Nik Karter is a unique character in the detective genre, unrivaled in the number of works in which he appears and in the number of his creators. Due to the mass circulation and affordability, the series of stories about Nick Carter played a huge role in popularizing the genre. At the same time, Nick Carter is a collective pseudonym for many authors of short stories in entertainment periodicals. Nick Carter first appeared in the story "The Mysterious Crime in Madison Square" on September 18, 1886 in the weekly "New York Weekly". The story was written by John Russell Cornwell (1848-1924), and the idea itself belonged to Ormand Smith, the head of the publishing concern Street & Smith. Cornwell wrote two more stories about Carter, after which the work was continued by other authors. The most famous of them was Frederick van Rensselaer Day (1861-1922), who wrote several hundred stories about Nick Carter. As a result, the image of a perfect positive hero was created, an implacable fighter against the criminal world - smart, strong, attractive. Nick Carter became a favorite of millions of readers not only in the USA, but also all over the world.