Book Talk: The Stratemeyer Syndicate

Anna Maria Junus
2 days ago
2 min read

No, the Stratemeyer Syndicate was not a mafia. I know it sounds like one, but it wasn't. It was a company that produced series books for children, started by Edward Stratemeyer. You've probably read some. Some of the most famous series come from this company. The first book was published in 1899. Stratemeyer developed a formula for writing the books quickly. He created series and pseudonyms for each series and soon realized he couldn't do it all, so he hired ghostwriters to write under the noms-de-plume. It was wildly successful! Some of the biggest names in characters come from this company. Ever heard of the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew? These books are easy to spot because at one point they changed their covers. They created a uniform look for all the series but gave each series its own spine cover. You can have a whole library of books the exact same size and look but in different colors according to series. But here's the interesting thing that I did not know. Because they were published by Grosset and Dunlap, other books by G&D also were given the same treatment. For instance, I thought Judy Bolton was by the Syndicate because of the covers with the olive green spines. They're not. They were written by one author, Margaret Sutton (Rachel Beebe) and actually squashed by the behemoth of the Stratemeyer Syndicate because they saw Judy Bolton as a threat to Nancy Drew.

One of the main differences between Nancy and Judy is that Nancy never aged or changed circumstances. Judy got married and had children. Although many of these series never really gained traction, some of these series are still alive and well today even if they are no longer under the Stratemeyer name. I won't list the entire catalogue of series, but just some of the more notable ones with their publication date and I'll only show the 1961 cover redo that colour-coded the series.

The Rover Boys (1899 - 1926)

The Bobbsey Twins (1904 - 1979) purple cover

The Motor Boys (1906 - 1924) Dorothy Dale (1908 - 1924) Tom Swift (1910-2022) orange cover

Baseball Joe (1912 - 1928)

Ruth Fielding (1913 - 1934)

Betty Gordon (1920 - 1932)

Make Believe Stories (1920 - 1923)

The Radio Boys (1922 - 1930) Honey Bunch (1923 - 1963) It was later rebranded "Honey Bunch and Norman" and appears to have a pink spine. I remember picking one up in the library and it was too sickly sweet for me which is saying a lot since I collected The Bobbsey Twins.