Stratemeyer Syndicate records

1832-1984 [bulk 1905-1984] D

Edward Stratemeyer was born in 1862 in Elizabeth, New Jersey. His father, Henry Julius Stratemeyer, had emigrated to the United States from Germany to join the San Francisco gold rush of 1849. Henry later traveled east and settled in Elizabeth, where he ran a tobacco shop, and married Anna Siegel Stratemeyer, the widow of his younger brother. Edward Stratemeyer was the last of three children born to the couple; in addition, there were three older children in the family from Anna Stratemeyer's previous marriage.

As a child, Edward wrote short stories and published a little newspaper called Our Friend. After finishing high school he continued to live in the family home and worked with his brother Maurice in a small tobacco and stationery shop. In his spare time he studied rhetoric and literature, and wrote stories. Edward made his first literary sale in 1889 when the Philadelphia paper Golden Days for Boys and Girls paid him $75 for his short story "Victor Horton's Idea." He continued to work in the retail stationery business, and opened his own shop in Newark, New Jersey in 1891. That same year, Edward married Magdalene (Lena) Baker Van Camp, also an aspiring writer. The couple's first child, Harriet, was born in December of 1892. A second daughter, Edna Camilla, was born in May, 1895.

During the 1890s, Edward Stratemeyer wrote dime novels for such publishing concerns as Street & Smith, Beadle & Adams, and Lee & Shepherd, and sold short stories to a variety of newspapers and magazines. At the end of the decade he began work on the Rover Boys, a series of short juvenile novels published under the pen-name Arthur M. Winfield which eventually sold over five million copies.

The success of these of books heightened Stratemeyer's literary ambition and broadened his view of the publishing industry. He saw that it would be far more profitable for him to own and operate a "factory" of juvenile literature that would produce and market to publishers numerous volumes of books in series, rather than continue to write individual books and sell them one by one. In 1905 he formed what he called his Stratemeyer Syndicate to "make contracts with certain publishing houses to issue books under several trade-mark pen names which are my business property."

Stratemeyer's business model met the demands of a growing American publishing industry that was committed to increasing sales through aggressive marketing strategies. At the turn of the century, firms like Grosset & Dunlap needed a continuous stream of cheaply produced, captivating children's books to win the loyalty of a growing audience of young readers. Over the next several decades, his Stratemeyer Syndicate grew into a remarkable literary enterprise responsible for such popular children's book series as The Bobbsey Twins, The Hardy Boys, Tom Swift and Nancy Drew.

Stratemeyer's method was to submit book plots and character sketches to large publishing houses like Grosset & Dunlap, Cupples & Leon, and Garden City Publishing. Having secured a publisher's interest and signed a contract for a book series, Stratemeyer then hired ghostwriters to produce manuscripts based on his detailed outlines. Stratemeyer sketched book plots according to a rigid formula, aiming to produce entertaining literature for young people that at the same time served a serious moral and didactic purpose. The stories of Horatio Alger, whose young protagonists overcame difficult economic circumstances and a sometimes pernicious social environment to achieve success, were among Stratemeyer's models. Syndicate writers were paid a one-time fee for each manuscript, received no royalties, and agreed never to reveal their identities or pen names. To his credit, Stratemeyer paid his writers promptly, often giving them advances, loans and gifts when they were in financial difficulties. When a new Syndicate book appeared, Edward Stratemeyer usually shared advertising costs with the publisher, though he himself maintained strict control over the design of promotional materials including newspaper ads, circulars and catalogs.

Stratemeyer found his first ghostwriters among former colleagues from his years writing for such publications as Argosy and Golden Days. One of the most prolific of these early associates was Howard Garis, who signed an annual contract committing him to produce a set number of volumes. Lillian Garis, Howard's spouse, also wrote for Stratemeyer, though her contracts were signed on a book-by-book basis. Perhaps the most famous author associated with Edward Stratemeyer is Horatio Alger. Stratemeyer had met Alger, one of his boyhood idols, during the 1890s, and the two writers corresponded until Alger's death in 1899. Stratemeyer successfully negotiated with Alger's estate for the rights to expand, edit and publish several of Alger's short stories. Stratemeyer also acquired a scrapbook compiled by Alger and used it as source material for a Syndicate volume, The Young Book Agent.

For many years Edward Stratemeyer continued to write books under his own name, most of which were published by the Boston firm of Lothrop, Lee & Shepherd. But at the Syndicate's peak years of production he ceased to write and devoted himself entirely to the business, marketing and publicity aspects of the Syndicate. Stratemeyer was quick to defend Syndicate publications against criticism, and he frequently penned responses to poor reviews. In 1914 he withdrew his long-time support of the American Boy Scouts when the organization's official librarian suggested that Stratemeyer books were not appropriate reading material for its members. Several years later, Stratemeyer threatened officials of the Brooklyn Public Library with a lawsuit when a library staff member publicly condemned Stratemeyer Syndicate books.

In the early years of the Syndicate, Edward Stratemeyer worked in rooms on the top floor of his Newark home, and conducted business meetings at the offices of his various New York publishers or at the Astor House Hotel. In 1914 he opened an office at 17 Madison Avenue in Manhattan and hired Harriet Otis Smith to maintain a regular presence there, while he continued to work primarily at home. Smith's responsibilities and remuneration steadily increased as Stratemeyer came to rely on her for her sound editorial judgment, her publishing expertise, and her efficient management of the Syndicate's complicated production routine.

The success of the Stratemeyer Syndicate enabled Edward to provide his family with a comfortable living. He employed a maid and cook, and saw that his children were attended by trained nurses when sick. The family home in Newark was equipped with a player piano, a Victrola, and telephone service. The Stratemeyers summered at the Jersey shore, or in the western New Jersey countryside. Over the years, Edward and his wife traveled throughout the United States and Canada. An early automobile enthusiast, Edward owned a touring car, which he taught his daughters to drive. As their book business flourished, the Stratemeyers made substantial contributions to numerous charitable causes and were equally generous with their relatives and close friends. Edward was an active citizen of Newark who participated in civic events and public organizations. He died in May of 1930, not long after the appearance of two of his most successful book series, The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew.

Following Edward Stratemeyer's death, his wife Magdalene Van Camp Stratemeyer legally inherited the Syndicate, but poor health prevented her from taking an active role in the business. The Stratemeyer daughters, Harriet and Edna, stepped in to run the Syndicate as joint partners, and assumed legal control upon the death of their mother in 1936. Harriet, a graduate of Wellesley College who had written for her college newspaper, had briefly assisted her father during the 1910s by editing manuscripts. In 1915 she had married a close family friend, Russell Vroom Adams, and was by the time of her father's passing the mother of four children. Edna Stratemeyer had less formal schooling, but had since 1918 demonstrated considerable administrative ability through her management of the busy Stratemeyer household.

During the economic depression of the 1930s, Syndicate profits declined as a result of slow sales, and a number of series were discontinued. Despite these difficulties, the Stratemeyer sisters carried the business forward by maintaining established relationships with their publishers and writers, and by continuing to produce new volumes in their most profitable series. They drew upon the literary talents of Howard Garis to help them outline new plots for book series, and relied on the publishing expertise of Harriet Otis Smith to guide their editorial and administrative decisions. During this early period of their partnership, Harriet and Edna took turns staffing the New York office. Eventually they transferred the operation to a New Jersey location more convenient for both of them.

Edna Stratemeyer married Wesley Squier, a widower with grown children, in 1937. Later that year she gave birth to a daughter, Camilla. In 1942 she and her family moved to Florida. Though she no longer took part in day-to-day Syndicate business, she kept in close touch with the firm by mail and telephone and had input on all major decisions. Harriet managed the administrative routines of negotiating with publishers, corresponding with writers, and paying bills. She also wrote books, edited manuscripts, and vetted film and television scripts based on Syndicate characters. Despite the unbalanced work load, Edna refused to dissolve or alter the terms of her original partnership agreement with her sister, who pressed her to do so for many years.

In 1948, Andrew E. Svenson joined the Stratemeyer Syndicate as a writer and editor. A former journalist, he soon functioned as Harriet's second-in-command, and was made a partner of the firm in 1961. Svenson hired new writers to update established Syndicate series by incorporating modern themes and situations, and commissioned new illustrations and cover art. Revised editions of Nancy Drew, Tom Swift, and The Hardy Boys enjoyed a renewed popularity; the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew eventually appeared on television and in the movies. In addition to his work to promote established Stratemeyer series, Svenson created and wrote (under the pseudonym Jerry West) a new one of his own, The Happy Hollisters. He oversaw the launching of The Dana Girls, Tom Swift Jr., The Bret King Mystery Stories, and Linda Craig. Fluent in German and French, Svenson was largely responsible for foreign marketing of Syndicate publications. His secretary, Lieselotte Wuenn, assumed responsibility for much of Svenson's work after his death in 1975.

Not long after the death of Edna Stratemeyer Squier in 1974, Harriet Stratemeyer Adams chose to reveal her identity as the pseudonymous Carolyn Keene, author of many popular Nancy Drew books. In a further effort to clear some of the mystery surrounding the Syndicate, she gave public talks in which she explained the formulas used to develop book plots. Harriet also invited four long-time Stratemeyer Syndicate employees - Lorraine Rickle, Liselotte Wuenn, Gordon Eyler and Nancy S. Axelrad - to become partners in the firm. In 1979, after many years of dissatisfaction with the royalties received from Grosset & Dunlap, the publisher of many popular Stratemeyer titles, the Syndicate negotiated a new publishing contract with Simon & Schuster, Inc. A retaliatory lawsuit by Grosset & Dunlap won that firm the copyright to all Stratemeyer titles currently available under its imprint. In 1984, two years after the death of Harriet Stratemeyer Adams, the Stratemeyer Syndicate was sold entirely to Simon & Schuster, which continued to publish several Stratemeyer series at the beginning of the 21st century.