Ghost of the Hardy Boys: The Writer Behind the World’s Most Famous Boy Detectives

“Ghost of the Hardy Boys is an elegant book, full of charm and pathos and whimsy.The writing is restrained, the characterizations deep and rich, the humor nuanced.”-Washington PostAs millions of boys and girls devoured the early adventures of the Hardy Boys, little did the young readers and aspiring sleuths know: the series’ author was not Franklin W.Dixon, as the cover trumpeted. It was Leslie McFarlane, a nearly penniless scribbler, who hammered out the first adventures while living in a remote cabin without electricity or running water in Northern Ontario.McFarlane was among the first bestselling ghostwriters and this, at last, is his story-as much fun as the stories he wrote. In 1926, 23-year-old cub newspaper reporter Leslie McFarlane responded to an ad: “Experienced Fiction Writer Wanted to Work from Publisher’s Outlines.” The ad was signed by Edward Stratemeyer, whose syndicate effectively invented mass-market children’s book publishing in America.McFarlane, who had a few publis