A Man of Letters, a Man of Business: Edward Stratemeyer and the Adolescent Reader, 1890-1930

On May 10, 1930, America lost one of its foremost producers of popular culture, the "'grand old man' of the juvenile book world," Edward Stratemeyer. Stratemeyer had created a massive literary empire that for over seventy-five years produced such unparalleled best-sellers as the Rover Boys, Tom Swift, Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, and the Bobbsey Twins adventure series. Yet, oddly, the death of "the grand old man" received only passing notice in the nation's press. In this dissertation, I demonstrate that Stratemeyer is in part responsible for his absence from history. By adopting dime novel techniques such as the rationalization of the writing process with the widespread use of pseudonyms, he established a successful literary syndicate--but one dependent on his own anonymity. In this sense, he contributed to his own demise by erasing himself from our historical memory.

Through a focus on Stratemeyer's career and the Syndicate that he developed, this dissertation explores the production and reception of juvenile popular fiction between 1890 and 1930. I examine the mechanics of production in the literary marketplace of the nineteenth century as well as changes in the conception of authorship. I illustrate how the industrialization of print contributed to the redefinition of authorship, transforming a once individual exercise into a collective, corporate endeavor. I also attempt to show how the rationalization of literary production intersected with anonymity and pseudonymity; these techniques enabled Stratemeyer to market his wares while masking the full extent of his literary empire.

In looking at the reception of Stratemeyer's juvenile fiction and its significance for readers, I turn to reader-response theory. Through an analysis of business correspondence and children's fan letters, I demonstrate how young readers responded to and reshaped the meaning imbedded in these books. I argue that adolescents actively produced and consumed these texts by, among other means, prevailing upon the pseudonymous writers to alter plots and characterization.