The Hardy Boys

The Hardy Boys is a series of mystery books for teenagers and children, that debuted in 1927 and was created by American writer Edward Stratemeyer. Teenage brothers Frank and Joe Hardy are amateur sleuths who solve mysteries that stump adults. They live in a Northeastern state, have a car, a motorcycle, a boat and seemingly unlimited funds for their many adventures. They were trained in solving crimes by their father, Fenton, an ex-NYPD officer and are accompanied on their adventures by Chet Morton. The original series continued until 2005 and sold over 70 million copies worldwide, but it was never translated into French until now.

Creation

The creator of the series, Edward Stratemeyer was a prolific writer (he wrote about 1,300 books) with a nose for business. He came up with an ingenious business model for a literary syndicate that hired a network of freelance ghostwriters, who wrote novels for a small flat fee, following the detailed outline of the plot provided by the Stratemeyer Syndicate book packaging company. Book packagers develop new ideas, recruit ghostwriters and edit the first drafts of series books. The publisher then rewrites and polishes the manuscript and publishes it. The authors were not allowed to claim authorship and they were paid 85$ per book in 1927 when the series was launched. The pay evolved over time, but the authors never came close being paid what they would have with a standard royalties agreement.

The Hardy Boys series is formulaic and is meant as entertainment for young boys. Stratemeyer saw that young boys were more and more interested in crimes and solving them and wanted to read the kind of books that adults were reading. Most of the books for children on the market in the early twentieth century sought primarily to educate, not to entertain. Stratemeyer saw an unexplored market and came up with the duo of crime-solving brothers, a series whose purpose was primarily entertainment. It was immediately immensely succesful, so Stratemeyer created Nancy Drew as a female counterpart to the Hardy brothers. The Nancy Drew books became even more popular than The Hardy Boys. These were also written by ghostwriters, under the collective pseudonym Carolyn Keene and went on from 1930 to 2003, with 175 novels.

Popularity

One of the reasons that the Hardy Boys series was so popular was its relatability. Much like Frank and Joe, teenagers all over the world are curious, intrepid and challenge authority. However, racial stereotypes permeate the first volumes. In fact, in 1959, the first 38 stories were revised after complaints from parents about the prevalence of racial stereotypes. Rather than address the issue, non-white characters were removed altogether. The revisions, made also because sales had dropped considerably, also focused on eliminating difficult words from the books and privileged action over atmosphere building, which had been one of the great charms of Leslie MacFarlane’s writing, who thought that even though the books’ primary purpose was entertainment, he could also use the texts to educate the younger generation and often used multisyllabic difficult words such as presaged or ostensible, which were removed during the revision. However, the casual racism displayed in the early versions of the books was not the only reason the series was controversial. The fact that they were a series, which to some was an indication of poor quality, led some libraries to refuse to stock the books, arguing that they are “drivel”, “literary garbage” and that children should be reading more educational books. Sales did not suffer from this opposition. On the contrary, since the books were not available in libraries, many parents ended up having to buy them.

Stratemeyer’s syndicate was bought by Simon& Schuster in 1984. Several attempts to update the series have been made since, but it struggles to find its place and its public. At the same time, although the Hardy Boys now use cell phones and hack into computers, they are characters that were created in a different era: part of their appeal lies in their innocence and predictability and in the comfort of knowing that no matter what the problem is, the outcome will always be positive, which is very different from the often dark and ironic tales popular with 10 or 12-year-old boys today.

Now in French

A new book version of the Hardy Boys came out this January, for the first time in French. It is published by Editions Novel, a publishing house founded by Keren Eisenzweig and Romaric Moins who are also the founders of the Chattycat publishing house. They will publish 3 volumes in 2023.

Keren et Romaric expliquent leur démarche : « La popularité endurante de cette série s’explique par son style intemporel. Notre défi, pour la version française, a été de retranscrire l’écriture directe et dynamique. Un défi relevé avec succès par la traductrice Amélie Sarn. Nous avons donné à la version française un «relooking» graphique pour plaire au jeune lectorat d’aujourd’hui. En même temps, l’illustratrice Julie Staboszevski a rendu hommage à l’édition des années 50 avec son style tendance vintage. Le résultat : un livre qui répond aux attentes du public français tout en valorisant la version originale. »

Depuis quelque temps, il se passe des choses étranges dans la petite ville sans histoires de Bayport… Qui donc est cet homme à la perruque rousse qui a manqué d’écraser Frank et Joe Hardy ? Pourrait-il être également impliqué dans le vol de la voiture de leur meilleur ami, ainsi que dans le cambriolage du Manoir de la tour? C’est parti pour une enquête haletante, menée par deux héros cultes de la littérature jeunesse américaine… Frank et Joe Hardy qui enquêtent sur le vol de la voiture de leur ami, un vol qui semble lié au cambriolage d’un vieux manoir. Le seul indice : le coupable porte une perruque rousse !

Keren Eisenzweig will be at the Book Room to talk about Chattycat books in April, please check this page for the date. The Hardy Boys series has been televised on Netflix et Disney+ as well. Stop by the book room for our Hardy Boys window including a vintage set of books, a vintage comic, the new French book.

PS : Editions Novel also just published the French version of another hugely popular American children’s book series, The Boxcar Children. This series, started in 1924 by Gertrude Chandler Warner, tells the story of four orphaned children who take refuge in an abandoned boxcar in the forest. They end up living with their grandfather and encounter many adventures and mysteries that they try to solve.