My world has just been turned upside-down. I just read this post by my art history friend heidenkind, who mentioned that the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys series were not written by individual authors. Instead, the books were written and produced through the Stratemeyer Syndicate book packaging company. Multiple authors and ghost writers collaborated to create these mass-produced stories for children. (You can read more about the Nancy Drew series here).
Therefore, "authors" Carolyn Keene (Nancy Drew series) and Franklin W. Dixon (Hardy Boys) were not actual people. I'm so surprised to find that those names are pseudonyms.
As a kid, I loved the Nancy Drew books and read every single one that was owned by our local library. I loved the books because of the mystery and intrigue. I don't remember particularly being drawn to the writing style, but I don't think that I was ever concerned with that as a kid. It would be interesting to go back and analyze the series as an adult, especially since I now know that the Nancy Drew series was a collaborative effort.
Did you love Nancy Drew (or the Hardy Boys) series as a kid? What did you like (or dislike) about books? Is anyone else shocked to know that Keene and Dixon were not real people?
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5 comments:
Wow, that is surprising!
I didn't really read Nancy Drew -- I was too busy reading "The Babysitters Club" (true story, ha ha ha), but my brother was ALWAYS reading the Hardy Boys. I'll have to tell him about this.
And it's funny that you mention reading some of the books again now that you're an adult. I wonder what I would think of The Babysitters Club now that I'm an adult. What a silly series, but at least it had me reading.
WHAT? I had no idea! Kinda disappoing, actually. When I was 8-10 yrs. old (can't remember...), my parents scored a whole BOX of old, original Nancy Drew books and I must have read ALL of them in one summer. I loved them! Mostly because of the mysteries than anything else. I always thought that her having a boyfriend was lame...was his name Ned? Rings a bell, but I'm not sure. Wonder where those books are....
I knew that neither series was written by who they claimed to be, but I didn't know they were collaborative projects! That's really interesting.
I read and loved loads of Nancy Drew books. I think one of the writers lives in T-rav's homeland of Moscow. And I think her house is purple.
Yeah, I knew it. But that didn't stop me from reading all the Hardy Boys books in the old series and nearly all of them in the new series UNTIL it dawned on my dim, little 4th grader mind that all the stories were essentially identical with just a few different people and place names thrown in. I almost felt robbed for all the time I had spent reading them. Except for the part that I loved them . . . haha. "Crushing blow to the jaw" -- c'mon, it's awesome.
I didn't read Nancy Drew. I thought she was kind of wussy. But I did read a few of the Tom Swift books. Boy, that Tom Swift is so smart.
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