The Bobbsey Twins

When I was a child I was an avid reader. Now mind you just because I read a lot does not mean it was real brain food, but I was very young. How many of you have read the Bobbsey Twins? My siblings and I LOVED them. We started out reading the Bobbsey Twins and moved on to read Nancy Drew, Aaron of course read The Hardy Boys not Nancy Drew. The Four Leaf Clover Mystery was one of my favorite Bobbsey Twin mysteries; if I remember right there is something about a secret passage in a colonial house that intrigued me. What is it about these books that enthrall children? Maybe it’s the idea that we could be these children in the book. What's more exciting than solving a mystery? It may even make us a little more adult. I mean if Fred, Nan, Flossy, and Freddie can do it I'm sure that I could.

When I was looking for this picture on the internet I found a very interesting article about the writing of the books. It’s amazing how I read seventy-something books and never knew these things. The following is some history on the Bobbsey Twins I found fascinating.

In the first place, there never was a "Laura Lee Hope." The Bobbsey Twins were created in 1904 by Edward Stratemeyer. One of dozens of juvenile series that Stratemeyer created and managed, the Bobbseys, along with Nancy Drew, The Hardy Boys, and Tom Swift are among the best known of childrens' book characters. Using the pseudonym "Laura Lee Hope," Legend says that Stratemeyer wrote the first three books himself, then hired ghost writers to write the remaining books, often from outlines he prepared. Newer information tells us that he probably only wrote the first book. Careful reading of the first three will suggest that, as the style in the first book is quite different from the others. (For more details on who really wrote each of the 72 books, see James Keeline's article on the subject.) On Stratemeyer's death in 1930, his daughter Harriet Stratemeyer Adams took over the Stratemeyer Syndicate.

The first series of books written/produced by Stratemeyer was The Rover Boys, written under the pseudonym of Arthur M. Winfield. There were 30 volumes, written between 1899 and 1926. The Bobbsey Twins series was next, and is the oldest "surviving" series, extending to 72 volumes,written between 1904 and 1979. Tom Swift,attributed to Victor Appleton, began in 1910 and there were 40 volumes before the series ended in 1941.(There was also a Tom Swift, Jr. series, by Victor Appleton II.) The Hardy Boys (Franklin W. Dixon, 85 volumes from 1927 to 1985) and Nancy Drew (Carolyn Keene, 78 volumes from 1930 to 1985) are the other best-known Stratemeyer books.
This came from:
http://pw2.netcom.com/~drmike99/aboutbobbsey.html


Who knew?