Nancy Drew and the Case of the Moldy Papers

I was fascinated with my grandfather Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson from early childhood. I knew he was a writer and I knew he had some vague connection to Superman from the stories my mother told of me of living with the Wheeler-Nicholsons in the late 1940s.

At the age of 5, I would go to my “boyfriend” Bren’s house where we would watch Superman on a black and white TV. Our family as yet did not have one. With safety pins we would pin towels to our tee shirts and jump off the picnic table. Bren was Superman and I was Supergirl.

One day I rebelled and demanded to be Superman against the express wishes of Bren who insisted that I was a girl and therefore could not be Superman. I retorted that my grandfather created Superman and Bren was forced to relent. Ever intrepid I determined Bren and I needed a new venue and we should jump off the roof of the doghouse. It’s amazing no bones were broken.

George Reeves as Superman. Image from TVparty.

Like the proverbial salmon making it back upstream when I made my way back to the gene pool as an adult and dove in headfirst, there was, at first, the exhilaration of arrival. Then gradually there were all the nuances both fair and foul that are part of the reality of any family’s life. I missed knowing our grandfather, Nick as he had died in 1965.

Oddly I was the only grandchild out of 20 who was called Nick, the nickname MWN was given while in military school as a young man. I lived with my maternal grandparents until about the age of three. Granddaddy Pickens, who had a dry wit when it came to naming, referred to me as the Wheeler-Nick which became Nick and at some point, someone added a Y to make it more feminine. Since granddaddy was doing the diaper changing and bottle feeding along with my grandmother Azolene, he was entitled to call me as he saw fit.

As an adult struggling through my various creative ups and downs, I continue to jump off picnic tables with towels safety pinned to my shirt. It’s a lot further to the ground now. However, with Nancy Drew as a talisman, things are looking up.

At first my questions about the Major to various family members were simply curiosity about the family but the more I learned about his life the more determined I became to get to the heart of the matter. His story has a mythic quality–a fallen hero archetype. And what could be more archetypal than his connection to Superman. And I instantly identified with the desire for justice. My search in so many ways is a desire to bring justice to my life, justice for a child who could not understand the adult complexities of the missing father.

Cover by Creig Flessel. 

About 10 years ago, I began to search more methodically, to record my aunts and uncle, interview respected comics historians and to read what information I could find and thus I embarked on this decade long epic journey.

I’m not ready to close the case but after all the prowling about in graveyards and searching through the dusty bins of our culture, I feel like I’m getting there. Whether or not the moldy papers will provide enough clues to answer everyone’s questions is not yet certain. They may just spark more people into looking more carefully and that’s a good thing. In the meantime, it is more than satisfying to know that there are some friends out there who like, Ned and Bess and Georgie are willing to help Nancy along the way.

Nancy Drew silhouette by 1st Nancy artist Russell H. Tandy

If ever there was a group of Neds, the guys at TwoMorrows Publishing fit the bill. Publisher John Morrow, Editor Roy Thomas and the intrepid Clark Kent, Jim Amash, did a superb job in producing the latest AlterEgo magazine (August 2009) featuring our grandfather on the cover. The cover alone is worth the thousands of words. I admit to misting up when I saw it.

They’ve packed the inside with a ton of information and many people contributed from their various collections including filmmaker David Armstrong and historian Mike Catron. The issue is getting rave reviews. See Tony Isabella’s “Tony’s Tips” for one such and most everyone seems pretty happy.

I can’t thank these guys enough for helping to get the Major’s contributions back into the public eye. The Major’s life story has turned out to be even more adventurous than even he indicated. His military exploits, his writing, his publishing, his romantic marriage to our grandmother, his involvement with the comics, all of it, so far, is true, as the facts have now been revealed.

There’s lots more to be done so Nancy’s heading back to yet more graveyards. Now if I could just get that roadster.