Ghost of the Hardy Boys: The Writer Behind the World's Most Famous Boy Detectives

Leslie McFarlane

nov 2022 · Tantor Media Inc · Narrado por Keith Sellon-Wright

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In 1926, twenty-three-year-old cub newspaper reporter Leslie McFarlane responded to an ad: "Experienced Fiction Writer Wanted." The ad was signed by Edward Stratemeyer, whose syndicate effectively invented mass-market children's book publishing in America. McFarlane, who had a few published adventure stories to his name, was hired and his first job was to write Dave Fearless Under the Ocean as Roy Rockwood-for a flat fee of $100, no royalties. His pay increased to $125 when Stratemeyer proposed a new series of detective stories for kids involving two high school aged brothers who would solve mysteries. The title of the series was The Hardy Boys. McFarlane's pseudonym would be Franklin W. Dixon. McFarlane went on to write twenty-one Hardy Boys adventures. McFarlane kept his ghostwriting gig secret until late in life when his son urged him to share the story of being the real Franklin W. Dixon. By the time McFarlane died in 1977, unofficial sales estimates of The Hardy Boys series already topped fifty million copies. Ghost of the Hardy Boys is a fascinating, funny, and always charming look back at a vanished era of journalism, writing, and book publishing. It is for anyone who's curious about solving the mystery of the fascinating man behind one of the most widely read and enduring children's book series in history.

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Leslie McFarlane was a Canadian journalist and author who, under the famous pseudonym, Franklin W. Dixon, wrote the original Hardy Boys mysteries for the Stratemeyer Syndicate. McFarlane died in 1977.

Keith Sellon-Wright is a seasoned professional with a career in Hollywood spanning over thirty years. He has worked with some of Hollywood's seminal directors, including Christopher Guest and Spike Lee. His television credits include Wings, Frasier, Seinfeld, The West Wing, NCIS, Mad Men, and Parks and Recreation.

Marilyn S. Greenwald is the author of Secret Of the Hardy Boys: Leslie McFarlane & the Stratemeyer Syndicate and a professor of journalism at the E. W. Scripps School of Journalism, Ohio University.