The Original Hardy Boys series

I'm sure that my experience with the Hardy Boys stories will be a mirror image of that of millions of other people who were raised between the 50s and the 80s. Although the Boys have been around since the 1920s, the books were overhauled in the 50s or 60s in order to get rid of some of the anachronisms that abounded in the earlier titles.

As most people with any interest know, Franklin W. Dixon was actually a nom de plume for a prolific hack writer who also birthed the Nancy Drew series. Only the first twenty books or so were written by the original author, after which they were produced from an anonymous stable of the publisher's writers. Think Brill Building for teen detective lit. The 'classic' series ran for 58 volumes, beginning with The Tower Treasure and ending with The Sting of the Scorpion.

It is easy for me to trace my love of reading back to the Hardy Boys series. As a kid growing up in the 1970s, I lived for these books. The stories had enough action and mystery to be engrossing, but were never frightening. The brothers, Frank and Joe, were just older enough to seem smart and independent without being total aliens to a pre-teen. Frank was sober and steady, Joe was impetuous and action-driven, giving all kids a behavior role model to look up to. Their friends ranged from Chet, the fat farm kid, to Phil Cohen, my first exposure to a Jewish character. I learned lots and lots of vocabulary from these books; words like 'sinister', 'jalopy', and 'estranged' entered my vocabulary.

My mom used to buy new titles for me as an allowance. Instead of cash for doing my chores, I was rewarded with a book. To this day I think of books as a special reward. Thanks mom! This series probably also was the root of my 'completist' nature when it comes to authors and artists.

My favorite titles? Danger on Vampire Trail, The Mystery of Cabin Island, and The Disappearing Floor. As time went by, I began to wonder how the guys could have solved 58 mysteries while still being 17 and 18. How many summer breaks and spring breaks did this school have? That was the beginning of the creep of cynicism that separates our childhood from the later years. I eventually sold the whole collection at a garage sale when I was 12 or 13, another milestone on the road to something. Still, I like to pick one up every now and then and reread it, and when I do, it still takes me back.