It had recently occurred to him, Stratemeyer continued, that the growing boys of America might welcome similar fare. Van Dine was neither an ocean liner nor a living man but the pseudonym of Willard Hungtington Wright, a literary craftsman who wrote sophisticated stories for Mencken’s Smart Set.
Van Dine, which were selling in prodigious numbers as I was well aware. Before the week was out a long envelope brought another outline, accompanied by a letter explaining his “other plans.” He had observed, Stratemeyer wrote, that detective stories had become very popular in the world of adult fiction. It turned out that I could count on Edward Stratemeyer. He could count on Bob Vilett and Captain Broadbeam to haul him to the surface, while Pat Stoodles lent encouragement by bellowing “Heave-ho, bejabers!” I couldn’t count on anyone-except, perhaps, Edward Stratemeyer. It was all very well for Dave Fearless to meet catastrophe with aplomb. This example of calmness in the face of disaster didn’t really help. Excerpted from Ghost of the Hardy Boys: The Writer Behind the World’s Most Famous Boy Detectives, by Leslie McFarlane
