Although he is said to be the author of every Hardy Boys book, there is actually no writer named Franklin W. Dixon. Neither was there ever a Carolyn Keene, nor a Victor Appleton.
These are all pen names for a group of writers established by a man named Edward Stratemeyer. Since before the turn of the century, hundreds of children's series books had sprung from Stratemeyer's fertile mind. He found that he had far more ideas for stories and series than he could write on his own, and established a group of writers known as the Stratemeyer Syndicate.
Stratemeyer would then outline the basic plot of each book to be written, and one of the Syndicate writers (known as "ghost writers") would write the book, being paid a flat fee and no further royalties. It was a system that seemed to work.
The Hardy Boys Series began in 1927, when the first three novels were written by Leslie McFarlane (see photo) under the name Franklin W Dixon. McFarlane, a Canadian journalist, wrote the first fifteen novels of the series. He established the writing style that made the books successful.
Most of the early Stratemeyer books were adventure tales, but in the mid-nineteen-twenties, adult detective novels became popular, and the Stratemeyer Syndicate began to follow this trend.
In 1979, Simon & Schuster acquired the rights for all new Hardy Boys books written by the Syndicate. The new publisher gave the books an all-new look, and published several spin-off books from the series, including The Hardy Boys Ghost Stories and Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys: Super Sleuths.
The biggest spin-off series of all was the Hardy Boys Casefiles, which began in 1987. The Casefiles were aimed at an older audience than the other series, and presented readers with many changes from the original series, e.g. the Hardys view murder scenes and use guns.
However, the Casefiles proved to be much shorter-lived than the original mystery stories, and in 1998, after just over ten years of publication, the series was cancelled. The last volume was the ironically titled Dead in the Water.
Despite the failure of Simon & Schuster's attempts to modernize the Hardy Boys, the books still remain popular today. In fact, it is the original Hardy Boys Mystery Stories, begun by Edward Stratemeyer in 1927, that have been the most successful. [edit]
Although he is said to be the author of every Hardy Boys book, there is actually no writer named Franklin W. Dixon. Neither was there ever a 
