Childhood Friends: Book Review No. 5

Today, according to The Writer's Almanac, is the birthday of Edward L. Stratemeyer, born in 1862.  He created The Bobbsey Twins and Nancy Drew series, among others.  He wrote few of the books himself, parceling the majority out to a band of ghostwriters employed by his biggest creation, The Stratemeyer Syndicate.   I gather that something of a scandal erupted when the documents produced in a lawsuit eventually revealed that Laura Lee Hope and Carolyn Keene, two of my favorite writers, didn't actually exist.

 It doesn't matter to me who wrote the books.  Neither series was a shining pinnacle of literary achievement.  But Nan and Bert and Freddie and Flossie were among my best childhood friends.  Like mine, their lives seemed ordinary in the extreme -- and yet they found so much adventure lurking in the most mundane of situations!  When I was eight and we spent just a couple of weeks in Florida, I walked the two blocks to the bookstore every morning and laid down my dollar for another Bobbsey Twin book, which I would devour in the next couple of hours.  They were as addictive as online journals are today.

Try as I might, I could never muster up any mystery in my grandmother's attic, or behind her old dog pen, or in my small town's dilapidated hotel, circa 1900.  That I never gave up hope is thanks to Nancy, Girl Sleuth, and her girlfriends Bess and George.  Nancy was the example par excellence for a girl without a mother -- no need for one as

 she and her friends raced from one triumph to another in George's little roadster.  Her bemused father and devoted boyfriend stayed in the background, where they belonged, while Nancy's curiosity and genius blossomed.  

I don't know much about The Stratemeyer Syndicate, but I hope that the real writers made a decent living.  They certainly sparked a lifetime passion for reading in generations of children.  

Walked: 1 mile.