Stratemeyer Syndicate

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 series, the Bobbsey Twins and others. The Stratemeyer Syndicate was the creation of Edward Stratemeyer, whose ambition was to be a writer à la Horatio Alger. He succeeded in this ambition (eventually even writing eleven books under the pseudonym "Horatio Alger"), turning out inspirational, up-by-the-bootstraps tales. Stratemeyer's business acumen, however, was in realizing that there was a huge, untapped market for "children's" books. Here was an underground market waiting to be brought into the open and made even more profitable. In Stratemeyer's view, it was not the promise of sex or violence that made such reading attractive to boys; it was the thrill of feeling "grown-up" and the desire for a series of stories, an "I want some more" syndrome. Accordingly, Stratemeyer began writing a series called The Rover Boys, in... full article at wikipedia