuously on a weekly basis for well over 76 years, and "so must be credited with being the longest consecutive running character of all time."Lofts W.O.G. Seventy-Six Years of Dixon Hawke, Collectors Digest #507, 1989, p 29 http://www.friardale.co.uk/Collectors%20Digest/1989-03-CollectorsDigest-v43-n507.pdf Lofts estimated that Hawke had appeared in some 5000 stories.Lofts W.O.G. Seventy-Six Years of Dixon Hawke, Collectors Digest #507, 1989, p 30 http://www.friardale.co.uk/Collectors%20Digest/1989-03-CollectorsDigest-v43-n507.pdf Eleven years later, Hawke had appeared in over 5,500 tales, making him the most published fictional detective of all time, beating contemporaries

Sexton Blake Sexton Blake is a fictional British detective, whose adventures captivated readers for over eight decades from 1893 to 1978. Blake featured in more than 4,000 stories by approximately 200 different authors, making him one of the most prolifica ...

and

Nick Carter Nickolas Gene Carter (born January 28, 1980) is an American singer, the lead vocalist of the vocal group Backstreet Boys, and an alleged rapist. As of 2015, he has released three solo albums, '' Now or Never'', '' I'm Taking Off'' and '' All A ...

.Finan, Steve. Fans' joy as famous fictional detective Dixon Hawke gets back to business, The Sunday Post December 31, 2017 Website: https://www.sundaypost.com/fp/fans-joy-as-famous-fictional-detective-dixon-hawke-gets-back-to-business/ Based on that number, Sunday Post author Steve Finan speculated that more stories have been written about Dixon Hawke than any other fictional character in the English language.

History and background

Dixon Hawke made his debut in "The Great Hotel Mystery" in ''The Saturday Post'' #347 on April 6, 1912. A Scotsman, at the start of his career he lived on Bath Street in Glasgow. He had an assistant named Nipper, a street urchin who sold newspapers. His police associate was Detective Chief Inspector Baxter. Hawke was a tall detective with an aquiline nose, wore a dressing gown, and smoked a blackened briar. In 1919, publisher DC Thomson decided to move Hawke to London. There he acquired a new assistant named Tommy Burke, and a bloodhound named Solomon. They lived on Dover Street with a Japanese valet/chauffeur named Wong. Their landlady was named Mrs. Martha Benvie. His police associate was Inspector Duncan McPhinney of New Scotland Yard, introduced in the very first issue of the Dixon Hawke Library Following in the footprints of the

and Tinker,

Nelson Lee Nelson Lee (born October 16, 1975; Chinese name: 李志傑) is a Taiwanese-Canadian actor. He is best known for portraying Senator Hamato Xiono in ''Ahsoka'', and Dragon King in '' Stargirl''. Life and career Lee was born in Taipei, Taiwan on O ...

and Nipper partnerships of the early Edwardian era, the adult detective/boy assistant became a popular pairing in the boys story papers from 1910 onwards.Andrew, Lucy. The Boy Detective in Early British Literature, Springer International Publishing, 2017 p140 Among the many imitators Hawke and Burke were among the better known. So widely known was Hawke in British popular culture of the 1930s, that his name featured in W. H. Auden's long poem

The Orators ''The Orators: An English Study'' is a long poem in prose and verse written by W. H. Auden, first published in 1932. It is regarded as a major contribution to modernist Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual a ...

along with other fictional detectives,

Bulldog Drummond Hugh "Bulldog" Drummond is a fictional character, created by H. C. McNeile and published under his pen name "Sapper". Following McNeile's death in 1937, the novels were continued by Gerard Fairlie. Drummond is a First World War veteran who ...

Sherlock Holmes Sherlock Holmes () is a Detective fiction, fictional detective created by British author Arthur Conan Doyle. Referring to himself as a "Private investigator, consulting detective" in his stories, Holmes is known for his proficiency with obser ...

Hercule Poirot Hercule Poirot (, ) is a fictional Belgian detective created by the English writer Agatha Christie. Poirot is Christie's most famous and longest-running character, appearing in 33 novels, two plays (''Black Coffee (play), Black Coffee'' and '' ...

and Edgar Wallace's ''The Four Just Men''. The full mention reads: "From the immense bat-shadow of home;
from the removal of land-marks:
from appeals for love and
from the comfortable words of the devil,
O Dixon Hawke, deliver us."

Dixon Hawke gets his own titles

On July 14, 1919 ''The Dixon Hawke Library'' made its debut. It ran for 576 issues until its demise in 1941. The first story was entitled ''The Flying Major'' and introduced young female reporter Molly Connor.Holland, Steve, Dixon Hawke: Detective. An Index to the Dixon Hawke Library and the Dixon Hawke Casebook Norman Wright, Watford, 2001. Author and biographer Steve Holland has identified the author of ''The Flying Major'' as Herbert Ford Inman (1884-1949). He also identified Inman as the possible creator of Hawke's bloodhound Solomon in issue #7 of The Dixon Hawke Library. The last issue was published on December 27, 1941, and featured two tales: ''The Clue of the Chinese Puzzle'' and ''The Brothers of Justice''. Hawke also featured in ''Dixon Hawke's Case Book'', collections of short stories published annually or bi-annually from 1938 to 1953. The case books were oversized paperbacks and contained a collection of 25 to 40 short stories. Impact In their introduction to ''The Men Behind Boys' Fiction'' (1970) Lofts and Adley pay tribute to the

papers, describing them as "the biggest rivals to the

Amalgamated Press The Amalgamated Press (AP) was a British newspaper and magazine publishing company founded by journalist and entrepreneur Alfred Harmsworth (1865–1922) in 1901, gathering his many publishing ventures together under one banner. At one point the ...

and Fleetway Publications" the dominant publisher of boys' and girls' story papers.Lofts & Adley. ''The Men Behind Boys Fiction''. Howard Baker. London 1970. p 9 ''The Dixon Hawke Library'' was a rival to

The Sexton Blake Library ''The Sexton Blake Library'' was a story paper of the first two-thirds of the 20th century, published by Amalgamated Press. It featured the adventures of private detective Sexton Blake, his boy assistant Tinker and their dog Pedro. It made its de ...

. It was followed by ''Adventure'' in 1921, another weekly papers that featured the adventures of Dixon Hawke and his assistant Tommy Burke. Lofts and Adley also noted that though ''The Dixon Hawke Library'' and ''Adventure'' were no longer in print, Dixon Hawke was still "going strong" in the Scottish Daily Post. ''The Dixon Hawke Library'', ''Adventure'', '' The Rover'', ''

The Wizard Wizard, the wizard, or wizards may refer to: * Wizard (fantasy), a fictional practitioner of magic * Wizard (supernatural), a practitioner of magic Art, entertainment and media Fictional characters * Wizard (Archie Comics), a comic book supe ...

'', and ''

The Hotspur ''The Hotspur'' was a British boys' paper published by D. C. Thomson & Co. From 1933 to 1959, it was a boys' story paper; it was relaunched as a comic in October 1959, initially called ''The New Hotspur'', and ceased publication in January 19 ...

'' all had exceptionally long runs and became known as Thomson's "Big Five." Authors wrote for hire and their stories were kept to a very high standard, many authors reporting that it was much more difficult to write for

than it was for their arch-rival the

. Though the writing in "the Big Five" reflected the attitudes of the era, some of which modern readers may find problematic, Lofts and Adley viewed DC Thomson's overall output very positively, stating that: "All the stories were clean and entertaining and gripped the young reader, and they had a high moral standard. They sold in millions, and

editors deserve the highest possible praise for contributing - by thus entertaining the young - to a part of our social history.

Hawke's rogues' gallery

Like his contemporaries

and

, Dixon Hawke had a large rogues' gallery of villains. Among them were Marko the Miracle Man created by

Edwy Searles Brooks Edwy Searles Brooks (11 November 1889 – 2 December 1965) was a British novelist who also wrote under the pen-names Berkeley Gray, Victor Gunn, Rex Madison, Reginald Browne, and Carlton Ross. Brooks was born in Hackney, London. He is believed ...

Lofts & Adley. The Men Behind Boys Fiction. Howard Baker. London 1970. p 76 a criminal mastermind with super strength who matched wits with Hawke over the course of fourteen years. In all Brooks wrote 26 Dixon Hawke tales. As he did for Sexton Blake and Nelson Lee,

George Hamilton Teed George Hamilton Teed (9 December 1886 – 24 December 1938) was a Canadian author who also wrote under the pen-names G. H. Teed, Hamilton Teed, Louis Brittany, Peter Kingsland, and Desmond Reid. Teed was born in Woodstock, New Brunswick. He spec ...

created Hawke's greatest female foe, Nicolette Lazare, the Black Angel. She made her first appearance in ''The Terror from Devil's Island'' in ''The Dixon Hawke Library'' #327 in June 1932. Teed wrote five stories featuring her between 1932 and 1935. Other villains include
Dr. Den the Arch Rogue
The Six Wolves of Doom
The Faceless Men
Lucky Lorrancie
Koojah Khan the Man of Mystery
The Red Avenger
The Masked Rider
the Human Whirlwind
the India-Rubber Man
the Blue Streak Some of the criminal organisations he faced include:
The League of the Silver Horseshoe
The League of the Crimson Diamond
The League of the Purple Dragon There was no shortage of

yellow peril The Yellow Peril (also the Yellow Terror, the Yellow Menace, and the Yellow Specter) is a Racism, racist color terminology for race, color metaphor that depicts the peoples of East Asia, East and Southeast Asia as an existential danger to the ...

threats. These included the Yellow Ghost, and Fang Chu among others. Many authors penned Hawke tales including, John G. Brandon,

John Creasey John Creasey (17 September 1908 – 9 June 1973) was an English author known mostly for detective and crime novels but who also wrote science fiction, romance and westerns. He wrote more than six hundred novels using twenty-eight different p ...

, Anthony Skene, T.C.H. Jacobs, Elizabeth Smith Alexander, Lewis Carlton,

, Gilbert Chester, Frank Howe,

Francis Addington Symonds Francis Addington Symonds (1893–1971) was a British editor and writer who wrote under the pen-names Earle Danesford, 'Howard Steele and F. A. Symonds. He was Founder-Editor of '' The Champion'' in 1922, and he later edited ''Rocket'', ''Plu ...

, Rex Hardinge, Reginald Thomas, Lester Bidston, Frank Howe, George Goodchild,

William Edward Vickers William Edward Vickers (1889–1965) was an English mystery writer better known under his pen name Roy Vickers, but used also the pseudonyms Roy C. Vickers, David Durham, Sefton Kyle, and John Spencer. He is the author of over 60 crime novels and ...

, and W.W. Sayer. Richard Goyne claimed to have written more tales for the Dixon Hawke Library than any other author,Lofts & Adley. The Men Behind Boys Fiction. Howard Baker. London 1970. p 156

New collections

In 2017 DC Thomson published two collections of Dixon Hawke tales, marking his first republication in almost twenty years. * Dixon Hawke - ''The Case Of The Missing American and Other Short Stories'' * Dixon Hawke - ''The Case Of The Smuggled Diamonds and Other Short Stories'' In 2018 a series of 7 anthologies of short stories were published by Jason Charles. In 2020 ''The Terror of Devil's Island'', the first tale featuring Nicolette Lazare was published in Moriarty's Rivals: 14 Female Masterminds

References

External links

Dixon Hawke at the Online Encyclopaedia of Pulp Fiction

Issues of ''The Dixon Hawke Library'' at ComicBooksPlus

Dixon Hawke compilations at ComicBooksPlus

Dixon Hawke Case Books at Archive.org

The Men Behind Boys' Fiction at Archive.org

Seventy-Six Years of Dixon Hawke by W.O.G. Lofts. Collectors Digest #507, March 1989
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hawke, Dixon Literary characters introduced in 1912 Characters in pulp fiction Fictional gentleman detectives