The authors of the books analysed in this thesis

In the late 1920s, Edward Stratemeyer, the brain behind many of the successful American book series for children and owner of the Stratemeyer syndicate, had discovered that detective stories were becoming increasingly popular in adult fiction. Therefore, he thought a detective story for boys would be worth attempting. Stratemeyer wrote a detailed outline of the first book and sent it to Leslie McFarlane, one of his ghost-writers who had signed a contract with the syndicate. McFarlane wrote a draft of the first Hardy Boys book and sent it back to Stratemeyer who accepted it. McFarlane then continued working as a ghost-writer for over twenty years, for instance, under the pseudonym of Franklin W. Dixonⁱ.

As a ghost-writer for years, McFarlane was used to writing in a certain way, namely to

‘hammer out the thing at breathneck speed, regardless of style, spelling or grammar … put it in the mail, the quicker the better, and get going on the next book ... time was money’ (1976:63).

When he started working on the first Hardy Boys book, however, he felt that ‘the Hardy Boys deserved better’(ibid), and decided to write a better series. He believed that he ‘probably had a knack for story telling’ (1976:187), and that the good stories behind the books were the main reason why the Hardy Boys books are popular even today. He was also aware that his audience did not consist of adults, which suited him, since he ‘wasn’t writing for educators and

librarians; [he] was writing for youngsters’ (1976:67).

Although she did write around 130 volumes of juvenile fiction over a thirty-year span, Mildred Wirt Benson is most famous for having written the twenty-five first Nancy Drew books under the pseudonym of Carolyn Keene between 1927 and 1953. Benson started

working for the Stratemeyer Syndicate in 1927 and stayed with them until 1953ⁱⁱ. About creating her heroine, she says that she tried to ‘make her a departure from the stereotyped heroine commonly encountered in series books of the day’ (1995:61). She believes Nancy became so popular ‘primarily because she personifies the dream image which exists within most teenagers’, and that she ‘might rate as a pioneer of Women’s Lib’ (1995:62). Benson was a prolific writer at this time, writing under at least six different pseudonyms, in addition to her own name. She usually spent a few weeks on the more popular-type material, and in her ‘most prolific year’(1995:63) she wrote thirteen full-length volumes under various pen names. This was possible partly because Stratemeyer had told her to ‘snap [her] fingers at literary content, but keep up the suspense’ (Johnson 1995:33).

When Stratemeyer died and his daugthers took over the company, the cooperation between publishers and ghost-writers became more difficult. The outlines ghost-writers received became increasingly detailed, thus making the stories harder to write, and the Stratemeyer daughters had their own opinions on how the stories should be told. Harriet Adams wrote in a letter to Benson of May 1947, that she should try to ‘use adjectives, adverbs and short phrases to make Nancy keen but diplomatic; George boyish, blunt and astute; Bess feminine, fearful, but willing to go along’ (Johnson 1995:35). The fact that the syndicate claimed increasing control over the story and allowed the writers less and less freedom upset Benson, and ultimately stopped her writing for them altogether. In the 1970s, Benson was invited by an editor to write a new teenage series, evolving around drug abuse and other social problems. Benson declined, however, believing that

the teenagers for whom I wrote lived in a world far removed from drugs, abortions, divorce and racial clash (…) Any character I might create would never be attuned to today’s problems. In my style of writing there can be no time concept, no chains binding one to the present. (1995:64)

While McFarlane and Benson were fed with a plot outline and a character list set up by their publisher, the other authors in this study have been a lot freer as regards deciding the content of their stories. R. L. Stine admits that he started writing the Goosebumps stories because he was asked to: ‘An editor asked me to write a scary book. She even gave me a title for it – Blind Date’ (2000:2). Since Stine had little, if any, experience in writing scary stories for children, he bought several scary children’s books and considered what he could do

differently. Thus, the initial idea and the title of Stine’s series came from a publisher, as did the idea of Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew. C. S. Lewis, K. A. Applegate and J. K. Rowling, on the other hand, came up with the ideas for their books themselves. Applegate’s idea behind Animorphs was ‘to give readers as accurate an idea as possible of what it would be like to

become a completely different species’ (2000:2). Therefore, Applegate makes sure to do thorough research, talking to zoologists and reading books on animal behaviour and psychology before writing.

Rowling said of her first ‘meeting’ with her protagonist, Harry, that ‘[he] just sort of strolled into my head, on a train journey. He arrived very fully formed. It was as though I was meeting him for the first time’ (1999a:5). At first, Rowling wrote for herself, with no thought of publishing the story. Thus, when she wrote the first Harry Potter book, as well as the synopsis for the next six books in the series, she did that mostly for herself, she claims.

C. S. Lewis had been writing several books for adults before he published The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, the first book in the series about the fantasy land Narnia, in 1950. The Magician’s Nephew (1955) was written second last in the series, but is nevertheless first in the reading order of the books, according to the publishers. There is dissension among scholars, however, as to which is the ‘correct’ reading order of the books (cf Schakel 1979), but I have chosen to follow the publishers’ choice, which places The Magician’s Nephew as the first book in the series. According to Coren (1994:68), Lewis had been fascinated by the idea of a magic wardrobe since he was a child, and was also inspired by a child who once asked him what was behind a particular wardrobe, ‘whether there was another way out through the other side’ (ibid). In addition, the inspiration for the Narnia series probably came partly from two books: The Aunt and Anabel by Edith Nesbit and The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett, and partly from an image Lewis had had in his mind for some years: an image ‘of a faun carrying an umbrella and parcels, walking through a snow-covered forest’(Coren 1994:68). The Narnia series is to a large extent the story of good and evil, and can be interpreted with many religious implications. However, the story is just as appealing and unforgettable on a level where one does not see the religious relations, and it was Lewis’

intention that children should be allowed ‘to enjoy the book for themselves and think about religion when they were older’ (Coren 1994:70). The fact that the Narnia books can be read on several levels, just as the Harry Potter books, contributes to placing them among quality children’s books, and in an even more rare group: books that appeal to a dual audience of children and adults.

While McFarlane and Benson have been hidden behind pseudonyms, the other writers use their real names. That is, they use their initials and not their full names: C. S. Lewis, R. L.

Stine, K. A. Applegate, J. K. Rowling. Since young boys are often reluctant to read books by female authors, the authors may consciously have avoided the gender issue by using the androgynous initials combined with their last names, as other writers before them (cf A. A.

Milne; J. R. R. Tolkien). P. L. Travers used her initials only on the title page of Mary Poppins, knowing that

[c]hildren’s books are looked on as a sideline in literature (…) They are usually thought to be associated with women. I was determind not to have the label of sentimentality put on me, so I signed by my initials, hoping people wouldn’t bother to wonder if the books were written by a man, a woman or a kangaroo. (in Frankel 1964:57)

Rowling, along with Stine and Applegate, says she is proud to be writing for children, although she initially just wrote for herself. Stine says he enjoys writing for children a lot more than writing for adults, and that he especially loves getting letters from children who write that they have read 30 or 40 of his books, because ‘It means that they have developed a real reading habit. And they will go on to read all kinds of books’ (2000:3). In fact, all of the writers seem concerned that children should develop good reading habits, and encourage them to keep reading all kinds of books, both for pleasure and for reading practice.

Stine is aware that, as with the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew series, some critics want to keep his books out of the libraries and schools because of their content and language. His response is that he is careful about what he puts in his books. Yet, he believes the main responsibility of children’s writers is

to show kids that they don’t have to turn to TV or computer games for entertainment (…) I think this is the role that my books play. It thrills me that I finally found something to get boys to read, after 25 years of trying. (2000:4)

While Stine’s mission is to show children that books can be just as exciting and entertaining as TV or computer games, Applegate feels that her books should inspire children and give them respect for the natural world. Stine probably relates to what Aiken said, mentioned in Section 2.3.1, about writing for children to give them the pleasure in reading she had as a child, while Applegate relates more to Van der Loeff, who writes for children in order to help them find their own identity and purpose in life. Applegate stresses her aim to inspire the children, while Stine’s goal is to give them a good scare.

When asked about the content of her books, Rowling answered that she believes magic has a universal appeal (Bouquet 2000:1), a view shared by Medlicott, who believes magic ‘is a universal ingredient of different oral traditions’ (1996:342). Without going into details, it is obvious that the Harry Potter books have certain fairytale-like traits. Rowling’s books and Lewis’ Narnia books have achieved a dual readership, while the other books in the study appeal mostly to children. Thus, Harry Potter and Narnia fulfil C. S. Lewis’ definition of a good story: ‘a children’s story which is enjoyed only by children is a bad children’s story’

(1959:210). In other words, since the books are enjoyed by both children and adults, they must

be good books. The publishers that Rowling first contacted refused her manuscript, however, saying that the action and the sentence structure, were too long and complicated. Ironically, the intricate plot and the puzzling language are some of the things the readers now say they love in the books, and what has inspired other authors to write interpretations of Rowling’s books (cf Mammen 1999; Schafer 2000; Stoveland 2001).