Voting Station

Edward Stratemeyer

Please vote to return to collections.

Publisher

The Resume

    (October 4, 1862-May 10, 1930)
    Born in Elizabeth, New Jersey
    Publisher and children's book author
    Founded the Stratemeyer Syndicate (1906)
    Launched book series featuring the Rover Boys (1899), the Bobbsey Twins (1904), Tom Swift (1910), the Hardy Boys (1927) and Nancy Drew (1930)
    Wrote 220 books
    Provided plot outlines for another 700 books

Why he might be annoying:

    He created fictitious authors for the various series, then hired an army of ghost writers to crank out the books.
    Commenting about the low pay, ghostwriter Leslie McFarlane, the original 'Franklin W. Dixon' for the Hardy Boys stories, quipped that he never learned what the 'W.' in Dixon's name stood for, but it certainly was not 'Wealthy.'
    Later reprints of the books had to be revised to remove racial stereotyping.

Why he might not be annoying:

    He was one of the first children's authors to focus on adventure instead of teaching a moral lesson.
    In an American Library Association survey of juvenile reading preferences, 98% of children surveyed listed a Stratemeyer title as one of their favorites (1926).
    When critics slammed the literary merits of his books, he said 'Any writer who has the young for an audience can snap his fingers at all the other critics.'

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    In 2023, Out of 3 Votes: 33.33% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 13 Votes: 53.85% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 1 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 4 Votes: 75.00% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 4 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 5 Votes: 20.0% Annoying
    In 2015, Out of 6 Votes: 66.67% Annoying
    In 2014, Out of 12 Votes: 41.67% Annoying
    In 2013, Out of 11 Votes: 54.55% Annoying
    In 2012, Out of 8 Votes: 12.50% Annoying
    In 2011, Out of 11 Votes: 72.73% Annoying