Ghost of The Hardy Boys

Ghost of The Hardy Boys by Leslie McFarlane (1976) I’ve known about this book forever but resisted reading it—fearing the worst—you know—but I was really surprised at how good it is. It’s really very entertaining—because he’s so funny and has a good attitude about being this kind of odd figure in literary history—a ghostwriter. He also describes his young life in Canadian mining towns and early career as a journalist—as well as his writing career after writing series books. I’ve always been curious about a few things, ever since I learned that about 20 of the early Hardy Boy books were written by him—including most of the early ones, which are among the best—and he answered a lot of my questions. He was much the source of the humor, strangeness, and irreverence that make the early, original versions so good. Of course, I grew up thinking Franklin W. Dixon was a real person—so it wasn’t until I was an adult that I learned most of the children’s series books were written by ghostwriters, and it wasn’t until much later that I learned that many books (Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew, primarily) were not only being updated—in many cases entirely rewritten. McFarlane apparently didn’t learn until much later in life, either, about the re-writing—and he ends the book on that note. He doesn’t necessarily sound bitter about it—or the fact that he was paid around $100 per book—and they went on to be franchises—but he gets his last word in here, at least. You can tell by reading this autobiography, as well as early editions of the Hardys, that he had a unique sensibility and went a much further than it would have been required of him to infuse books—particularly the early Hardys—with some oddball perspective—essentially the personality of the books—which is why I’m still able to read them as an adult.

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