October 4
STRATEMEYER DAY
And you thought Laura Lee Hope wrote The Bobbsey Twins. Well, yes and no. Hope was the pen name of Edward L. Stratemeyer, born on this day in 1862. Stratemeyer used over 60 different names to pen over 800 books.
Stratemeyer created the Stratemeyer Syndicate in 1906 to produce such popular teenagers’ reading material as The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew mystery series. Under the name Arthur Winfield, Stratemeyer penned twenty books from 1899-1917 about the adventures of The Rover Boys, plus forty books centered around the young inventor, Tom Swift.
He wrote the first of many Bobbsey Twins stories in 1904. It was titled Merry Days Indoor and Out and featured the adventures of two sets of twins, eight-year-olds, Bert and Nan and four-year-olds, Freddie and Flossie.
Thanks go to Mr. Stratemeyer, or whatever his name was, for many hours of great reading for many, many generations of young people.
Those Were the Days, the Today in History service from 440 International
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