The Bobbsey Twins are the principal characters of what was, for many years, the Stratemeyer Syndicate's longest-running series of children's novels, penned under the pseudonym Laura Lee Hope. The Stratemeyer Syndicate was the producer of a number of series for children and adults including the Nancy Drew mysteries The Hardy Boys, the various Tom Swift A pseudonym is a fictitious alternative to a person's legal name (see Alias) Laura Lee Hope is a Pseudonym used by the Stratemeyer Syndicate for the Bobbsey Twins and several other series of children's novels The first of 72 books was published in 1904, the last in 1979.
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Dramatis personae
The Bobbsey family consists of:
- The father, Richard, a successful lumber merchant;
- The mother, Mary (referred to at least once as "Edith");
- Bert and Nan, slim, brown-eyed, straight-haired brunette, the older of two sets of fraternal twins;
- Flossie and Freddie, chubby, blue-eyed, curly-haired blonds), the younger twins. Twins are Offspring resulting from the same Pregnancy, either of the same or opposite Sex.
Also living under the Bobbsey roof are Dinah and Sam Johnson, a black couple. Dinah is the Bobbsey family's cook and housekeeper, while Sam has been variously described, depending on the vintage of any particular book, as the Bobbseys' "man of all work," their chauffeur, a neighborhood handyman, or a truck driver at the Bobbsey lumberyard (in later volumes, Mr. Bobbsey's most trusted employee).
The Bobbseys live in the fictional city of Lakeport, on the shore of the equally fictional Lake Metoka, presumably somewhere in the northeastern U. S. The Bobbseys have relatives "in the country" (Richard Bobbsey's brother Daniel and his family, introduced in volume 2) on a farm near the rural town of Meadowbrook (in most books set there, that is also the name of the farm itself), and other relatives "at the seashore" (Mary Bobbsey's sister Emily Minturn and her family, introduced in volume 3), who live in the seaside hamlet of Ocean Cliff.
Other characters include:
- Charlie Mason, Bert's best friend;
- Nellie Parks, Nan's best friend;
- Susie Larker, Flossie's best friend;
- Teddy Blake, Freddie's best friend;
- "Aunt" Sallie Pry, an elderly, nearly deaf woman, who was a close family friend;
- Danny Rugg, a neighborhood bully and nemesis to the Bobbseys.
Authorship
Edward Stratemeyer himself is believed to have written the first volume, in its original form in 1904. Edward Stratemeyer ( October 4, 1862 &ndash May 10, 1930) Born in Elizabeth New Jersey, he was an American Publisher When the original series was halted in 1979, it had reached a total of 72 volumes. At least two abortive attempts to restart the series were launched after this, but neither achieved the popularity of the original series.
That Stratemeyer also wrote the second and third volumes of the series is believed to be pure fiction; these books are now generally attributed to Lilian Garis, wife of Howard Garis, who is credited with volumes 4–28 and 41. Lilian C Garis, born Lilian C McNamara (1873- 14 April 1954) was an American Author who wrote hundreds of books of juvenile fiction Howard Roger Garis, ( 25 April 1873, Binghamton, New York – 6 November 1962, Amherst, Massachusetts Elizabeth Ward is credited with volumes 29–35, while Harriet Stratemeyer Adams is credited with 36–38, 39 (with Camilla McClave), 40, 42, 43 (with Andrew Svenson), and 44–48. Harriet Adams ( December 11 1892 in Newark New Jersey as Harriet Stratemeyer – March 27, 1982) was an American Andrew E Svenson ( May 8, 1910 &ndash August 21, 1975) was an American children's author, Publisher, and Volumes 49–52 are generally attributed to Andrew Svenson, while 53–59, and the 1960s rewrites of 1–4, 7, 11–13, and 17, are attributed to June Dunn. Andrew E Svenson ( May 8, 1910 &ndash August 21, 1975) was an American children's author, Publisher, and Grace Grote is generally regarded as the real author of 60–67 and the rewrites of 14 and 18–20, and Nancy Axelrad is credited with 68–72. Of the 1960s rewrites not already mentioned, volumes 5 and 16 are credited to Mary Donahoe, 6 and 25 to Patricia Doll, 8–10 and 15 to Bonnibel Weston, and 24 to Margery Howard.
Plots
In their original editions, the first books in the series (like those in previous Stratemeyer series) took place in a clear chronology, with the characters aging as time passed. The Bobbsey Twins: Merry Days Indoors and Out took place over the course of a school year, with Nan and Bert described as eight years old and Freddie and Flossie four; the second book, The Bobbsey Twins in the Country is set the following summer. The second part of the summer is chronicled in The Bobbsey Twins at the Seashore, which is written as a direct sequel to the previous book, tying up some plot threads. The fourth book, The Bobbsey Twins at School, begins the next autumn, with Nan and Bert "nearly nine years old" and Freddie and Flossie "almost five. " Editors at the Stratemeyer Syndicate quickly realized that at this rate their young heroes would quickly age beyond their readership, and so the later books in the series (and in all revised editions) take place in a sort of chronological stasis, with the older twins perpetually 12 years old and the younger set six. A floating timeline (also known as a sliding timescale) is a device used in Fiction, particularly in Comics and Animation, to explain why
The earliest Bobbsey books were mainly episodic strings of adventures; with the growing popularity of the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew, detective plots began to dominate the series. The Hardy Boys is a Juvenile detective/adventure series chronicling the Fictional adventures of Teenage brothers Frank and Nancy Drew (1930-present is an amateur sleuth, the fictional Heroine of a popular Mystery series, aimed at the children - young Even so, few of the mysteries involved violent crime, and quite a few did not involve any crime at all.
While many of the early volumes were constructed from whole cloth, with little or no connection to the real world, by 1917 (The Bobbsey Twins in a Great City, vol. 9, rewritten in 1960 as The Bobbsey Twins' Search in the Great City) they were beginning to visit real places, and by the 1950s (The Bobbsey Twins at Pilgrim Rock vol. 50), those visits to real places were as well-researched as any fictional visits to real places. By 1971, when the Bobbseys visited Colonial Williamsburg (The Bobbsey Twins' Red White and Blue Mystery, vol. Colonial Williamsburg' is the historic district of the Independent city of Williamsburg Virginia. 64), real places were being depicted in meticulous detail, down to the names of well-known hotels and restaurants (and, in that particular case, even the color of Colonial Williamsburg shuttle buses).
It is said that vol. 68, The Bobbsey Twins on the Sun-Moon Cruise, was the result of a research trip for a proposed Nancy Drew book: Harriet Stratemeyer Adams and Nancy Axelrad (her personal assistant at the time) took an actual eclipse cruise but, when they returned, the publisher was more interested in a new Bobbsey title. Nancy Drew (1930-present is an amateur sleuth, the fictional Heroine of a popular Mystery series, aimed at the children - young
Post-1960 rewrites
In 1960, the Stratemeyer syndicate began to rewrite most of the older volumes, many of which became almost unrecognizable in the process (although in most cases, the rewritten versions were better-written than the originals). This was done concurrently with the release of a new edition of the series, with picture covers, no dust jackets, and a lavender spine and back cover (replacing the various green bindings that had been used before). Many of the cover paintings were originally dust-jacket paintings that had been added in the 1950s (before which, a single common dust-jacket painting had been used throughout any given edition), but most were new with the "purple" edition. In all, 20 were completely rewritten, all but two with modernized titles, while 16 were never released in this edition, evidently having been deemed to be dated beyond repair.
Most of the rewrites were motivated by changing technology (automobiles replacing horses and buggies) or changing social standards (particularly in how Sam and Dinah were portrayed). What is generally regarded as the most extreme rewrite is The Bobbsey Twins and Baby May, a story about the Bobbsey family's adventures trying to find the parents of a foundling baby. Since, by the 1960s, modern social services had rendered the original story utterly implausible, an entirely new novel was written, about the twins' adventures with a baseball-playing baby elephant (The Bobbsey Twins' Adventures with Baby May). This, however, had a ripple effect, as the original The Bobbsey Twins at Cherry Corners had been a sequel to the original Baby May. Thus, a second book was written, The Bobbsey Twins: The Mystery at Cherry Corners, incorporating only a very little bit of material from its original version.
References
- Keeline, James, D, 1999, "The Writers of the Bobbsey Series."
- --------, 2000, "Bobbsey Twins Formats."
External links
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