The Hardy Boys series by Leslie McFarlane
The Hardy Boys series, created by Leslie McFarlane and first published in 1927, centers around the adventures of two teenage brothers, Frank and Joe Hardy, who reside in the fictional town of Bayport. The series begins with "The Tower Treasure," where the boys embark on mystery-solving escapades prompted by their father or their own observations of suspicious happenings. The formulaic structure of the stories involves the brothers encountering various challenges, unraveling clues, and often facing perilous situations before ultimately delivering justice to the criminals they pursue. Over the decades, the series has seen significant changes, including revisions to eliminate ethnic stereotypes and modernize the language and themes to resonate with contemporary readers. Originally penned by Edward Stratemeyer and later by a team of ghostwriters, the series has grown to include over one hundred titles, although critics often note that the newer editions lack the charm and depth of the early works. The Hardy Boys remain a staple of juvenile literature, appealing to readers with their mix of adventure, suspense, and camaraderie.
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Subject Terms
The Hardy Boys series by Leslie McFarlane
First published: 1927-1979 (original Hardy Boys series; 58 volumes)
Type of work: Mystery/thriller
Themes: Crime, friendship, and family
Time of work: Contemporary with date of publication
Recommended Ages: 10-13
Locale: Bayport, a fictitious town in Connecticut, and surrounding areas
Principal Characters:
Frank and Joe Hardy , teenage brothers who investigate and solve crimesFenton Hardy , their father, a famous private detectiveMrs. Hardy , their mother, a housewifeAunt Gertrude , their father’s dictatorial sister, who cares for the boys when their parents are awayChet Morton , their chubby friend, who lives on a farmBiff Hooper , their tall, athletic friendTony Prito , their Italian-American friend, who owns a motorboatPhil Cohen , their friend who drives a motorcycleCallie Shaw , a teenage girl, who occasionally dates Frank HardyIona Morton , Chet’s sister, in whom Joe Hardy is occasionally interestedChief Collig , the police chief in BayportDetective Smuff , a detective in the local police departmentCon Riley , the constable in Bayport
The Story
The Hardy Boys series began in 1927 with the publication of The Tower Treasure and continues with the publication of one or two new titles each year, as well as the partial or complete revision of some of the early stories. Each of the Hardy Boys stories follows the formula first established in The Tower Treasure. Frank and Joe Hardy, students at Bayport High School, are confronted with a challenge to the peaceful atmosphere of their hometown, either because their father tells them about an unsolved criminal case or because they observe some kind of mysterious occurrence. As the boys set out to search for clues that will enable them to solve the mystery, they discover other suspicious situations that complicate their task considerably. In the course of their investigations, they frequently fall into dangerous, lifethreatening situations. Eventually, they confront the criminals face-to-face and, often with the help of their friends or their father, succeed in escaping unharmed. They deliver to the authorities the evidence that resolves the mystery and assures that the criminals will be brought to justice. Returning to the security of their home, they celebrate the success of their investigative activities with their family and friends. Finally, they hear the first hint of their next exciting adventure, which will be the subject of the next book in the series.
In The Tower Treasure, the adventure begins as the Hardy brothers’ roadster is almost run off the road by a red-headed man driving a sedan. When they report the offense, they find that several other crimes have occurred: the theft of Chet Morton’s convertible, an attempted holdup of the steamship office, and a robbery at the Tower mansion. Suspecting that all these events are related, the boys find and pursue a series of clues that lead them to a shop that sells red wigs, to a New York actor whose red wig was stolen from his dressing room, and finally to a criminal fond of red wigs, who confesses to the mansion robbery and indicates that the loot is hidden in the “old tower.” After an extensive, fruitless search of the towers of the mansion, Joe and Frank accidentally discover an old water tower, where they indeed find the stolen goods.
The device of one crime leading to another, one clue revealing other clues, is an integral part of each Hardy Boys story. While investigating mysterious, threatening messages that appear in a locked room in the Purdy mansion in While the Clock Ticked (1932), the brothers discover the eccentric former owner of the mansion, who babbles about the theft of his priceless stamp collection, and a gang of river thieves who use the deserted mansion to store their stolen goods. In The Disappearing Floor (1940), the brothers’ camping trip turns into a complicated adventure that starts with a mysterious envelope containing a one-hundred-dollar bill found at the campsite and leads to the discovery of an underground cave with a movable floor, a cult of sun worshipers who dress as East Indian princes, two vicious tigers escaped from a nearby zoo, a mad scientist in a mansion filled with electric gadgets, and a string of bank robberies. The Hardy brothers’ trip to a Chinese laundry in Footprints Under the Window (1933) leads them to a mysterious stranger, who impersonates a local bank clerk and turns out to be an amateur sleuth; a gang war between rival groups of Chinese immigrants; a corporate executive who smuggles foreigners into the country and then blackmails them; and the discovery of identical footprints at the scene of each suspicious event, footprints that turn out to be those of their father, who has been lurking in the shadows, following the development of the case.
Context
Because the Hardy Boys stories are a continuing series with a publication history that spans more than sixty years, they have undergone many changes since the first appearance of The Tower Treasure in 1927. Beginning in 1959, many of the early books were reissued in a revised form, and some were completely rewritten and published under the original titles. The 1964 revised version of The Disappearing Floor, for example, is a completely different story that has almost no relationship to the original book. Most of the revisions, however, are less drastic and consist of the elimination of ethnic stereotypes, the simplification of the story, and the elimination of almost all the psychological analysis that is common in the earliest books.
The revised versions, as well as the new stories published after 1959, are more modern in their portrayal of the reality of the Hardy Boys’ world. They deal with current phenomena such as airplane travel (The Secret Agent on Flight 101, 1967), international espionage (The Pentagon Spy, 1984), and space-age scientific achievements (The Arctic Patrol Mystery, 1969). The boys drive a “car” rather than a “roadster,” they avoid punctuating their speech with expressions such as “shucks,” and they fraternize with their “stout friend” rather than their “plump chum.” Although these new stories may be more acceptable to the contemporary reader, critics consider them much less interesting and sophisticated than the first publications in the series.
Because of these revisions, it is difficult to determine exactly how many different Hardy Boys stories have been published. In 1950, there were thirty-three. By 1984, there were more than eighty, and by 1990, there were probably in excess of one hundred. The Hardy Boys stories were first written by Edward Stratemeyer, who had authored hundreds of books for juvenile readers by the time of his death in 1930; by his daughter, Harriet Stratemeyer Adams; and by a number of other writers employed by the Stratemeyer publishing syndicate. The later volumes of the series were written by a panel of writers who followed outlines supplied by Adams. The Strate-meyer publishing syndicate also produced other popular series for children and young adults, including the Bobbsey Twins series and the Nancy Drew series.
Even though the early Hardy Boys books are occasionally marred by a strange, convoluted, narrative style and by ethnic stereotypes, they are characterized by a rather charming naivete, which complements the idyllic portrait of life that the series presents. A sort of “boys will be boys” attitude excuses some of the rather cruel practical jokes that Frank and Joe and their friends play on the adults. The third-person narrator engages in distracting, paternalistic conversations with the reader, shows no concern for the brothers’ careless behavior as they drive their cars and motorcycles and boats, and rarely acknowledges the frequent implausibility of the plot developments.
The basic premises and plots of the revised versions of the early books and the books written since 1959 continue to be extraordinarily contrived. They are also, according to critics, considerably less entertaining than the stories from the first thirty years of the history of the series. As the process of creating the Hardy Boys books evolved from the personal project of Edward Stratemeyer to the work of a corporate committee, the books have become much less distinctive.