GHOST OF THE HARDY BOYS: AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY BY LESLIE MCFARLANE Review

[tomswift2002]

GHOST OF THE HARDY BOYS: AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY BY LESLIE MCFARLANE
45th Anniversary Review

Published 1977-1980 (Copyright 1976) Methuen/Two Continents Publications
Excerpts Reprinted by Applewood Books in 1991-2010 in The Tower Treasure & The House On The Cliff (1927 reprints)

Plot: In 1926, when twenty-three-year-old cub reporter Leslie McFarlane answered an ad for a fiction writer, he had no inkling of the bizarre writing career that lay ahead.  As a ghost writer for Edward Stratemeyer's syndicate for twenty years, he filled in the suspenseful plots of innumerable juvenile novels (including the original Hardy Boys), which have since been read by millions around the world.  McFarlane applauds Stratemeyer's creation of the tales of Franklin W. Dixon, Carolyn Keene, Roy Rockwood and other childhood favorites, and treat us to hilarious accounts of writing Joe and Frank Hardy into and out of trouble.

Yet McFarlane's autobiography encompasses much more than the derring-do of the young heroes and heroines he helped immortalize.  Woven into his humorous chronicle of juevenile fiction writing are heartwarming anecdotes of his travails as a neophyte journalist covering the big-time stories of small mining-town life and of his Thoreau-like rtreat to the Canadian backwoods to pursue serious writing.

Ghost of the Hardy Boys transports us to a gentler, more innocent, time which is described with wry, good humor of an "irreverant old pro."

[tomswift2002]

I remember first finding this book in the Keys Public School Library in 1994 when I was starting Grade 5.  I thought that it was interesting, but I didn't check it out then, since the class was in the library to do research for a project, and the book had nothing to do with the project.  But then a few weeks later I found a copy at a garage sale for like 25 cents or 50 cents, and I've had it since. 

But first, with the cover, I must say that the cover designer must've remembered seeing the yellow spines on the Grosset & Dunlap that were on the Hardy Boys dustjackets from 1934 to 1962. The design goes so far as to include a portrait of Leslie McFarlane in a three-piece suit on the spine!  (https://hardyboys.fandom.com/wiki/File:GhostOfTheHardyBoys.JPG) (That's a scan of my copy of the book from 2008.)  Also funny, but most copies of Ghost Of The Hardy Boys that I've seen have very ratty dustjackets!  This is one book dustjacket that really didn't seem to survive the decades.

That's surprising, considering that the book didn't sell well when it was out, and by 1980 it was on the out-of-print listings, so there have been no new copies (even digital copies) since 1980.  Of course, in 1991 Applewood Books secured the rights to reprint certain sections of McFarlane's autobiography in the fronts of The Tower Treasure & The House On The Cliff.  Tower featured a section talking about the origins of the series and how McFarlane started Tower, while House contained a section that dealt more with Edward Stratmeyer and the Stratemeyer Syndicate.  It's very nice to have those 2 books in my collection with the Leslie McFarlance intro's as it's kind of like having a reissued version of a film on DVD with bonus interviews from the cast and crew. 

Of course, when McFarlane wrote Ghost Of The Hardy Boys (Amazon gives it a publication date of May 1, 1976, which may or may not be correct, as while the copyright page says 1976, there have also been references to the book being issued in early 1977), he was recalling memories from nearly 50 years before.  Of course, because of when McFarlane died in 1977, we could see reprints of Ghost of the Hardy Boys reappearing on bookstore shelves in Canada in 2027, which is the same year that all of McFarlane's Hardy Boys books (including The Secret Warning (1938) , as Dr. John Buttons died in 1967, so McFarlane is the only person keeping that book under copyright right now, here in Canada, while the rest of Dr. Button's Hardy Boys (The Twisted Claw (1939), The Disappearing Floor (1940), Mystery Of the Flying Express (1941) and The Clue In The Broken Blade (1942)) and other Stratmeyer Syndicate books have been in the Canadian Public Domain since 2017---Canada doesn't have a "Works For Hire" copyright like the US, instead works for hire term limits are set by the life of the author plus 50 years, and the 50 years doesn't go into effect until the last author in a work dies).  Of course, in the US, Ghost of the Hardy Boys will not be in the public domain until 2047, while McFarlane's Hardy Boys books will start entering the US Public Domain on January 1, 2022, 95 years after The Tower Treasure, The House On The Cliff & The Secret of the Old Mill were published in 1927.  Also, unlike Canada, McFarlane's last Hardy Boys will be under copyright until 2042 (The Phantom Freighter (1947)).

[MacGyver]

I have known about this book for a while and have been interested in possibly getting and reading it at some point but I haven't spent the money or time to track it down just yet. Thanks for the review.

[tomswift2002]

Another thing that is interesting is that I live about an hour from both Arnprior, Ontario, where McFarlane's father was the principal at Arnprior High School around 1902, and Carleton Place where Leslie was born.

[tomswift2002]

'"The man burning to death in the garage could wait."' -McFarlane, pg 16

Classic McFarlane line as he describes Stratemeyer's insistence that Chapter 2 of a book (in this case Dave Fearless #4) start of with a recap of the previous volumes in the series.

[tomswift2002]

Chapter 4 contains a really funny story that Leslie McFarlane may've recalled when he was writing Chet in the Hardy Boys.  It's the story of his farewell party from the Springfield Republican, and how some fellows helped him pack his trunk for Canada in 1926.

[tomswift2002]

So I'm up to Chapter 13.  One thing that I forgot over the years was the level of language that McFarlane uses.  At the end of Chapter 12 he's relating his story of leaving the Sudbury Star, and he drops the "f" bomb.  So the book is not as clean as the Hardy Boys he wrote.

Also I've lived in North Bay, Ontario, where McFarlane got his first job after being an intern and recognized a few of the landmarks, like the train station (of course when I was there from 2004-06 it had been converted to a museum or something, but the outside was restored to its early-20th century look).

[tomswift2002]

So according to McFarlane's biography, The Tower Treasure & The House On The Cliff were both written at the cottage on Lake Ramsey in Sudbury, Ontario, while The Secret of the Old Mill was written in Haileybury, Ontario.  Do even though all 3 books take place in the US, they sure were not written in the US!

[tomswift2002]

An interesting note, in the 1930's it's been reported that McFarlane only got $85 per book—-while that is true in a sense, it seems that people may've been misremembering his autobiography where he stated that the cheque was sent in US Dollars, but after conversion to Canadian, it only worked out to $85 Canadian.

Also #4 was also in Haileybury, the #5,6, 8, 9, 10 & 11 were written outside Montreal while #7 was written in Toronto.

[tomswift2002]

I finished the autobiography a few days ago.  It's a book that every Hardy Boys fan should read, especially now that the early-Hardy Boys by Leslie McFarlane have been reprinted by Applewood Books (even though they are out-of-print). 

[tomswift2002]

McFarlane mentioned the Disney serials and the Filmation cartoon series briefly in the last chapters of his autobiography.

It sounded like he hadn't seen the Disney versions but had heard of them, while the cartoon he had caught a few episodes and he didn't like he the stories were incredibly shortened.

Also, because of when his autobiography was published in 1976-77, the Hardy Boys Nancy Drew Mysteries were just entering production so he hadn't seen or heard of the series, but he might've seen a few episodes before he died, seeing how McFarlane died in September 1977 and the show first aired in January 1977.

[MacGyver]

That is interesting to hear one of the first authors commenting on TV adaptations of their works. He would probably have enjoyed both the Disney serials and the '70s series. I can understand his take on the cartoon series.
(I would still love to see it get a DVD release though.)

[tomswift2002]

Yeah it would be nice to see the cartoon get a 4K/Blu-Ray or DVD release.  But no one knows where the rights are and whether the original 35mm masters still exist or if because of what happened when L'Oreal/Hallmark were handling the Filmation library in the 90's, only PAL Digital Betacam copies exist.  (Of course there are 16mm prints out there.)

[MacGyver]

Wow! Check out this listing on Amazon.com!

It would seem maybe this book is getting a re-release on June 7, 2022?

[tomswift2002]

https://fb.watch/au4YEcrtWK/

This is from the TV station I volunteer at, but I wasn't involved with this production.  But my good friend Jamie Bramburger interviews Brian McFarlane on Leslie McFarlane.