“I got a big mystery to solve. The Tower Mansion has been robbed!” (50).
The Hardy Boys series has a fascinating and storied publication history. The concept for the series begins at the dawn of the 20th century when visionary children’s publisher, Edward Stratemeyer (1862-1930), the son of German immigrants to the United States, founded the Stratemeyer Syndicate in 1899. This was the age of the dime novel, and Stratemeyer saw an opportunity with the growing youth market by contracting with a cohort of ghost writers who published children’s adventure novels under various pseudonyms. Some of the ghost writers included such as Mildred Benson, Josephine Lawrence, Howard R. Garis, and Leslie McFarlane. The first series created was The Rover Boys which was published under the pseudonym Arthur M. Winfield beginning in 1899, then The Bobbsey Twins under the pseudonym Laura Lee Hope beginning 1904, and Tom Swift under the pseudonym Victor Appleton beginning in 1910. Nancy Drew first appeared in 1930 (it was ghostwritten by Mildred Wirt Benson, Walter Karig, and others).
The Hardy Boys first appeared in 1927 under the pseudonym Franklin W. Dixon. But the first sixteen or so books are believed to have been ghostwritten almost entirely by Leslie McFarlane (1902-1977), a Canadian writer who apparently cranked out a dizzying number of books during the Great Depression in order to pay the bills (the Stratemeyer Syndicate’s ghost writers were primarily paid a flat fee, sometimes as low as $85 per book, with no further royalties). The books were released in partnership with the New York publishing house Grosset & Dunlap.
Edward Stratemeyer died in 1930, and upon his passing, Fortune likened him to the great American businessmen of the 20th century –“As oil had its Rockefeller, literature had its Stratemeyer.” The Stratemeyer Syndicate then passed to his two daughters, Harriet Stratemeyer Adams and Edna Stratemeyer Squier, but after a few years, Edna sold her shares to her sister Harriet. Over time, Grosset & Dunlap began receiving ever increasing volumes of letters from parents complaining about the dated cultural stereotypes depicted in The Hardy Boys. Then, in 1959 Harriet Stratemeyer Adams relented and she began editing and rewriting all Hardy Boys books, a process that angered many fans, and which only ended in 1973 with the final re-release of all 38 original volumes. In revising all the stories, the length of the books was shortened by about twenty pages or so on average and the prose was simplified, while racial stereotypes were removed. In some cases, entire books were rewritten while others received minor changes. Thankfully, the first book in the series, The Tower Treasure, which many fans regard as among the best, only received minor changes. For example, in the original text, the world around Bayport is described with greater texture, almost as if it is a pulpy, morally grey, gritty, pre-Depression-era town, as opposed to the more straightforward, black-and-white, middle-class milieu of the late 1950s. For the most part, the novel has been cut down about 20 pages or so, with a few scenes being entirely erased, including a rare scene from Fenton Hardy’s perspective where he conducts his reconnaissance mission in New York City, among other scenes featuring the boys arrested, and a couple references to murder and so on.
The revised version of The Tower Treasure has remained in print for many years, and is the version I grew up reading (Hardy Boys fans of my generation will recall the glossy hardcover blue and white volumes which conveniently sit nicely together on a bookshelf). However, surprisingly, the original uncensored Hardy Boys novels have started making their way back into publication now that the original text of The Tower Treasure has entered the public domain as of 2023 (the revised editions will not enter the public domain until 2054). Several publishers have since released cheap editions of the original texts (like Dover and Bauer World Press), though perhaps the definitive edition of the original text can be found in the carefully reproduced Applewood facsimiles which were released in the early 1990s (albeit only for the first 16 books of the series). These Applewood editions have managed to recreate the look and feel of the original Hardy Boys books from when they were initially released in the 1920s.
Amidst a string of big publishing house acquisitions over the years, as well as highly publicized lawsuits, such as the infamous 1979 lawsuit that pulled back the curtain on much of the secretive operation within the Stratemeyer Syndicate (revealing the identities of several ghost writers), Grosset & Dunlap has continued to retain the right to publish the first 59 volumes in The Hardy Boys series (revised versions), while Simon & Schuster has the right for any newer Hardy Boys novels. Needless to say, the copyright ownership for The Hardy Boys “canon” can get a little messy here.
At any rate, the first book in The Hardy Boys series, The Tower Treasure, introduces readers to the fictional town of Bayport, a small but thriving city of fifty-thousand inhabitants located on Barmet Bay three miles inland from the Atlantic Ocean. Our protagonists are brothers Frank (18), who is tall and dark, and Joe (17), who is blond with blue eyes –they are students at Bayport High, and the children of Fenton and Laura Hardy, whose home on corner of High and Elm streets. Their father, Fenton Hardy, is a renowned private detective and former NYPD detective. Naturally, the boys greatly admire their father.
We first meet Frank and Joe on their motorcycles driving over a winding cliffside road as they deliver documents on behalf of their father to the neighboring town of Willowville when suddenly an oncoming “speed demon” nearly runs them off the road. The boys merely catch a glimpse of the hatless driver with a shock of red hair. This dramatic prologue leads the Hardys down a wild trail of many twists and turns, involving their stout “school chum” Chet Morton, whose prized yellow jalopy (“The Queen”) is stolen from his family farm outside Bayport, as well as pretty brown-eyed Callie Shaw (Frank’s girlfriend), Chet’s sister Iola, and a panoply of school friends: Allen “Biff” Hooper (“blond and long-legged” with “an ambling gait”), Jerry Gilroy (“an excellent fielder on Bayport High’s baseball team” who is “of medium height, wiry, and strong”), Phil Cohen (“a quiet, intelligence boy”), and Tony Prito (“a lively boy with a good sense of humor”). We also meet many colorful people about town like Chief Ezra Collig, head of the Bayport Police, Rocco and his Fruit Store, which serves as the site of a successful ruse orchestrated by the Hardys, and Ike Harrity, the man who runs the ferryboat ticket window where he is robbed at gunpoint. But perhaps the most amusing character in the book is Oscar Smuff, a would-be investigator who tries (and fails) to out-sleuth the Hardys at every turn.
While investigating the theft of Chet Morton’s car, another theft comes to light. The Tower Mansion has been robbed; a safe containing forty-thousand-dollars-worth of jewels and securities was stolen. Who could have committed such a robbery?
“Tower Mansion was one of the show places of Bayport. Few people in the city had ever been permitted to enter the place and the admiration which the palatial building excited was solely by reason of its exterior appearance. But the first thing a newcomer to Bayport usually asked was, ‘Who owns that house with the towers over on the hill?’… It was an immense, rambling stone structure overlooking the bay, and could be seen for miles, silhouetted against the sky line like an ancient feudal castle. The resemblance to a castle was heightened by the fact that from each of the far ends of the mansion arose a high tower… One of the towers had been built by Major Applegate, an eccentric, retired old Army man who had made a fortune by lucky real estate deals. Years ago there had been many parties and dances in the mansion… But the Applegate family had become scattered until at last there remained in the old home only in the vast, lonely mansion at the present time… Hurd Applegate was a man about sixty, tall, and stooped. His life seemed to be devoted now to the collection of rare stamps. But a few years before he had built a new tower on the mansion, a duplicate of the original one… His sister Adelia was a maiden lady of uncertain years. Well-dressed women in Bayport were amused by her clothes. She dressed in clashing colors and unbecoming styles. Hurd and Adelia Applegate were reputed to be enormously wealthy, although they lived simple, kept only a few servants, and never had visitors” (50-51).
Old curmudgeonly Hurd Applegate, owner of Tower Mansion along with his sister Adelia, immediately places the blame for the robbery on his employee Henry Robinson, the caretaker of the grounds. Henry is the father of Perry “Slim” Robinson, a friend of the Hardys. Why does Hurd Applegate blame Henry Robinson for the robbery? Because that morning Henry paid off a nine hundred dollar note at the bank, but he refuses to explain where he got the money.
Henry Robinson is then fired and the Robinson family quickly falls into destitution, Slim is even forced to forgo his college plans and take up a job working in a grocery store to help pay the family bills (he has two younger twelve-year-old sisters, twins Paula and Tessie). The Hardys race against time to exonerate their friends’ dad and claim the $1,000 reward being offered by Hurd Applegate. The adventure leads them all across town and even aboard a flight to New York City to join their father as they follow clues leading to wig stores, pawn shops, and even a Shakespearean acting troupe. With a little help from the NYPD, Fenton Hardy tracks down the criminal and eventually extracts a confession from him. His name is John Jackley, also known as “Red Jackley,” a notorious criminal who was initially caught wearing red wig (hence the nickname “Red Jackley”). He is currently out of prison on parole before being nabbed again in a jewelry theft. He previously worked on the railroad near Bayport. However, shortly before he dies, Red Jackley confesses to stealing a car near Bayport (the same speed demon depicted at the beginning of the book), smashing it up, and then stealing Chet’s jalopy before robbing the ferry ticket office. Having not been caught, he decided to hang around town and breaks into The Tower Mansion where he stole the jewelry and securities, and he has stashed the loot in “the old tower” –but he loses consciousness before he can explain further (presumably, he dies). What did Red Jackley mean by “the old tower?”
Naturally, the Hardys head for The Tower Mansion where they search high and low several times, but to no avail. Distraught, they head for the train station, where Red Jackley was once employed, and this leads them to the Cherryville station where they discover two water towers, one old and one new. Suddenly struck by the realization that one of these could be the “old tower” Red Jackley was referring to, the boys make haste for the old water tower where they find the missing jewelry and bonds stashed inside! But inside they briefly face-off with a dangerous grumpy vagrant named Hobo Johnny, who locks them inside the water tower, before escaping and heading back to Bayport with the stolen items, finally returning them to Hurd Applegate. Henry Robinson is then exonerated and re-hired at a higher salary by Hurd Applegate. As it turns out, Hurd Applegate’s sister Adelia had loaned him the $900 to help with his money troubles (she didn’t want to tell her brother for some reason) –this explains why Henry Robinson cashed in $900 at the bank. To make amends with the community, the Applegates decide to open the area of their mansion grounds where the pond sits so that it may serve as a picnic and swimming spot for the Bayport public. In the end, the Hardys win the $1,000 reward, much to Oscar Smuff’s chagrin, and they decide to put it in the bank and use a portion of the funds to open a crime lab on the second floor of their barn.
The Tower Treasure offers a wonderfully charming beginning to The Hardy Boys series. I was particularly struck by the richly imagined fictional community of Bayport and all the remarkable characters who dwell therein. Bayport is an optimistic post-war community, it gives readers a sense of simpler times, a feeling of mystery and adventure lurking just beneath the surface of this wholesome midcentury small town. While the Hardys find themselves in danger at several points, we never really fear for their safety. And modern readers will likely get a chuckle out of classic Americana colloquialisms (baseball euphemisms, classic cars, “school chums,” “going steady,” and so on). At any rate, The Tower Treasure is a wonderfully nostalgic trip down memory lane.
Lastly, no review of The Hardy Boys would be complete without a sufficient praise of Rudy Nappi (1923-2015), the oil paint artist who created the definitive 1959 artwork for the revised editions of the series. His cover piece for The Tower Treasure depicts the boys during their dramatic nighttime investigation of Tower Mansion while Adelia Applegate’s light shines down on them, as featured in the final chapters of the book.
Dixon, Franklin W. The Tower Treasure. New York, Grosset & Dunlap, 1959.
There’s a blast from the past! Read them all back in the day but didn’t know the whole back story.