For years I thought that Franklin W. Dixon was the best author in the world.
@odd Me too! After reading the Detective Handbook, I wanted to investigate crimes in my neighborhood (of which there were none). I was so taken by the books, in fact, that I asked a librarian for Dixon’s address so I could write to him. After looking into it, she told me that it was actually the pen name of a group of writers. I was dumbstruck! I thought the Hardy Boys could only have been the product of a singular genius.
@jabel Haha, exactly the same with me! A couple of friends and myself wanted to investigate crimes, and we had noticed the lights being on at a cement factory nearby at night, and we talked about breaking in to expose the crime! I and my best friend read a chapter each of the Detective Handbook aloud to each other a summer. Good times.
@odd Is Franklin W. Dixon even one person? I can't recall. I feel like Carolyn Keene might actually be multiple authors. Either way, the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew are super fun.
@odd It looks like the original 1927 editions of the first three Hardy Boy books are in the public domain in the US. I should try and hunt them down and read them even though they are problematic due to racial stereotypes. I've always been curious as to what the 1927 versions were like.
@bradenslen Yes, I think those may be the versions our translation are from. I definitely reacted to things in them, and this was in the early 80s, where things were even more racist in society than today. This is written about in a separate chapter in a book that I bought together with The Secret of the Hardy Boys: Leslie McFarlane and the Stratemeyer Syndicate, but looking through my purchase history now, I can’t find it. @kimberlyhirsh @jabel @amerpie