The Honey Bunch series of books were part of the Stratemeyer Syndicate's production of 20th century children's books featuring adventurous youngsters, which included the series Nancy Drew, the Hardy Boys and the Bobbsey Twins. [1] This series was written under the pseudonym Helen Louise Thorndyke, and published for most of its duration by Grosset & Dunlap. The series began in 1923 and chronicled a young girl named Honey Bunch on her various trips and adventures. [2] Along with Laura Lee Hope's series Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue, it was one of their most famous series for younger children. [3]
The first sixteen volumes were written by Josephine Lawrence:
Series books were at times perceived as being poor quality children's literature. Honey Bunch volumes 1 and 2 were among a set of books that school librarians eliminated from reading lists in the 1920s, after determining that they had low literary value. [4]
Mildred Wirt Benson, who is best known for writing many of the first Nancy Drew books, wrote five books in this series: [5]
And the series continues into a third and fourth decade:
The original series consisted of 34 books (with the 34th being published in 1955), although for the final two books, the original title was changed from just "Honey Bunch" to "Honey Bunch and Norman", signaling the shift the series would take to attempt to appeal to both sexes.
The 35th book was listed in the back of #34 as Honey Bunch and Norman Visit Cocoa Land. This book was never released, however, the manuscript of it is in the New York Public Library archives. [6]
In 1957 the series was re-vamped with a new title starting off the new Honey Bunch and Norman series. As would also be done later by the Syndicate with the Dana Girls series, recent titles in the original series were recycled throughout the beginning of the new series. For example, Honey Bunch and Norman on Lighthouse Island, was first published in 1949 as Honey Bunch: Her First Trip to a Lighthouse, and Honey Bunch and Norman Visit Reindeer Farm 1958 was first published in 1953 as Honey Bunch: Her First Trip to Reindeer Farm. [7] these were book that were written by Andrew E. Svenson and unlike the previous series that had 1 to 3 illustrations these were illustrated throughout
The final book of the Honey Bunch and Norman series was published in 1963, Honey Bunch and Norman and the Walnut Tree Mystery #12. This may be the last Stratemeyer Syndicate book to be published with a dust jacket, as most of the other Syndicate series seemed to phase them out by 1962. There is a manuscript for the unpublished 13th book, The Wooden Shoe Mystery, at the New York Public Library
Although the final book was published in 1963, the books remained in print for several years, though in the picture cover format, as Grosset & Dunlap had completely switched their line of series over from wrap around dust covers to picture covers. [8] It is believed that all 12 books were published in picture cover format. In the 1960s, Grosset & Dunlap had decided, for example with the Judy Bolton series and Connie Blair, not to republish select titles in picture cover format. It is possible this was done with the Honey Bunch and Norman series. Picture cover versions tend to be more difficult to find for this series since more copies were printed with dust jackets.
The first 12 books originally had individual cover art for each book by Walter S. Rogers, who was active with several Syndicate Series of the 1910s-1930s (The Bobbsey Twins and Hardy Boys for example). Marie Schubert took over with book 13, providing a more modern fashion than Rogers had used. The Syndicate was moving toward more progressive artwork during this period throughout its popular series. Schubert continued until book 23. [9] Book 24 also saw the end of individual cover-artwork, until the series was re-vamped in 1957. From book 25 on, Harry Lane is credited with the cover illustration. The previous books were also re-issued with the new, uniform artwork. Harry Lane's artwork was retired with book 32 of the original series. The correct 31st book, Honey Bunch: Her First Visit to Puppyland, was published in 1952. This book is extremely hard to find. There are 32 Honey Bunch books and 12 Honey Bunch and Norman books. When the series was re-vamped in 1957, individual cover illustrations were returned.
Nancy Drew is a fictional character appearing in several mystery book series, movies, video games, and a TV show as a teenage amateur sleuth. The books are ghostwritten by a number of authors and published under the collective pseudonym Carolyn Keene. Created by the publisher Edward Stratemeyer as the female counterpart to his Hardy Boys series, the character first appeared in 1930 in the Nancy Drew Mystery Stories series, which lasted until 2003 and consisted of 175 novels.
Mildred Augustine Wirt Benson was an American journalist and writer of children's books. She wrote some of the earliest Nancy Drew mysteries and created the detective's adventurous personality. Benson wrote under the Stratemeyer Syndicate pen name, Carolyn Keene, from 1929 to 1953 and contributed to 23 of the first 30 Nancy Drew mysteries, which were bestsellers.
Carolyn Keene is the pseudonym of the authors of the Nancy Drew mystery stories and The Dana Girls mystery stories, both produced by the Stratemeyer Syndicate. In addition, the Keene pen name is credited with the Nancy Drew spin-off, River Heights, and the Nancy Drew Notebooks.
The Stratemeyer Syndicate was a publishing company that produced a number of mystery book series for children, including Nancy Drew, The Hardy Boys, the various Tom Swift series, the Bobbsey Twins, the Rover Boys, and others. It published and contracted the many pseudonymous authors who wrote the series from 1899 to 1987, when it was sold to Simon & Schuster.
The Dana Girls was a series of young adult mystery novels produced by the Stratemeyer Syndicate. The title heroines, Jean and Louise Dana, are teenage sisters and amateur detectives who solve mysteries while at boarding school. The series was created in 1934 in an attempt to capitalize on the popularity of both the Nancy Drew Mystery Stories and the Hardy Boys series, but was less successful than either. The series was written by a number of ghostwriters and, despite going out-of-print twice, lasted from 1934 to 1979; the books have also been translated into a number of other languages. While subject to less critical attention than either Nancy Drew or the Hardy Boys, a number of critics have written about the series, most arguing that the Dana Girls' relative lack of success was due to the more dated nature of the series.
The Hardy Boys, brothers Frank and Joe Hardy, are fictional characters who appear in a series of mystery novels for young readers. The series revolves around teenage amateur sleuths, solving cases that often stumped their adult counterparts. The characters were created by American writer Edward Stratemeyer, the founder of book packaging firm Stratemeyer Syndicate. The books were written by several ghostwriters, most notably Leslie McFarlane, under the collective pseudonym Franklin W. Dixon.
Laura Lee Hope is a pseudonym used by the Stratemeyer Syndicate for the Bobbsey Twins and several other series of children's novels. Actual writers taking up the pen of Laura Lee Hope include Edward Stratemeyer, Howard and Lilian Garis, Elizabeth Ward, Harriet (Stratemeyer) Adams, Andrew E. Svenson, June M. Dunn, Grace Grote and Nancy Axelrad.
Edward L. Stratemeyer was an American publisher, writer of children's fiction and founder of the Stratemeyer Syndicate. He was one of the most prolific writers in the world, penning over 1,300 books and selling more than 500 million copies.
The Bobbsey Twins are the principal characters of what was, for 75 years, the Stratemeyer Syndicate's longest-running series of American children's novels, written under the pseudonym Laura Lee Hope. The first of 72 books was published in 1904, the last in 1979, with a separate series of 30 books published from 1987 through 1992. The books related the adventures of the children of the upper-middle-class Bobbsey family, which included two sets of fraternal twins: Bert and Nan, who were eight years old, and Flossie and Freddie, who were four when the first book was written. The two sets of twins aged as the series went on. As the series continued, the two sets of twins were perpetually aged at 12 and 6.
The House On The Cliff is the second book in the original Hardy Boys series published by Grosset & Dunlap. The book ranks 72nd on the Publishers Weekly's All-Time Bestselling Children's Book List in the United States with 1,712,433 copies sold as of 2001. This book is one of the "Original 10" Hardy Boys books and is an excellent example of the writing style used by the Stratemeyer Syndicate's writers. This style influenced many other "youth adventure series" books that the Stratemeyer Syndicate also published, including the Nancy Drew series, the Tom Swift adventure series, the Bobbsey Twins and other lesser known series. All of them used a unique writing style that made them very recognizable as Stratemeyer product.
Grosset & Dunlap is a New York City-based publishing house founded in 1898.
Andrew E. Svenson was an American children's author, publisher, and partner in the Stratemeyer Syndicate. Under a variety of pseudonyms, many shared with other authors, he wrote and cowrote more than 70 books for children, including in the Hardy Boys, Bobbsey Twins, Tom Swift, and Honey Bunch series. He wrote the series The Happy Hollisters using the pseudonym Jerry West and The Tolliver Family as Alan Stone.
The Mystery of the Tolling Bell is the twenty-third volume in the Nancy Drew Mystery Stories series. It was first published in 1946 under the pseudonym Carolyn Keene. The actual author was ghostwriter Mildred Wirt Benson.
Lilian C. Garis, born Lilian C. McNamara, was an American author who wrote hundreds of books of juvenile fiction between around 1915 and the early 1940s. Prior to this, she was the first female reporter for the Newark Evening News in New Jersey. Garis and her husband, Howard R. Garis, were possibly the most prolific children's authors of the early 20th century.
The Nancy Drew Mystery Stories is the long-running "main" series of the Nancy Drew franchise, which was published under the pseudonym Carolyn Keene. There are 175 novels — plus 34 revised stories — that were published between 1930 and 2003 under the banner; Grosset & Dunlap published the first 56, and 34 revised stories, while Simon & Schuster published the series beginning with volume 57.
Marie Schubert (1890-1983) was an American commercial artist and an illustrator of children's books in the early 20th century.