“The Hardy Boys” is one of the best-selling mystery series of all time. Published in the late twenties by Frank W. Dixon, the series encompasses several spin-off books and even a recent Hulu reinvention. What many don’t realize is that there is a mystery behind the mystery books. The mystery revolves around the identity of the reclusive author, Frank Dixon. Mr. Dixon has never done an author appearance, never conducted an interview, nor so much as answered a fan letter. Leading us all to wonder, who is Frank Dixon? The truth lies tangled in a web of marketing and deception. Much like the plot structure of the “Hardy Boys” books actually.
Our story revolves around “The Stratemeyer Syndicate”. The brainchild of Mr. Edward Stratemeyer, a businessman who started a publishing company in 1899 Mr. Strateyemer founded a publishing house with a radically different view than his contemporaries; to market books exclusively to children. From the years 1900 to 1929, “The Stratemeyer Syndicate” published “The Bobbsey Twins”, “Nancy Drew” & “The Hardy Boys”. Mr. Stratemeyer combined a keen sense of marketing, with his unique vision of creating elongated, thrilling books series’ that children would enjoy.
Mr. Startemeyer worked with essentially a skeleton crew, only roughly a dozen people. Out of all the names, nowhere does Frank Dixon show up. There was never a Frank Dixon ever employed by Mr. Stratemeyer. The plot now thickens, who was actually responsible for writing the dozens of books?
It would be several decades before the truth came out. Today there his no Stratemeyer Syndicate, the company was later sold and was incorporated into Simon & Schuster. (including all the books ever published by Stratemeyer). As it turns out, there is no Frank Dixon. Mr. Stratemeyer came up with the outlines to many of his best selling books, and then paid ghostwriters to actually write the words. The writers of “The Hardy Boys” were a collection of four or five different people, all working on different books at the same time.
Mr. Stratemeyer would be labelled a hack in today’s time. Back in his day, Mr. Stratemeyer saw it as being pragmatic. In his mind, Mr. Stratemeyer considered using ghostwriters as a way to achieve maximum production. It allowed his company to constantly keep the market flooded with material, while at the same time keeping his close friends employed. At the time it was an ingenious marketing device. Not only did it allow for maximum production, it also allowed Mr. Stratemeyer to utilize a persona that wasn’t in any way tainted in the eyes of readers. More importantly, in the eyes of the parents who would be purchasing the books for their children.
Simon & Schuster after purchasing Edward Stratemeyer’s creations didn’t see any reason to discontinue the use of Frank Dixon. The name appeared for over one hundred years, all the way up to 2005 with the spin off tales, “The Hardy Boys Casefiles”. I remember receiving a boxed set of the first six “Hardy Boys” novels when I was maybe, 10 or 11. At the time it was essentially the equivalent of reading James Bond for a kid. Even though there were repeated violations of good grammar (like ending a chapter with an exclamation point), and the books would often rely on cheap tactics (trapdoors were an overused device). I still think of the stories with pleasure. Frank and Joe Hardy are more archetypes than actual characters. The stories were still thrilling to read. I liked reading he “Casefiles” spin off because it featured non-stop action, and the books were small enough to fit inside my pocket. Who needs an iPhone? I do remember reading the publishing date and frowning when I realized that somehow, Frank Dixon had been writing for roughly 100 years. It doesn’t take a super genius to put two and two together here. A five minute Google search revealed all to me. In some ways it was comforting to know there was a logical explanation. I still enjoyed the books. I even watched the Hulu series (total waste of time by the way). In the end, Mr. Startemeyer may have been a hack, but he still rested something that we all enjoy. There’s something to be said for that I think.
