Adams, Harriet Stratemeyer (c. 1893–1982)

American writer and 50-year manager of the Stratemeyer Syndicate, which was responsible for many book series, including Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, and

the Bobbsey Twins. Name variations: (pseudonyms) Victor Appleton II, May Hollis Barton, Franklin W. Dixon, Laura Lee Hope, Carolyn Keene. Born on October 22, around 1893, in Newark, New Jersey; died on March 27, 1982, in Pottersville, New Jersey; daughter of Edward L. (an author) and Magdalene Stratemeyer; graduate of Wellesley College, 1914; married Russell Vroom Adams, in 1915; children: Russell Jr. (died in World War II), Patricia Adams Harr, Camilla Adams McClave, Edward Stratemeyer Adams.

Harriet Stratemeyer Adams described her father Edward as a man who could tell an original story at a moment's notice. Indeed, he took this talent to the limit, changing the history of popular children's literature in America. At the time of his death, the Stratemeyer Syndicate, which he founded in 1906, had produced over 700 books for children and young adults, including the popular Tom Swift and Bobbsey Twins series. His talent and business acumen passed to his daughter Harriet, who, with her sister Edna , took over the reigns of the Syndicate after her father's death. For 52 years, like her father before her, Harriet created hundreds of chapter-by-chapter book outlines for various series books, which were completed by a stable of writers, most anonymous, many former journalists. She also authored an estimated 200 books under various pseudonyms: Carolyn Keene for the Nancy Drew series; Franklin W. Dixon for the Hardy Boys; Victor W. Appleton II for Tom Swift, Jr.; and Laura Lee Hope for The Bobbsey Twins.

In 1910, Adams left her girlhood home in Newark, New Jersey, to attend Wellesley College, where she majored in English and also took courses in religion, music, science, and archaeology. Interested in a writing career, she submitted articles to The Boston Globe while in college. After graduation, she set her sights on a job in the Syndicate, but her father was against women working outside the home. Edward compromised, however, by allowing her to edit manuscripts and galley proofs as long as she worked at home and did not set foot in the office.

In 1915, Harriet married Russell Vroom Adams, an investment banker. Following her marriage, she could no longer work even at home because her father decided she should focus all her attention on her marriage. For the next 15 years, Adams raised her four children, while contenting herself with writing pieces for Sunday school and women's clubs. This routine changed greatly when her father died in 1930, and she decided to take over management of the Syndicate with the help of her sister Edna. After moving the business closer to her residence in New Jersey, she continued the incredible pace her father had established. With Edna handling day-to-day operations, Adams dealt with publishers and plotted new titles, while doing considerable writing herself, including many of the Nancy Drew and Dana Girls books. (Twenty-three of the first thirty Nancy Drew books, considered classics in the genre, were written by Mildred Wirt Benson .) In 1935, 14 series—in addition to Nancy Drew and the Dana Girls—were ongoing, including the Bobbsey Twins, Don Sturdy, Bomba the Jungle Boy, Tom Swift, and Honey Bunch. During the early years of her tenure, Adams introduced the Dana Girls and Kay Tracey as two major new series.

In 1942, Edna married and became an inactive partner, leaving Adams to supervise alone until 1961, when Andrew Svenson (who had been hired as an editor and writer in 1948), became a partner. The Syndicate flourished; only the Depression and paper shortages during World War II caused a cutback on the number of books published. The year 1947 ushered in the beginning of a new growth period, and in the '60s the Syndicate began to revise three of its most popular series: The Bobbsey Twins, Nancy Drew, and the Hardy Boys.

In much the same manner as her father, Adams created her books by first composing an outline, linking plot and subplot. The story was then dictated into a recording machine and transcribed by secretaries. Adams typically completed a mystery in two months, maintaining a nine-to-five writing schedule, with a daily goal of dictating three chapters or 7,500 words. Though she and her staff edited the final manuscripts, most of her stories contain exaggerated versions of incidents from her own childhood and teenage years, as well as her later adventures traveling for pleasure and research. Adams made extensive trips through the United States, Canada, Mexico, South America, Europe, Hawaii, the Orient, and Africa, and set many of her stories in the foreign locales she had visited.

The "Stratemeyer formula"—mystery and action, complemented by a smattering of educational material—has not been without its critics. Objections to stories have focused on the "assembly line method of mass production," and their "escapist, wooden, and regressive" nature. The immense popularity of the books through the years has had a mellowing effect on critics, however, and more recently the books have been seen as a way to interest young people in reading fiction, with the hope that this will lead them to higher literary pursuits.

At the time of Adams' death from a heart attack in 1982, four series were still in progress: the Bobbsey Twins, the Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, and Tom Swift, Jr., all with the most recent titles published in paperback. In the 1980s, two other series were reissued; Kay Tracey and Linda Craig. The appeal of Stratemeyer titles is undeniable, evidenced by the ongoing publication of many of the series books.

sources:

Billman, Carol. The Secret of the Stratemeyer Syndicate. NY: Ungar, 1986.

Johnson, Deidre, ed. Stratemeyer Pseudonyms and Series Books: An Annotated Checklist of Stratemeyer and Stratemeyer Syndicate Publication. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1982.

Barbara Morgan , Melrose, Massachusetts