Leslie McFarlane
Leslie McFarlane, born on October 25, 1902, in Carleton Place, Ontario, Canada, was a prolific writer best known for his contributions to children's literature, particularly the Hardy Boys series. After starting his career as a reporter in the early 1920s, he began working for the Stratemeyer Syndicate, where he wrote under the pseudonym Franklin W. Dixon, creating the first sixteen Hardy Boys novels. Despite feeling constrained by the formulaic nature of these works, McFarlane infused them with humor and literary allusions, ultimately producing a significant body of work that captivated young readers and sold over fifty million copies worldwide.
In addition to the Hardy Boys, McFarlane contributed to other series, including the Dana Girls, and he also produced a range of short stories and articles throughout his career. His later work included writing scripts for radio and television, as well as documentary films, earning him various accolades, including an Oscar nomination and a British Film Award. McFarlane's legacy lies not only in his writing but also in his role in encouraging a love of reading among children. He passed away on September 6, 1977, in Whitby, Ontario, leaving behind a rich literary heritage.
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Subject Terms
Leslie McFarlane
Fiction and Nonfiction Writer and Playwright
- Born: October 25, 1902
- Birthplace: Carleton Place, Ontario, Canada
- Died: September 6, 1977
- Place of death: Whitby, Ontario, Canada
Biography
Leslie McFarlane was born on October 25, 1902, in Carleton Place, Ontario, Canada, one of four sons of the town’s high school principal. The family moved to Haileybury, a northern Ontario mining town, in 1910. Young McFarlane, an avid hockey player and constant reader, began writing at an early age with aspirations of creating great fiction. After high school graduation in 1919, he went to work as a reporter for the Cobalt Nugget. He later reported for the Sudbury Star and the Springfield Republican in Massachusetts.
In the mid-1920’s, McFarlane was hired as a contract writer for Stratemeyer Syndicate, the publishers of a number of popular juvenile series including Nancy Drew, Tom Swift, the Rover Boys, and Bobbsey Twins. He first wrote eight entries in the Dave Fearless series of mysteries using the company pseudonym Roy Rockwood, and then was handed the assignment that would forever link his name with two of the most popular children’s characters ever created: the Hardy Boys.
As a contract writer, McFarlane, under the house pseudonym of Franklin W. Dixon, produced novelettes to a formula, detailing the mysterious and thrilling adventures of Frank and Joe Hardy, would-be sleuths who were the teenaged sons of detective Fenton Hardy. McFarlane received no royalties, just $125 per completed work, a sum that would be forfeited if McFarlane revealed his authorship of the books. Over the next twenty years, McFarlane produced dozens of series entries, including the first sixteen Hardy Boys tales, and the first four books in the Dana Girls series, using the established pseudonym Carolyn Keene. Although McFarlane hated these books, he tried to rise above the hack’s task, using humor, literary allusions, and multisyllable words to increase interest.
Meanwhile, to satisfy his desire to produce quality literature, he wrote scores of short adventure and mystery stories for pulp magazines and humor pieces for slick publications, all under his own name. Perennially strapped for cash, McFarlane needed the work to pay his family’s expenses during the Great Depression. In 1928, he married Amy Arnold, and the couple had three children, Patricia, Norah, and Brian, who became an ice hockey star and broadcaster.
In the late 1930’s, McFarlane began writing scripts for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) radio. After being turned down for military service in 1942, he went to work for the National Film Board of Canada as a writer, director, and producer of documentary films, making more than fifty features. He worked for the CBC for several years in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s. In the late 1960’s, he wrote scripts for a number of American television series, including Bonanza. During his career, McFarlane produced 4 novels, 100 hundred novelettes, 200 short stories, 125 television plays and documentary films, an autobiography entitled Ghost of the Hardy Boys, and countless articles. He died on September 6, 1977, in Whitby, Ontario, where he had lived during the last forty years of his life.
McFarlane was accorded a number of honors during his career. He was a cowinner of Maclean magazine’s 1946 short story contest, an Oscar nominee, and a British Film Award winner for his 1951 documentary Herring Hunt. He also won an international film award for his 1954 hockey film, a 1957 Liberty Award for his work as editor on the series Unforseen, and another Liberty Award in 1961 as Canada’s best playwright. However, his undying achievement was introducing generations of children—more than fifty million Hardy Boys novels have been sold worldwide to date—to the pleasure of reading.