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Frank and Joe Hardy (The Hardy Boys)

kevinburtonsmith

Created by Franklin W. Dixon
House pseudonym of Stratemeyer Syndicate

 

World-renowned private detective, and former ace NYPD sleuth FENTON HARDY seemed to always be off somewhere working on some important case, so that left his two teenage sons, FRANK and JOE HARDY, to watch over things in Bayport, a thriving town on the north-eastern seaboard. Fortunately, for generations of adolescents, they share their dad’s zeal for bringing criminals to justice, and they’ve exercised it for decades now, as everything from amateur sleuths doing “favors” for friends to assignments from the U.S. government. You can sneer all you want. This was — and is — pulp for kids, and I’ll bet a lot of us were prepped for Marlowe, Spade et al, by this stuff.

And it looks like they’re still being prepped. Originally created in 1927 by Edward Stratemeyer, (whose New Jersey-based Stratemeyer Syndicate, founded way back in 1906, was also responsible for The Bobbsey Twins, and nouveau-feminist icon Nancy Drew, as well as Tom Swift, The Rover Boys and dozens of others. But the Hardy Boys, written by Franlin W. Dixon, remain the all-time best-selling series of books for boys, with well over 300 titles published, including three series of paperback books. They’ve also begat television series, games, toys, comics, records, jigsaw puzzles, coloring books and more merchandise than you can shake a stick at.

Of course, there was no Franklin W. Dixon. Not really. He was merely a house name for a long, long string of rotating authors working for the syndicate, a kind of literary sweatshop, working from supplied plot outlines, and following some strict guidelines: — low death rates, as many action verbs as possible and a ban on kissing. Supposedly, Edward Stratemeyer discreetly scheduled his appointments so writers would not bump into or recognize one other.

In fact, although the syndicate took credit for the house name of Dixon, the actual writer of the first sixteen novels (for a flat rate of a eighty-five — and later a hundred — bucks apiece) was Canadian novelist Leslie McFarlane, who named Dixon after two of his brothers, Frank and Wilmot, who was also known as Dick (hence, both the W. and the Dixon). McFarlane also wrote the first four Dana Girls titles as “Carolyn Keene,” the Stratemeyer house pseudonym that had already been used for the Nancy Drew series.

Not that the books were high literature to begin with, but starting in 1959, the first thirty-eight stories were revised and “abridged” (as in gutted, bowlderized, bleached of colour and otherwise white-washed) much to the dismay of long-time Hardy fans. Revisions ranged from slight tinkering to, in some cases, completely new stories. Perhaps it was all well-intentioned, but it was basically literary castration.

The stories were reduced in length, had out-of-date prose updated (“roadsters” became “cars,” “chums” became “friends,” stuff like that) and had racial stereotypes (okay, maybe those should go) removed. But the slam-bang action and danger-packed, thrill-a-minute atmosphere of the original stories was also too often replaced by annoyingly cautious, overly polite, non-offensive prose. Hey, these were supposed to be pulp!

Even at the wee age of twelve or so, back at the dawn of time (early seventies), my and my pals were outraged when we discovered that the plots, settings and even characters of the old, dust-coverless “brown” editions our older brothers and cousins passed down to us and the new, blue-spined editions we received as birthday or Christmas gifts often had very little to do with each other.

The subsequent, toned-down versions were certainly read–all the boys in my Grade Six class at St. Stephen’s were in a rush to be the first to read them all — but it was the older, brown editions (many actually written by Canadian author McFarlane, though we didn’t know it at the time) that were much sought after and passed around.

But, whether you read the originals, or the new, good-for-you revisions, or ended up like me reading a mixture of the two, you probably can look back with fond memories to the crotchety rantings of mother-figure/spinster Aunt Gertrude; Chet Morton, the boy’s plump, good-natured, constantly-eating best friend, his sister Iola, Joe’s occasional romantic interest (who unexpectedly and rather inexplicably gets blown to smithereens in The Hardy Boys Casefiles #1: Dead On Target in 1987!); Callie Shaw, Frank’s girlfriend, Chief Ezra Collig, Chief of the Bayport PD, and other favorites.

And on it goes. In 2005 the boys were re-imagined and re-introduced to yet another generation of young readers as “Undercover Brothers,” special undercover operatives for a clandestine American government agency called ATAC (American Tenns Against Crime) in a new series of books and manga-style graphic novels.

Stratemeyer began his career writing dime novels, and actually wrote several of them under the name of Jim Bowie (well, Jim wasn’t using it, having been killed at the Alamo and all…). Upon his death, his daughter took over his company.

MRS. DIXON CLOCKS IN

UNDER OATH

NOVELS

 

OTHER BOOKS

COMICS & GRAPHIC NOVELS

 

TELEVISION

ALSO OF INTEREST

REFERENCE

  

FURTHER INVESTIGATION

Respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith, with a tip of the hat to R.W.’s Finnan’s late, great Unofficial Hardy Boys Home Page, with much gratitude. And thanks to Steve Bridge for the hot lead on a great site.

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