Stratemeyer Syndicate

The Stratemeyer Syndicate was the publisher of a number of series for children and adults including the Nancy Drew mysteries, the HardyBoys , Tom Swift, Jr. , and others.

The Syndicate was the brain-child of Edward Stratemeyer ,whose ambition was to be a "paperback writer", a la HoratioAlger . He succeeded in this ambition (eventually even writing some books under the pseudonym "Horatio Alger"), churning outinspiring, up-by-the-bootstraps tales with titles such as "I Want to be an Electrician".

Stratemeyer's business acumen, however, was in realizing that there was a huge, untapped market for children's books.Of course, boys devoured Horatio Alger, but they also read dime novels and penny dreadfuls . Here wasan underground market waiting to be brought into the open and made even more profitable. In Stratemeyer's view, it was not thepromise of sex or violence that made such reading attractive to boys; it was the thrill of feeling "grown-up," and the desire fora series of stories, an "I want some more" syndrome. Accordingly, Stratemeyer began writing a series called The Rover Boys , in which heestablished some key practices:

• The books would, of course, be in a series; and to more quickly see if the series was likely to be successful, Stratemeyerhad several volumes published at once (churning out multiple books posed him no problems).
• The books would be written under a pseudonym. Edward Stratemeyer might die, but " Arthur M. Winfield " didn'thave to -- and " Carolyn Keene " and " Franklin W. Dixon " are still alive.
• The books would look as much like contemporary adult books as possible -- same bindings, same type-faces.
• The books would be of predictable length.
• Chapters should end mid-situation, and pages too as far as possible, to increase the reader's desire to turn pages -- andthus his reading speed. Of course, one volume finished, one would want to turn to the next, assured it would be the same kind ofthing ....
• The books would be relatively expensive -- several dollars apiece. Once a demand was created, boys (and their parents) wouldshell out -- and indeed they did.

The Rover Boys were a roaring success, and Stratemeyer began writing other series books -- The Bobbsey Twins appearedin 1904 and Tom Swift in 1910. Some time in the first decade of the twentieth century Stratemeyer realized that he could no longerjuggle multiple volumes of multiple series, and he began hiring ghostwriters , such as Howard Garis .

As it became apparent that mysteries were increasing popular (this was in the golden age of the detective story ), Stratemeyer decided to add mystery series to hisrepertoire. The Hardy Boys appeared in 1927, ghostwritten by Leslie McFarlane , and NancyDrew appeared in 1930, ghostwritten by Mildred WirtBenson .

In 1930 Stratemeyer died and the Syndicate was inherited by his two daughters, Harriet and Edna (ironically enough, Stratemeyer had been a firm believer that a woman's place was in thehome). Edna showed little interest and sold her share to Harriet within a few years. Harriet energetically took up the helm.

She introduced such series as The Dana Girls (1934), andTom Swift, Jr., as well as The Happy Hollisters and many others, often short-lived. In the 1950s, Harriet (by now HarrietStratemeyer Adams) began a project of substantially revising old volumes in the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boysseries, mainly to bring them up-to-date by removing references to "roadsters" and the like (cover art was also completelyre-done, several times for Nancy); racial slurs and stereotypes were also removed, and in some cases (such as The Secret ofShadow Ranch and The Mystery of the Moss Covered Mansion) entire plots were cast off and replaced with newones.

In the early 80s , Adams decided it was time for Nancy and the Hardys to go intopaperback; the hardcover market was no longer what it had been. Grosset & Dunlap , however, loath to lose massive profits, sued, and the ensuingcase let the world know, for the first time, that the Syndicate existed. The Syndicate had always gone to great lengths to hideits existence from the public; ghostwriters were contractually obliged never to reveal their authorship, and when Walter Karigmade sure his name appeared on the Library of Congress cards for the various early Nancy Drews he had written, the cardsdisappeared. Many ghostwriters remain unknown.

Grosset & Dunlap, of course, lost the suit, and in 1987, after the death of Adams, Simon & Schuster purchased the syndicate from her protegé, Nancy Axelrod. To all knowledge,the Syndicate works today much as it always has, though nowadays it concentrates its energies on only a handful of series, mostnotably Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys.

See also

• Nancy Drew
• The Hardy Boys
• Tom Swift
• Victor Appleton
• Franklin W. Dixon
• Carolyn Keene
• Edward Stratemeyer
• Harriet (Stratemeyer) Adams

Further reading

• The Secret of the Stratemeyer Syndicate: Nancy Drew, the Hardy Boys, and the Million Dollar Fiction Factory, byCarol Billman.
• Series Books & the Media: Or This Isn't All, Ilana Nash and David Farah, SynSine Press, 1996, hardcover, 404pages, ISBN 0963994972