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23-577: Edward Stratemeyer , the founder of the Syndicate, hired writers, beginning with Mildred Wirt (later Mildred Benson), to write the manuscripts for the Nancy Drew books. The writers were paid $ 125 for each book and were required by their contract to give up all rights to the work and to maintain confidentiality. Benson is credited as the primary writer of Nancy Drew books under the pseudonym Carolyn Keene. Harriet Adams (Stratemeyer's daughter) rewrote

46-862: A lively atmosphere growing up. Stratemeyer was a member of the Roseville Athletic Club and the New Jersey Historical Association. Stratemeyer died at age 67 in Newark, New Jersey on May 10, 1930, of lobar pneumonia and was buried in Evergreen Cemetery in Hillside, New Jersey . On May 12, 1930, two days after his death, the New York Times reported that his Rover Boys series "had sales exceeding 5,000,000 copies". Stratemeyer pioneered

69-419: A massive number of editors, copy writers , stenographers , cowriters and secretaries . They greatly contributed to a new genre of juvenile fiction and helped launch several series, including Edward Stratemeyer appears in the television series The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles . In the series, Stratemeyer is the father of the fictional Nancy Stratemeyer, who dates Indiana Jones in high school. Indiana

92-576: A small fortune inventing a new printing process. He moved the offices into a skyscraper. Street & Smith published comic books from 1940 to 1949, their most notable titles being The Shadow , from their pulp magazine line, Super-Magician Comics , Supersnipe Comics , True Sport Picture Stories , Bill Barnes/Air Ace and Doc Savage Comics , also from the pulp magazine line. Street & Smith stopped publishing all their pulps and comics, with one exception, in 1949, selling off several of their titles to Popular Publications . Sales had declined with

115-407: A tremendously popular series in the vein of the classic dime novel . The Rover Boys was described as "The first highly successful series by Edward Stratemeyer; each volume had a preface from Edward Stratemeyer himself, thanking his readers and touting the other books. It's generally accepted that Stratemeyer wrote all of the books." He said this series was his personal favorite. Stratemeyer formed

138-430: A word, which was standard base rate among the major publishing groups, though fringe publishers paid less. In 1937, Street & Smith discontinued a number of their pulp titles, including Top-Notch and Complete Stories , the start of a long-term shrinking of their pulp line. In 1938, Allen L. Grammer became president. He had spent more than twenty years as an ergonomics expert for Curtis Publishing Company , and made

161-535: Is a fan of Tom Swift and gives Stratemeyer advice for one of his stories. Street %26 Smith Street & Smith or Street & Smith Publications, Inc. , was a New York City publisher specializing in inexpensive paperbacks and magazines referred to as dime novels and pulp fiction . They also published comic books and sporting yearbooks. Among their many titles was the science fiction pulp magazine Astounding Stories , acquired from Clayton Magazines in 1933, and retained until 1961. Street & Smith

184-434: The book-packaging technique of producing a consistent, long-running series of books using a team of freelance writers. All of the books in the series used the same characters in similar situations. All of the freelance writers, including Mildred Benson , who developed the character of Nancy Drew, were published under a pen name owned by his company. Through his Stratemeyer Syndicate , founded in 1906, Stratemeyer employed

207-475: The 20th century, Ormond V. Gould was the company secretary. Ormond Smith remained company president until his death in 1933. In 1933, Street & Smith bought titles from Clayton Magazines, including Astounding Stories . In 1934 they put out 35 different magazines, looked after by about a dozen editors, including John Nanovic, Frank Blackwell, Daisy Bacon and F. Orlin Tremaine . The company paid one cent

230-480: The Stratemeyer Syndicate in 1905 and hired journalists to write stories based on his ideas. He paid them a flat rate for each book and kept the copyrights to the novels. Stratemeyer married Magdalena Van Camp, the daughter of a Newark businessman, on March 25, 1891. The couple had two daughters: Harriet Stratemeyer Adams (1892–1982) and Edna C. Squier (1895–1974), both of whom would later take over

253-475: The advent of television. They continued to publish Astounding Science Fiction well into the late 1950s. Condé Nast Publications , a subsidiary of the Newhouse family's Advance Publications , bought the company for more than $ 3.5 million in 1959. The company's name continued to be used on the sports pre-season preview magazines until 2007 when Advance division American City Business Journals acquired

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276-454: The age of 26, he sold his first story, Victor Horton's Idea , to the children's magazine Golden Days for $ 76, over six times the average 1888 weekly paycheck. Stratemeyer moved to Newark, New Jersey, in 1890 and opened a paper store. He ran his shop while continuing to write stories under pseudonyms. He was able to write for many genres including detective dime novels, westerns and serials that ran in newspapers. In 1893, Stratemeyer hired

299-597: The future Stratemeyer Syndicate . Stratemeyer enjoyed the outdoors and often took annual summer trips to the Great Lakes , Lake George and Lake Champlain with his family. They traveled as far as the west coast and Yosemite . A humble man, he never sought public attention and preferred living a private and quiet life with his family at their home on N. 7th Street in the Roseville section of Newark. His relationships with his daughters were warm and Harriet recalled

322-401: The hardworking young American, which greatly influenced him. As a teenager, Stratemeyer operated his own printing press in the basement of his father's tobacco shop, distributing flyers and pamphlets among his friends and family. These included stories called The Newsboy's Adventure and The Tale of a Lumberman . After he graduated from high school, he went to work in his father's store. At

345-467: The original books and added new titles after the withdrawal of Benson. Other ghostwriters who used this name to write Nancy Drew mysteries included Leslie McFarlane , James Duncan Lawrence , Walter Karig , Nancy Axelrad, Patricia Doll, Charles S. Strong , Alma Sasse, Wilhelmina Rankin, George Waller Jr., Margaret Fischer, and Susan Wittig Albert . Also involved in the Nancy Drew writing process were Harriet Stratemeyer Adams's daughters, who gave input on

368-541: The popular dime-novel writer Gilbert Patten , according to Patten's own autobiography, Frank Merriwell's 'Father': An Autobiography by Gilbert Patten (Burt L. Standish) (University of Oklahoma Press, 1964). Patten writes that he did not like Stratemeyer. (A less-reliable source says that Stratemeyer was hired by Patten to write as an editor for the Street & Smith publication Good News . ) In 1894, he published his first full-length book, Richard Dare's Venture , which

391-418: The series and sometimes helped to choose book titles; the Syndicate's secretary, Harriet Otis Smith, who invented the characters of Nancy's friends Bess and George; and the editors at Grosset & Dunlap . In 1979, the Stratemeyer Syndicate changed publishers to Simon & Schuster , a move that the former publishers, Grosset & Dunlap, went to court to prevent, claiming a breach of contract. The decision

414-643: Was an American publisher, writer of children's fiction and founder of the Stratemeyer Syndicate . He was one of the most prolific writers in the world, penning over 1,300 books and selling more than 500 million copies. Stratemeyer created many well-known children's fiction book series , including The Rover Boys , The Bobbsey Twins , Tom Swift , The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew , many of which sold millions of copies and remain in publication. On his legacy, Fortune wrote: "As oil had its Rockefeller , literature had its Stratemeyer." Stratemeyer

437-579: Was born the youngest of six children in Elizabeth, New Jersey , to Henry Julius Stratemeyer, a tobacconist , and Anna Siegel. They were both from Hanover, Germany , immigrating to the United States in 1837. The siblings were educated in English and spoke it to each other. Growing up, Stratemeyer read the works of Horatio Alger and William T. Adams , writers who penned rags-to-riches tales of

460-455: Was founded in 1855, and was bought out in 1959. The Street & Smith headquarters were at 79 Seventh Avenue in Manhattan ; they were designed by Henry F. Kilburn . Francis Scott Street and Francis Shubael Smith began their publishing partnership in 1855 when they took over a broken-down fiction magazine. They then bought the existing New York Weekly Dispatch in 1858. Francis Smith

483-482: Was made in favor of the Syndicate, stating that they could choose which publisher they would like to use for subsequent entries in the series. In 1985, the Syndicate was bought by publishers Simon & Schuster; the Drew books are now handled by Mega-Books, a New York book packager . Edward Stratemeyer Edward L. Stratemeyer ( / ˈ s t r æ t ə ˌ m aɪ ər / ; October 4, 1862 – May 10, 1930)

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506-416: Was the company president from 1855 until his 1887 retirement, his son Ormond Gerald Smith taking over his role. Francis Street died in 1883. Francis Smith died on February 1, 1887. The company, which owned a six-story building at 79 Seventh Avenue (just north of 14th Street ), became a publisher of inexpensive novels and weekly magazines starting in the 1880s and continuing into 1959. In the early decades of

529-564: Was the first in his Bound to Succeed series. It contained autobiographical content and was similar to Alger's rags-to-riches story formula. In 1899, Horatio Alger wrote Stratemeyer as editor of the Good News , asking him to finish one of his manuscripts. Alger was in poor health at the time. When Alger died later the same year, Stratemeyer continued to edit and finish several of Alger's other books. That same year, after Alger died, Stratemeyer wrote and published The Rover Boys , which became

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