THE SECRET OF THE HARDY BOYS: Leslie McFarlane and the Stratemeyer Syndicate
Marilyn S. Greenwald, . . Ohio Univ., $32.95 (310pp) ISBN 978-0-8214-1547-4
This thorough if lackluster biography charts the career of Leslie McFarlane, who penned the first 16 books of the famous Hardy Boys series under the pseudonym Franklin W. Dixon. In 1926, the enterprising New Jersey book packager Edward Stratemeyer created the series: formulaic fiction strategically marketed to newly leisured adolescent boys. McFarlane, a young journalist in northern Ontario, regarded his ghostwriting as hackwork. He neither sought nor received credit or financial gain proportionate to the series' popularity. A proud Canadian, McFarlane harbored unrealized ambitions to write a Canadian epic novel and found gratification only in publishing his stories in literary magazines. Striving to support a growing family, McFarlane eventually found success in Canadian broadcast writing and directing. A professor of journalism at Ohio University and biographer of Charlotte Curtis (
Reviewed on: 05/31/2004
Genre: Nonfiction
Paperback - 384 pages - 978-0-8214-2277-9