Edward L. Stratemeyer, b. 1862, creator of the Bobbsey Twins, Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, and Tom Swift series of mysteries for young readers. He and his Stratemeyer Syndicate published more than 800 titles.
Donald Sobol, b. 1924, author of the series of children’s books about Encyclopedia Brown, Boy Detective.
Isn’t it interesting that both of these creators of mystery series were born on the same day?
“Readers constantly ask me if Encyclopedia is a real boy. The answer is no … He is, perhaps, the boy I wanted to be — doing the things I wanted to read about but could not find in any book when I was ten.”–Donald Sobol
“Young folks are the most direct critics in the world. Any writer who has the young for an audience can snap his fingers at all the other critics.”–Edward Stratemeyer
Encyclopedia Brown Trivia Test
List of other mini-mystery authors
Website with information about Edward Stratemeyer
New Yorker article on Edward Stratemeyer by Meghan O’Rourke
“Stratemeyer would come up with a three-page plot for each book, describing locale, characters, time frame, and a basic story outline. He mailed this to a writer, who, for a fee ranging from fifty dollars to two hundred and fifty dollars, would write the thing up and “slam-bang!” send it back within a month. Stratemeyer checked the manuscripts for discrepancies, made sure that each book had exactly fifty jokes, and cut or expanded as needed.”
Oh, by the way, speaking of Banned Books (also here, last week was Banned Books Week), the library in my hometown engaged in a bit of “censorship” of its own when I was a kid of a girl; they would purchase books about neither Nancy Drew nor Trixie Belden, my two favorite girl detectives. The librarian said that they were not of sufficient literary quality to be shelved at our public library.
We’re rather fond of kid detectives around here: Encyclopedia Brown, Can Jansen, Nate the Great, Nancy Drew, The Hardy Boys, Trixie Belden, and Detectives in Togas are all favorites at the Semicolon household. Who are your favorite authors of mysteries for kids? Who are your favorite young detectives?
I read a bit of Encyclopedia Brown and The Hardy Boys as a kid, but my absolute favorite series was Alfred Hitchcock’s The Three Investigators. Read those books voraciously.
Over the summer I had the bright idea of re-reading that series. I’ve only made it through the first two books so far (too much other reading to do), but the nostalgic pleasure is fantastic.
I loved both Encyclopedia Brown and Trixie Belden.