ftp://members.aol.com/sharonr899/library/StratemeyerFAQ.txt Stratemeyer Syndicate FAQ "James D. Keeline" as of 21 Aug 1995 What was the Stratemeyer Syndicate? =================================== The Stratemeyer Syndicate was an organization established by Edward Stratemeyer around 1905. After reading dime novels and story papers as a child, he began to write for the same kinds of publications. In an early interview, Stratemeyer claimed that he admired Horatio Alger Jr. and wanted to write *like* him. What he did not say was the he had already been writing *as* Alger for eleven volumes between 1900 and 1908 after Alger's death in 1899. Stratemeyer soon realized that the lion's share of the money in the industry came to the owner of the copyright, not necessarily the author. In the dime novel and story paper industry, writers could be given a flat fee for completing a 60,000-word story with as little as a title from which to base it. He also realized that he had more ideas for stories than time (or possibly skill) to write them. The Stratemeyer Syndicate was established to allow Stratemeyer to purchase existing stories and plot new ones to be completed by ghost-writers. Each author would be paid a flat fee, roughly equivalent to three months wages as a newspaper reporter, with no hope of royalty if the story was successful. The ghost-writer was paid the same whether the story sold well or not. Edward Stratemeyer took the financial risk of the success of his literary properties and it is appropriate that he reaped the rewards when a story sold well. Some of the most popular series produced by the syndicate include Series Volumes Years Author ================ ========= ========== =================== ROVER BOYS (30 vols, 1899-1926) Arthur M. Winfield BOBBSEY TWINS (72 vols, 1904-1979) Laura Lee Hope MOTOR BOYS (22 vols, 1906-1924) Clarence Young GREAT MARVEL (9 vols, 1906-1935) Roy Rockwood TOM SWIFT (40 vols, 1910-1941) Victor Appleton RUTH FIELDING (30 vols, 1913-1934) Alice B. Emerson X-BAR-X BOYS (22 vols, 1926-1941) James Cody Ferris BOMBA THE JUNGLE BOY(20 vols, 1926-1938) Roy Rockwood HARDY BOYS (85 vols, 1927-1985) Franklin W. Dixon TED SCOTT (20 vols, 1927-1943) Franklin W. Dixon NANCY DREW (78 vols, 1930-1985) Carolyn Keene DANA GIRLS (34 vols, 1934-1979) Carolyn Keene KAY TRACEY (18 vols, 1934-1942) Frances K. Judd HAPPY HOLLISTERS (33 vols, 1953-1970) Jerry West TOM SWIFT JR. (33 vols, 1954-1971) Victor Appleton II BRET KING (9 vols, 1960-1964) Dan Scott LINDA CRAIG (11 vols, 1962-1984) Ann Sheldon CHRISTOPHER COOL (6 vols, 1967-1969) Jack Lancer TOM SWIFT III (11 vols, 1981-1984) Victor Appleton Authorship for the three most popular series, the BOBBSEY TWINS, the HARDY BOYS, and NANCY DREW were discussed in articles by James D. Keeline published in issues of the YELLOWBACK LIBRARY, a fan magazine (address listed below). The primary author for at least thirty-five the TOM SWIFT series was HOWARD R. GARIS, a close friend of Edward Stratemeyer, who also wrote the UNCLE WIGGILY series about a rheumatic gentleman rabbit. The latter stories were initially published as weekly newspaper stories. Most of the early HARDY BOYS volumes were written by LESLIE McFARLANE, a Canadian journalist who also contributed to the DAVE FEARLESS series and at least one volume in the X-BAR-X BOYS series. MILDRED WIRT (BENSON) wrote most of the NANCY DREW stories (vols. 1-7, 11-25, 30). WALTER KARIG wrote three volumes (vols. 8-10) during the Great Depression when Mildred Wirt felt that the new lower commission (reduced from $125 to $75) was too low. Many other writers contributed volumes before HARRIET S. ADAMS began to write most of the volumes. After Edward Stratemeyer died in May 1930, ownership of the Stratemeyer Syndicate passed briefly to his wife Magdalene B. Van Camp Stratemeyer. It quickly moved to their daughters, HARRIET S. ADAMS and EDNA C. STRATEMEYER (aka EDNA C. SQUIER). Although Edna submitted many of the plot outlines for the NANCY DREW series, she soon became an inactive partner and moved to Florida. Harriet S. Adams soon rose to a leadership position and edited the majority of the stories produced by the Syndicate. She also wrote a large number of volumes in the NANCY DREW series, although not nearly as many as some of the interviews with her would suggest. However, since she planned most of the stories in the series and edited all of them, she can claim much of the credit for the series in its later years. ANDREW E. SVENSON joined the Syndicate in 1948 and became a full partner in 1961. He became responsible for the boys' series including the HARDY BOYS. He wrote the HAPPY HOLLISTER series, basing the characters on his own children. Harriet Adams and Andrew Svenson each used the summer months for travel where they gained ideas for new volumes in the series. The BOBBSEY TWINS, HARDY BOYS, and NANCY DREW series were systematically revised by the Stratemeyer Syndicate. The reasons for these revisions were many. One of the primary reasons was economic. The original text versions of the HARDY BOYS and NANCY DREW volumes were 25 chapters and had between 200 and 230 pages. In time, printing methods changed from using copper engraving plates to photo offset. This required investing money to re-typeset the stories. At the same time, Grosset & Dunlap, the publisher, decided that it was cheaper to publish books of a consistent length (180 pages). The Stratemeyer Syndicate decided that it was better to revise the stories rather than pay to have the old, dated stories typeset using the new methods. The revised editions of the stories have only 20 chapters and almost exactly 180 pages. There were many changes made to the stories. For example in the NANCY DREW series, Nancy's blue roadster is replaced with a convertible. Mentions of luncheons and automats are removed. Most importantly, potential racial stereotypes were removed. Contrary to popular reports, this last change was not the primary reason for the revisions. In the most extreme examples of revision, the original version of THE MYSTERY OF THE MOSS-COVERED MANSION, the story is about stolen heirlooms. In the revised edition, the story is about stolen missile parts at Cape Canaveral, Florida. In the HARDY BOYS volume called THE FLICKERING TORCH, the original "flickering torch" is a signal used by highwaymen when they were going to rob cars on the Shore Road. In the new story about stolen uranium, the "flickering torch" is the name of a rock-and-roll band. The Stratemeyer Syndicate produced over 1,200 series book under approximately 100 different names and pseudonyms. The HARDY BOYS, NANCY DREW, TOM SWIFT and BOBBSEY TWINS series represent some of the the most widely-read books for children of their time. The quality of its series varied with the care and interest invested by the ghost-writer. Some of the most memorable series in the long term had the majority of their volumes written by a single ghost-writer. In general, the Stratemeyer Syndicate series were better than many of its competitors published at similar price ranges. While series like L.M. Montgomery's ANNE OF GREEN GABLES series was better-written in general than most of the Syndicate series, it was published at nearly three times the price of Syndicate volumes. In the 1950s, Grosset & Dunlap published some series like the JUDY BOLTON series by Margaret Sutton, the RICK BRANT series by John Blaine (Hal Goodwin), and KEN HOLT series by Bruce Campbell (Sam & Beryl Epstein) which had better-crafted stories but were not as successful in sales. Eventually, these series were discontinued due to lack of sales as the "baby boom generation" outgrew the genre. Today, the Stratemeyer Syndicate would be called a "book packager". In fact, the current versions of the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew volumes are produced by MegaBooks, a book packager who hires writers to complete stories based upon simple outlines and titles. As before, the authors are paid a flat fee. ======================================================== James D. Keeline keeline@adnc.com The Prince and the Pauper Collectible Children's Books "The Largest Source of Books from YOUR Childhood" Mon-Sat 10am-7pm * 3201 Adams Ave, San Diego, CA 92116-1654 Voice: (619)283-4380 Fax: (619)283-4666 ========================================================