The Stratemeyer Syndicate was a publishing company that produced a number of mystery book series for children, including Nancy Drew , The Hardy Boys , the various Tom Swift series, the Bobbsey Twins , the Rover Boys , and others. It published and contracted the many pseudonymous authors who wrote the series from 1899 to 1987, when it was sold to Simon & Schuster .
31-543: The Motor Boys were the heroes of a popular series of adventure books for boys at the turn of the 20th century issued by the Stratemeyer Syndicate under the pseudonym of Clarence Young . This series was published by Cupples & Leon and was issued with dustjackets and glossy frontispiece. Howard Garis (author of the Uncle Wiggily stories) wrote many, if not all, of these stories. The name of
62-569: A Ted Scott Flying Stories book, published in Germany in 1930 as Ted Scott Der Ozeanflieger. The artwork was generally changed when reprinted in other countries, and sometimes character names and other details were as well. For example, in Norway, translations of the Nancy Drew books were first published in 1941, the first European market to introduce the girl detective. “The translators changed
93-483: A full color paper jacket. Volumes 1–18 were also published in a blue-spined picture cover edition with Tom Swift and the Electronic Hydrolung (in its first printing only) the only title with the picture cover imprinted directly on the "boards" and wrapping around the spine, rather than as a removable dust jacket. The "blue spine" editions lasted about a year and then the entire run of Tom Swift Jr. books
124-415: A good many recurring characters of lesser rank, in contrast to the original series. Most are Swift Enterprises employees, such as Harlan Ames, Phil Radnor, Hank Sterling, Arvid Hanson, Slim Davis, George Dilling, Art Wiltessa, and Miss Trent — the two Toms' office secretary and the lone female among recurring Swift Enterprises characters. The first 18 titles were released in a blue tweed cloth cover with
155-697: A publisher, writing that "[a] book brought out under another name would, I feel satisfied, do better than another Stratemeyer book. If this was brought out under my own name, the trade on new Stratemeyer books would simply be cut into four parts instead of three." Some time in the first decade of the twentieth century Stratemeyer realized that he could no longer juggle multiple volumes of multiple series, and he began hiring ghostwriters , such as Mildred Benson , Josephine Lawrence , Howard R. Garis and Leslie McFarlane . Stratemeyer continued to write some books, while writing plot outlines for others. While mystery elements were occasionally present in these early series,
186-611: A series of stories that made such reading attractive to children. Stratemeyer believed that this desire could be harnessed for profit. He founded the Stratemeyer Syndicate to produce books in an efficient, assembly-line fashion and to write them in such a way as to maximize their popularity. The first series that Stratemeyer created was The Rover Boys , published under the pseudonym Arthur M. Winfield in 30 volumes between 1899 and 1926, which sold over five million copies. The Bobbsey Twins first appeared in 1904 under
217-482: A spy (typically from Soviet stand-ins Brungaria or Kranjovia), use of a wonder-material called Tomasite that did anything the story needed, the amazingly versatile force-ray repelatron, and atomic-powered everything, including the atomicar. The first invention of the series and the one making the most frequent appearances in subsequent stories, the Flying Lab (named Sky Queen ), was a giant VTOL research airplane
248-488: Is the central character in a series of 33 science fiction adventure novels for male adolescents, following in the tradition of the earlier Tom Swift ("Senior") novels. The series was titled The New Tom Swift Jr. Adventures . Unlike the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys titles that were also products of the prolific Stratemeyer Syndicate , the original Tom Swift stories were not rewritten in the 1950s to modernize them. It
279-515: The Rover Boys . For decades, libraries refused to carry any Syndicate books, considering them to be unworthy trash. Series books were considered to "cause 'mental laziness,' induce a 'fatal sluggishness,' and 'intellectual torpor. ' " Series books were considered to ruin a child's chances for gaining an appreciation of good literature (which was subsequently shown by one study not to be the case), and to undermine respect for authority: "Much of
310-607: The 1930s and the second, with different cover art, in the 1950s. Victor Appleton ; Richard Barnum ; Gerald Breckenridge ; Nicholas Carter ; Lester Chadwick ; Allen Chapman ; Alice B. Emerson ; Howard Roger Garis ; Mabel C. Hawley ; Laura Lee Hope ; Gertrude W. Morrison ; Margaret Penrose ; Homer Randall ; Roy Rockwood ; Frank V. Webster ; Arthur M. Winfield ; Mildred A. Wirt (Benson) ; Clarence Young Not found 2023 as Gutenberg authors: Franklin W. Dixon; Carolyn Keene; Eugene Martin Tom Swift Jr. Tom Swift Jr.
341-552: The Dutch author Willy van der Heide ). There is also a Tom Swift Jr. activity/coloring book and a rare Tom Swift Jr. board game. One episode of the Tom Swift/Linda Craig Mystery hour was aired in 1983, the only one of several proposed Tom Swift versions (including an elaborate "road show" movie) to actually appear before the public. The televised "Tom Swift" was unrelated to the character as depicted in any of
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#1732783157757372-522: The Moss-Covered Mansion ) entire plots were cast off and replaced with new ones. In part, these changes were motivated by a desire to make the books more up-to-date. Grosset & Dunlap , the primary publisher of Stratemeyer Syndicate books, requested that the books' racism be excised, a project that Adams felt was unnecessary. Grosset & Dunlap held firm; it had received an increasing number of letters from parents who were offended by
403-591: The Motor Boys' boat, Dartaway , is also the name of the plane mentioned in The Rover Boys in the Air (1912). Stratemeyer Syndicate Created by Edward Stratemeyer , the Stratemeyer Syndicate was the first book packager to have its books aimed at children, rather than adults. The Syndicate was wildly successful; at one time it was believed that the overwhelming majority of the books children read in
434-553: The Syndicate existed; the Syndicate had always gone to great lengths to hide its existence from the public, and ghostwriters were contractually obliged never to reveal their authorship. Grosset & Dunlap was awarded the rights to The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew volumes that it had published, but the Syndicate was judged free to take subsequent volumes elsewhere. Subsequent volumes were published by Simon & Schuster . Adams died in 1982. In 1984, Simon & Schuster purchased
465-716: The Syndicate later specialized in children's mystery series. This trend began in 1911, when Stratemeyer wrote and published The Mansion of Mystery , under the pseudonym Chester K. Steele . Five more books were published in that mystery series, the last in 1928. These books were aimed at a somewhat older audience than his previous series. After that, the Syndicate focused on mystery series aimed at its younger base: The Hardy Boys , which first appeared in 1927, ghostwritten by Leslie McFarlane and others; and Nancy Drew , which first appeared in 1930, ghostwritten by Mildred Wirt Benson , Walter Karig , and others. Both series were immediate financial successes. In 1930, Stratemeyer died, and
496-703: The Syndicate was inherited by his two daughters, Harriet Stratemeyer Adams and Edna Stratemeyer Squier. Stratemeyer Squier sold her share to her sister Harriet within a few years. Harriet Stratemeyer introduced such series as The Dana Girls (1934), Tom Swift Jr. , The Happy Hollisters , and many others. In the 1950s, Harriet began substantially revising old volumes in The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew series, updating them by removing references to outdated cultural elements, such as "roadster". Racial slurs and stereotypes were also removed, and in some cases (such as The Secret at Shadow Ranch and The Mystery at
527-626: The UK). These other series first appeared around the 1950s outside the United States. The second Stratemeyer Syndicate series to be reprinted outside the United States appears to have been the first two books in the Don Sturdy series, although exact dates of printing are unknown. Those were The Desert of Mystery and The Big Snake Hunters . There are two British versions known of the latter book; both were printed by The Children's Press, one in
558-401: The United States were Stratemeyer Syndicate books, based on a 1922 study of over 36,000 American children. Stratemeyer's business acumen was in realizing that there was a huge, untapped market for children's books. The Stratemeyer Syndicate specialized in producing books that were meant primarily to be entertaining. In Stratemeyer's view, it was the thrill of feeling grown-up and the desire for
589-511: The beings sending a sample of life forms from their planet in book #7 and an artificial "energy brain" to occupy a robot body built by Tom in book #17 (see illustration above). The stories offered science that was more intriguing than accurate. Yet, the characters and titles are well-remembered and lovingly regarded, and a number of scientists, researchers, and engineers, including Apple's Steve Wozniak , profess to having been set on their courses by Tom Swift Jr. The series also offers
620-479: The books were outlined mostly by Harriet (Stratemeyer) Adams , head of the Stratemeyer Syndicate , attributed to the pseudonymous Victor Appleton II , and published in hardcover by Grosset & Dunlap . Most of the books (Titles #5-#7 and #9-#30) were written by James Duncan Lawrence , who had an interest in science and technology and was faithful to the canon of the previous Tom Swift series. Title #7, Tom Swift and His Diving Seacopter , has several references to
651-609: The color of Nancy's car, shortened the text, and made the language easier to read; but they made no substantive changes” to the stories. By the 1970s, Nancy Drew stories had “been translated into Spanish, Swedish, French, German, Dutch, Italian, Danish, Finnish, Norwegian, and Icelandic. Other series reprinted outside the States include The Dana Girls , The Hardy Boys and the Bobbsey Twins (in Australia, France, Sweden, and
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#1732783157757682-636: The contempt for social conventions ... is due to the reading of this poisonous sort of fiction." Franklin K. Mathiews, chief librarian for the Boy Scouts of America , wrote that series books were a method, according to the title of one of his articles, for "Blowing Out the Boys' Brains", and psychologist G. Stanley Hall articulated one of the most common concerns by asserting that series books would ruin girls in particular by giving them "false views of [life] ... which will cloud her life with discontent in
713-605: The first series, including a visit with Mrs. Baggert, who was Tom Sr.'s housekeeper, and other volumes feature a rocket named after the old family retainer Eradicate "Rad" Sampson, a radiation-detector (the Damonscope) named after Tom Sr.'s friend Mr. Damon, and a planetoid named in honor of Tom Swift Sr.'s father Barton. As in the original series, the basic locale is the quaint town of Shopton, New York, on Lake Carlopa. Typical story elements include Tom's loyal and quip-prone friend Bud Barclay, his comic-relief cook "Chow" Winkler,
744-583: The future". None of this hurt sales and Stratemeyer was unperturbed, even when his books were banned from the Newark Public Library as early as 1901, writing to a publisher: "Personally it does not matter much to me. ... Taking them out of the Library has more than tripled the sales in Newark." Some syndicate series were also reprinted in foreign countries. An early foreign version was
775-430: The pseudonym Laura Lee Hope , and Tom Swift in 1910 under the pseudonym Victor Appleton . Stratemeyer published a number of books under his own name, but the books published under pseudonyms sold better. Stratemeyer realized that "he could offer more books each year if he dealt with several publishers and had the books published under a number of pseudonyms which he controlled." Stratemeyer explained his strategy to
806-403: The size of a Boeing 747 jumbo jet. The Tom Swift Jr. stories had stronger science-fiction elements than the earlier series, particularly in the later volumes. One subplot, beginning on the first page of the first volume and running the length of the series, is Tom's communication, via mathematical "space symbols", with beings from " Planet X ". This mystery is never completely resolved, despite
837-456: The stereotypes present in the books, particularly in The Hardy Boys publications. In the late 1970s, Adams decided it was time for Nancy and the Hardys to go into paperback, as the hardcover market was no longer what it had been. Grosset & Dunlap sued, citing "breach of contract, copyright infringement, and unfair competition". The ensuing case let the world know, for the first time, that
868-505: The syndicate from its partners — Edward Stratemeyer Adams, Camilla Adams McClave, Patricia Adams Harr, Nancy Axelrod and Lilo Wuenn — and turned to Mega-Books, a book packager, to handle the writing process for new volumes. "They don't have hippies in them," [Adams] said ... "And none of the characters have love affairs or get pregnant or take dope." All Stratemeyer Syndicate books were written under certain guidelines, based on practices Stratemeyer began with his first series,
899-466: Was decided that the protagonist of the new series would be the son of the earlier Tom Swift and his wife, Mary Nestor Swift; the original hero continued as a series regular, as did his pal Ned Newton. The covers were created by illustrator J. Graham Kaye. Covers in the later half of the series were mostly by Charles Brey. A total of 33 volumes were eventually published. For the Tom Swift Jr. series
930-453: Was reproduced in yellow spine versions and all later titles were released in this format. The Hardy Boys books (another series from the Stratemeyer Syndicate ) was also released in a blue spine version; this may have prompted the change in color. A few of the early titles of the Tom Swift Jr. series were re-released in the 1970s in paperback with new illustrations. In 1972, four (#14, #15, #16, and #17) were released as trade paperbacks. #14
961-649: Was retitled Tom Swift in the Jungle of the Mayas and #15 was renamed Tom Swift and the City of Gold . In 1977, six (#1–4, #6, and #8) were released as mass market paperbacks. One of the stories, #6 Tom Swift and His Outpost in Space was renamed Tom Swift and His Sky Wheel and repositioned as #5. There exist a number of foreign reprints of Tom Swift Jr. titles, including British, Japanese, Icelandic, and Dutch (#1-3, adapted by