Et tu, Nancy Drew?

Growing up my sister was a big Nancy Drew fan. She told me as a kid she sent a letter to Carolyn Keane. She remembers receiving a letter back telling her...

File this under, Things That May Only Interest Me.

Do you remember Carolyn Keane? The author of the Nancy Drew mysteries?

I remember this cover growing up

Growing up my sister was a big Nancy Drew fan. We had a lot of the Nancy Drew Mysteries, so I asked her about Carolyn Keane. She told me as a kid she sent a letter to Carolyn Keane. She wasn’t sure if it was a fan letter, or maybe she had an idea for a mystery? Either way, she remembers getting a letter back basically telling her, Carolyn Keane didn’t exist. It was a group of writers that put out the Nancy Drew Mysteries.

We had a couple of Hardy Boys books written by Franklin W. Dixon, but I wasn’t much of a fan of those. I do remember reading Tom Swift, written by Victor Appleton.

Guess what? These authors didn’t exist either.

It was all one guy, Edward Stratemeyer. He also created The Bobbsey Twins, The Rover Boys, Bomba The Jungle Boy, and so many others.

He was a writer, but more importantly, he was a one man industry. He was a publisher and a packager. He was incredibly prolific, supposedly having written over 1300 books and selling more than 500 million copies over the years. He formed the Stratemeyer Syndicate in 1905 and hired others to write stories based on his ideas (and outlines). He paid them a flat fee for each book and kept the copyrights.

How did I find out about this? I stumbled across this fascinating documentary that Lucas Film did as a companion piece for their Young Indiana Jones Chronicles television series years ago.

Some of you know that I have the complete series of the Bomba The Jungle Boy books.

My Father’s Bomba The Jungle Boy Collection

They originally belonged to my Father. I remember him telling me that he, using his allowance, or his Mother would purchase one of the Bomba books every time a new one came out. And he read them all. He loved those books and hung on to them. He was missing two volumes of the series. Probably 20-25 years ago he decided he needed to find those two volumes so his set would be complete. Thanks to the internet we were able to buy copies of the missing two books. He was pretty proud that he had the complete collection, and they are all first editions.

Now that I’ve learned how these, and so many other books for kids were written, I wonder if that makes them less valuable? They are not the work of a single author. They were cranked out assembly line style like so many things in our society.

As a writer, I value the unique voices of other writers. I’m not sure how I feel about these books and the way they were written. Unlike AI, which I hate, these books were written by real writers often based on outlines supplied by Stratemeyer. They were written to a proven format and cranked out by the dozens.

Obviously these series are loved by the many kids who read them. Should that make a difference? Should I care how they were written? Is this any different than books that publishers pay to have written on a certain subject by real authors? I do think it is because those types of book usually have the real writers names on them and I believe they contain that writers style even if they are a work for hire.

Other Books my Father saved

Hell, comic books have different writers throughout the years, but so many of those writers left their own stamp, their own style, on those characters.

I also think it’s different than authors who write under a pseudonym as these are real writer just using a different name for whatever the reason. They are still doing the work and they do actually exist.

Would any of this make a difference to my Father? I like to think as a kid he got so excited when a new book came out, he could hardly wait to read them. And judging by their condition he read them over and over. He became a life long reader. Even in his final years, as long as he could, he continued to love reading.

I look at these books that he hung onto for most of his life. Sure, they’re all first editions, but I believe the value of these books is not based on anything other than how much they meant to my Father.

I have yet to read any of them and who knows if I ever will. These books are a very important part of my library and my families past. I can’t speak for my daughter or granddaughter, but my hope is that these books stay in the family.

Do any of you have a series of books you read growing up that still mean a lot to you? I would love to know what those books are.

Check out the film, it’s pretty interesting. Here is the link - -

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