THE HAPPY HOLLISTERS & COPYRIGHT DATES

Back of book club promotion envelope:

I am listing the Happy Hollisters books for the first time in my blog, which is nothing extra-ordinary, but my list includes one additional piece of information. I am not sure I have ever seen a list of Happy Hollisters books with copyright dates for each volume listed. So this list will include copyright dates to illustrate how frequently these books were published in a particular year. Note in particular the fact that the first four volumes were all copyrighted in the same year, 1953. That is quite an achievement in series book history, although not unmatched by other series. I am also, by copyright dates, listing the series in order and correcting an error repeated over and over again in the series. That error is the placement of Pony Hill Farm before Merry-Go-Round Mystery on most book lists for the series since those books were first published. The problem started, I assume, when Pony Hill Farm is listed as volume #10 on its dust jacket even though that book is copyrighted in 1956 and Merry-Go-Round Mystery is listed as #11, even though its' copyright is 1955. I have recently seen a first edition of Pony Hill Farm that has that error on the dust jacket. And my copy of Merry-Go-Round Mystery, published by Garden City, lists it as #11 on the dust jacket spine, but on the dust jacket back flap and inside it is listed as #10 in order. So this list will correct the order of Happy Hollisters books.

Included in this blog entry are some additional photos of Happy Hollister book club promotions and the mailing cards from the club to myself. Note one of the mailing cards came with my gold metal book holder. More about these items are availble in other earlier blog entries

# 1 The Happy Hollisters, 1953

# 2 The Happy Hollisters on a River Trip, 1953

# 3 The Happy Hollisters at Sea Gull Beach, 1953

# 4 The Happy Hollisters and the Indian Treasure, 1953

# 5 The Happy Hollisters at Mystery Mountain, 1954

# 6 The Happy Hollisters at Snowflake Camp, 1954

# 7 The Happy Hollisters and the Trading Post Mystery, 1954

# 8 The Happy Hollisters at Circus Island, 1955

# 9 The Happy Hollisters and the Secret Fort, 1955

#10 The Happy Hollisters and the Merry-Go-Round Mystery, 1955

#11 The Happy Hollisters at Pony Hill Farm, 1956

#12 The Happy Hollisters and the Old Clipper Ship, 1956

#13 The Happy Hollisters at Lizard Cove, 1957

#14 The Happy Hollisters and the Scarecrow Mystery, 1957

#15 The Happy Hollisters and the Mystery of the Totem Faces, 1958

#16 The Happy Hollisters and the Ice Carnival Mystery, 1958

#17 The Happy Hollisters and the Mystery in Skyscraper City, 1959

#18 The Happy Hollisters and the Mystery of the Little Mermaid, 1960

#19 The Happy Hollisters and the Mystery at Missile Town, 1961

#20 The Happy Hollisters and the Cowboy Mystery, 1961

#21 The Happy Hollisters and the Haunted House Mystery, 1962

#22 The Happy Hollisters and the Secret of the Lucky Coins, 1962

#23 The Happy Hollisters and the Castle Rock Mystery, 1963

#24 The Happy Hollisters and the Cuckoo Clock Mystery, 1963

#25 The Happy Hollisters and the Swiss Echo Mystery, 1963

#26 The Happy Hollisters and the Sea Turtle Mystery, 1964

#27 The Happy Hollisters and the Punch and Judy Mystery, 1964

#28 The Happy Hollisters and the Whistle Pig Mystery, 1964

#29 The Happy Hollisters and the Ghost Horse Mystery, 1965

#30 The Happy Hollisters and the Mystery of the Golden Witch, 1966

#31 The Happy Hollisters and the Mystery of the Mexican Idol, 1967

#32 The Happy Hollisters and the Monster Mystery, 1969

#33 The Happy Hollisters and the Mystery of the Midnight Trolls, 1969

Letterhead of Happy Hollisters book club:

HAPPY HOLLISTER FIRST EDITIONS & MORE

On a separate part of this blog is a section of special notes about The Happy Hollisters. One of the notes is about a first edition of Mystery of the Little Mermaid. In all my many years of collecting The Happy Hollisters, it was only recently that I found a 1st edition of that book that has an error on the dust jacket. That error is the fact that the scene of the Hollister children playing along a yard fence on the spine of the dust jacket is missing. Till this day, this is the only such error I had ever seen on the dust jackets of this series. And that was a serious error. The funny thing about this is that until a few years ago, I had never seen this book with that error, but since the first time I noticed this, I have seen similar first editions of that book on eBay and now in an antique mall.

I just finished a weekend trip to the Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas area and at the Montgomery Street Antique Mall in Fort Worth, I found several first editions of the Happy Hollisers, including Little Mermaid. I was with a friend who noticed that the previous owner, Yvonne, had marked on the dust jacket of Little Mermaid. In the list of Happy Hollisters volumes on the back flap of the dust jacket, there was a mistake that Yvonne corrected. The sixth volume of the series, at Snowflake Camp, is misspelled to read: at Snowflake Cave. I missed this on the volume I own, which didn't have the luxury of having Yvonne correct it. Here is a picture of the error from the back flap of the dust jacket of The Mystery of the Little Mermaid. Hit the link for a closer look:

NEW: I recently noticed on an eBay auction that some editions of the Happy Hollisters and the Castle Rock Mystery had a title page with no pictures of the Hollister children. This book was a dust jacketed version, but I have the same thing in a picture cover edition. I believe later printings corrected this, so I am guessing this happened in only a few early printings. I cannot recall ever seeing this before, so it is another unique mistake Doubleday & Company made.

SERIES BOOK CATALOG AND MAGAZINE ADS

Through all the years of collecting children's mystery series books, I have seen very little promotional material about them and that is one reason I find the tri-fold "Who's Who" ad that was included in some Grosset & Dunlap books in 1964 very appealing (see prior article on the famous ad). Here are a few more items that I found on eBay that came from magazines or catalogs. Obviously, these ads go back some years, so those who enjoy antiquing for books, might take another look at those stacks of Sears or Penney's catalogs in the local antique mall that date in the 1940s-1970s. You might find some ads similar to these. (note, Google blogs allow any photos placed in this section of the blog to be enlarged when you click on them, so be sure to enjoy the up close view by doing so.)

This is from a Wards catalog.

This one is dated September 1942 from a magazine called Playthings.This is also a Wards listing and note the Mildred Wirt books on the right side, advertising Brownie Scout and Dan Carter Cub Scout books.

Finally, these are photos of a Grosset & Dunlap catalog from the early 1970s. I had this in my collection for a good 30 years and sold it a few years ago for about $50. Considering this was a free catalog, that is a pretty good investment for saving it all those years. The interesting thing about it is some of the books in the catalog are very hard to find books because they were books issued at the end of the particular series, so there are few copies out there to find and thus they have a higher value today. This is particularly true of the Rick Brant books for sale in this catalog. I wish the photos were better, but these were take by a camera and not a scanner. Still it is an interesting item. And in case you were wondering, I am the one who marked up the list to indicate what books I had at that time. I guess I didn't think much of it being a collectable then or I wouldn't have marked on it, but I was a kid then and we all know how kids like to mark in their books.

SERIES BOOK TREASURES ARE STILL OUT THERE

Many of our favorite children's mystery series books involve searching for a treasure, whether it is valuable stamps, gold, lockets or weathervanes, our heroes are usually involved in the search of some item that will make them rich or, more likely, help out someone in need.
Now for most of series book collectors, we never have the chance to do such searching and probably that is why we enjoy reading about Nancy Drew, the Hardy Boys, the Bobbsey Twins or the Happy Hollisters doing so. But many of us are treasure seekers, and our treasure is series books to complete our collection or enhance it.
Over my many years of searching out series books, I have had many successes and many more failures, but much of the joy is the searching and when you succeed you feel a great thrill.
Most of my searches involve old book stores, but these days I am more likely to find a series book at an antique mall. In this column I will devote some time to some of my best or most unique treasure finds.
Let me start with the most recent one, which happened about a year ago.
I CAN'T BELIEVE WHAT I AM SEEING?
In my home city of Oklahoma City, we have a fair amount of book stores, less than a mere 10 years ago, but there still are a few left.
I walked into one about a year ago and upfront was a push cart containing a lot of Rover Boys books. On the side of the cart was a sign that simply said: "$2 each". Before I even began looking at these books, I asked the store clerk if this was a true price, not a mistake. It was not a mistake!
There must have been at least 70 Rover Boys, many early and many later editions, and only about 20 with dust jackets. I went through the dust jacketed books and they were all in very good condition. I didn't hesitate a second to take those books to the front desk and I went through the others, looking for the earliest editions and noting their condition.
I am no expert on the Rover Boys and I have about 15 of them right now, some with dust jackets, but in all honesty, I have never read one. I have so many more books of interest and I just never got around to enjoying one of them. So my interest in these books was not to complete a collection, but rather offer them to other collectors for resale on eBay. I estimate I spent about $100 on these books and probably have made about $300 in profit. Some of these books went for $10, a few went for $50 each, but most somewhere in the middle. Had these books at the bookstore been Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, Tom Swift, or Don Sturdy, I would have gone through them and added them to my collection as either an upgrade in condition or to complete my collection.
I did a little study of the history of the Rover Boys and discovered that they were actually written by Edward Stratemeyer, founder of a syndicate that was responsible for the creation of Nancy Drew, the Hardy Boys, the Bobbsey Twins, Tom Swift and many more series. Most of those series were written by hired writers who worked from storylines and characters created by Stratemeyer. But the Rover Boys were strictly the product of his imagination.  Created in the early part of the 20th Century, they were very popular and highly read by America's youth of the time.
This collection of books I bought was from the estate of a man who was very active in the field during his lifetime and who was an expert in Horatio Alger's books. I don't know how this gentleman, from Ohio, had his books transported to Oklahoma for resale.
While not a fan of the Rover Boys, I enjoyed going through the books and checking their condition. While doing so, I found a small, yellow pennant that read: "BATAVIA OLD HOME WEEK, SEPT. 19-24, 1921". I did a little research on the internet and could not determine if this was a college or high school. I also found some correspondence from the original owner. But my greatest thrill was the discovery of a inscription on the title page of  THE ROVER BOYS WINNING A FORTUNE. It read: "Harriet Stratemeyer Adams daughter of Edward Stratemeyer". Now if you know anything about my interests in series books you will know I corresponded with Harriet Adams as a child in the 1960s. Elsewhere on this blog you will see copies of my correspondence and her autographs. But to find a book inscribed by her, and using her maiden and married name, is very thrilling. This book (see photos) is apparently a first edition and one I will keep in my collection till I die.

Getting back to the subject of this column, these kind of treasures can still be found out there if you hunt long enough and hard enough. I never dreamed of this kind of find. In the future I will add to this column with a few more stores of similar finds.

UNIQUE NANCY DREW ITEMS

Here are some photos of some interesting Nancy Drew items, some from my collection. Enjoy! Click on the images for a better view.

As you can see, this is a promotional packet for the Nancy Drew Twin Thriller Book Club sent out in the 1970s.These are photo copies of the packet, which I sold many years ago. Only a real collector would understand the thinking of another collector in saving this type of material. In the year this was mailed out I was working in the mailroom of my university dorm when this item came through. It was addressed to a non-resident and thus was junk mail. I kept the piece since I recognized the value of such an item for Nancy Drew collectors. The promotional piece below is for another book club.

This is the insert that came from the packet, and immediately below is the envelope's front and back.

Another Nancy Drew book club promotion.

Nancy Drew game from late 1950s.

I have had this Nancy Drew movie poster for about 30 years and have it displayed on my office wall next to my Nancy Drew collection. It is a very rare piece. I put this image in this section, too, because the photo items along the side of my articles will not allow for enlargement.

SECRET OF THE TRI-FOLD "WHO'S WHO?" QUIZ AD

Most vintage children's mystery series book fans are aware of the pull-out, tri-fold ad featured in select volumes of the Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, Tom Swift Jr., the Bobbsey Twins and Cherry Ames published in 1964. The cardboard advertisment measures about 11 inches by 7 1/2 inches and is printed with orange and black on white. It features tiny illustrations of 19 different book series characters published by Grosset & Dunlap at that time. With each illustration is a clue to the name of the character and the answer to the quiz is on the bottom right side of the lineup printed upside down.

I first discovered this advertisement in the mid-1960s and like most kids might do, I tore it out and cut it up into sections. I still have those cardboard cutouts and display them on a magnet on my refrigerator. When I became a serious book collector many years later, I started searching for books that had the ad and I still enjoy doing so. In fact, recently I found a set of Hardy Boys books at a book store that had the ad in the 1964 edition. A few years ago I found a set of Nancy Drew that had the ad in one of the books.

So I have become slightly obsessed with finding books with the ad. And I am curious as to how many more books may have had the ad that I don't know about.

What is unique about the ad is that there is not alot of promotional material about the Grosset & Dunlap books out there and this ad stands out as one of the few pieces readily available for collectors today. You can find books with the ad on eBay occasionally and those books will sell at high prices and sometimes at low. Sometimes seller's are not aware the ad is in the book they are selling and many times buyers inquire through the eBay messaging system.

The books with ads that sell higher on eBay are the volumes in the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew, and that is because those books are first editions, too, and the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew have more devoted fans. However, not every edition with the tri-fold ad is a first edition, but every edition is a picture cover edition. Here is the list of books with the tri-fold ad that I am aware of and most I have in my collection:

THE HARDY BOYS, THE MYSTERY OF THE AZTEC WARRIOR (43) Any volume of this book with the ad is a true first edition. This book will sell for more than $100 many times on eBay, but usually only with the ad in it. I have seen several eBay auctions where the seller will mention that there is sign the ad was torn out of the book. Note, the ad is always at the back of the book after the last page of text and always before the endpapers. As in the Nancy Drew volume with the ad, Aztec Warrior is the last title of Hardy Boys books on the back cover, but the Hardy Boys always lists its' detective handbook right afterward.

I recently found another Aztec Warrior with the back cover titles that match a first edition, but the ad was not present and I could not detect any signs the ad was ever in that book. But there is one strange thing about this book, on the copyright page it has "11/64" printed under the Grosset & Dunlap trademark, and my copy with the ad does not have that notation. I don't know what that means or its' significance, but possibly this edition was printed months after the initial printing with the ad.

NANCY DREW THE CLUE OF THE WHISTLING BAGPIPES (41). Because of the immense popularity of Nancy Drew, this book will always garner high prices on eBay, but again as long as the ad is present. This is another first edition book that ends with itself as the last title on the back cover.

It should be noted that the tri-fold ad has a list of titles for several series and the user of the ad could cut off a post card to buy the books ($1.25 each). The ad that appears in girls books lists only books for girls. Every reader of series books has found a book with check marks next to the list of books in that series, indicating which books the owner had read. This tri-fold ad has a convenient set of titles with boxes one can check. Many times you will find an ad with boxes checked or the post card detached. Collectors desire copies of the ad that are mint and untouched!

The girls series listed on the ad for one to check include Nancy Drew, Dana Girls, Vicki Barr, Peggy Lane, Judy Bolton, Connie Blair and Cherry Ames. The boys series listed in boys books are the Hardy Boys, Tom Swift Jr., Fury Horse Stories, Rick Brant, Bret King, Chip Hilton, Biff Brewster, Tom Corbett, Space Cadet, Bronc Burnett and Ken Holt.

TOM SWIFT AND HIS AQUATOMIC TRACKER (23). Last title on the back cover is #22, Tom Swift and His Repelatron Skyway. This is another first edition and I believe that another TSJR book had the ad, possibly #1 Flying Lab, but I can't document this. More on this at the bottom.

CHERRY AMES STUDENT NURSE (1) and CHERRY AMES COMPANION NURSE (24). The latter title was published in 1964 and is a first edition. I have a copy of Student Nurse with the ad but was only aware of the latter book in a recent eBay auction. I thought I had seen an ad in Jungle Nurse, but that can't be because it was published in 1965. Student Nurse lists to Country Doctor's Nurse and Book of First Aid and Home Nursing.

THE BOBBSEY TWINS AND THE GREEK HAT MYSTERY (57) It is another first edition and lists to And the Big River Mystery on the back cover. On this book, the list of series books you can check include the Bobbsey Twins, Honey Bunch and Norman, and books by Thornton W. Burgess Books, and in doing this article, I notice for the first time that there is room for listing some Dana Girls titles under the heading of: "Are you ready for the Dana Girls?"

It is interesting and obviously smart that Grosset & Dunlap varied the tri-fold ads for the assumed readers of the book the ad came in. Thus, in boys books, the list of titles to check and order were boys books and girls books for girls and in this case, the Bobbsey Twins ad was aiming at children who wanted similar titles, yet there was some room left so the marketing department of G&D decided to include the Dana Girls under the headline "Are you ready for the Dana Girls?"

This article is a summation of what I know about the tri-fold ad that appeared in one year, 1964, and was never seen again. I do have questions of whether any more books had the ad, such as in the Ken Holt, Rick Brant, Dana Girls, Judy Bolton and the other series that this ad promoted. I hope anyone reading this and knowing of other examples will contact me. I have recollections that one more TSJR book had the ad. But I can't verify that. The finding of Cherry Ames Companion Nurse recently on eBay with the ad was very pleasing.

In the future I will be placing ads on my blog featuring department store ads for children's mystery series book (such as in catalogs) and I will place pictures from a G&D catalog I once owned that came out in the late 1960s. Stay tuned!

Not all are sugar and spice....
Unique and Incredible Series Book Plots

Any fan of juvenile mystery-adventure books will admit that there is little resemblance of real life in most of them. Characters never age; parental oversight is lacking and mostly unnecessary; and there is always a happy ending with the treasure found in the end.
In fact, many of the series books we enjoy are downright sappy (Bobbsey Twins, Honey Bunch) and even the more serious books such as the Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, Tom Swift, etc., oftentimes stretch the boundaries of believability. There is, more often than not, too much coincidence and a helpful hand always there when our hero is bound and gagged in the basement.
There are exceptions, though. Judy Bolton actually ages through the series, eventually marrying and carrying on adventures as an adult. Tom Quest is another series that actually borders on being an adult series because the story line is so realistic and grim. In the Mystery of the Timber Giant, the last book in the series, I was surprised that two of the bad guys are killed while being held in jail (poison in their food) and another bad guy kills himself.
After being arrested and forced to confess, villain Jonathan Smythe agrees to reveal the head of the evil syndicate seeking to control the lumber trade in the Pacific Northwest. To write out a confession, he asks specifically for the pen in his desk, brought to the jail along with his other belongings:

“A few minutes later, Sheriff Lawson passed a pad of ruled paper and the bulky fountain pen through the bars of the cell door. A curious, farway look came into Smythe’s eyes as he gripped the pen.
“Now, Sheriff, “ he said, “I’ll show you a trick that may surprise you.”
“Eh?” said the unsuspecting lawman. He watched Smythe unscrew the cap of the pen. Then he realized that he had been duped. Smythe stuck the pen into his mouth and lifted the little gold lever that depressed the rubber sac.
Lawson yelled, “Hold on!” He unlocked the cell door and jerked it open.
The Pen dropped to the floor as he grabbed the lawyer. “You crazy fool!” Lawson shouted. “What’d you do? What was in that pen?”
The lawyer smiled without mirth. “Sheriff,” he said slowly, “the poison is painless.” His eyelids fluttered and his legs went limp. He dropped to the floor – dead by his own hand.

Tom Quest, Mystery of the Timber Giant, page 162-163.

In the same book, Tom Quest and friends conduct a “sting” operation to save a timberman from losing the value of his land. The plot is very cleaver and plays out over several chapters, allowing the same Jonathan Smythe to be duped, just as he sought to dupe others.
For every villain that dies in a series book (and heroes or their friends would never die), there are countless scoundrels that are simply jailed and never heard of again.
While the plots of the Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, Rover Boys, etc., are seldom truly realistic, they linger on the border of realism and can be enjoyed for the fun they do bring. But sometimes these books stray too far in the things that occur to and for our heroes.

In Mildred Wirt’s Trailer Series, volume 1, The Runaway Caravan, the story is fun but hard to believe. In the plot, three siblings are adopted by their uncle when their parents die and when their uncle Nathan is incapacitated, a self-proclaimed distant relative takes over the household and rules with an iron fist, even going so far as to give away one of the kid’s dog. This storyline is not unrealistic and is even very dramatic. This is territory most of these books never walk. Our heroes are not supposed to have meddlesome relatives who prevent adventures, much less give away one of their pets. But when Barbara, Ginger and Jimmy Gibson escape in a trailer and car, and hit the open road for several weeks, it is hard to believe three kids ages 13-16 could do this, even in 1937, the year the book was written. Even so, Mildred Wirt writes a great story that was fun to read.

In an interesting story written by E.J. Craine, The Mystery of Black Eagle Island (not a series book), the author tells the story of the family of cartoonist George Kimbell Ingram. Along with his wife Florence, they have six children, referred to as: The Half Dozen.
At the beginning it is revealed that Mrs. Ingram “must, absolutely must, have a rest and change.” With six kids, it is understandable, but it is not clear whether this means mama has had a nervous breakdown.
Luckily, a friend of the family offers his island and summer house, while his family is abroad. Mr. Ingram obtains the services of a familiar housekeeper who will go with the children while their parents rest elsewhere. The children are put on the train to the seaside village near the island:

“That’s how it came about that one bright day late in June the Half Dozen Ingrams took affectionate leave of their mother, who smiled at them from her chair by the window, and accompanied by Dad, a Boston Bull, a black cat in a basket, numberless suitcases and boxes, climbed into the biggest taxi they could find and ordered the driver to take them to the Pennsylvania Depot, Long Island side.”
They boarded a train without their housekeeper because “she had some things to do and will be on a later train,” their father said. The oldest child, a twin boy, is 13. The seriousness of their mother’s condition is revealed when he says:
“You will let us know how Mother gets on?” Maxwell asked.
“You won’t try to fool us about her, Dad?” Maxine (twin sister) whispered anxiously.
It is refreshing that the author uses a realistic excuse to dispose of the problem of parental interference that so many writers handle by killing off parents and leaving our series book heroes in single-parent homes.
When the children arrive at the seaside village they are met by a local man and he transports them to the island. His wife cooks a meal and the older couple help the children settle in and give them instructions on minding the house and even milking a cow. They leave early before the housekeeper arrives because of a family emergency. But as the story develops, the housekeeper never shows up, and the kids are in charge of the island for 12 weeks. They hesitate to tell their parents about the missing housekeeper, for fear it may worsen mother’s health. The story line will go on to include mystery visitors and smugglers, and some infrequent adult supervision, but for all practical purposes, the kids are left to themselves for the rest of the story. Today child welfare services would be having a fit.

Finally, thanks to an internet friend, David Baumann, and his excellent X Bar X Boys web site (hit here for a link), I discovered this piece of story where our heroes consider killing a villain, less justice not be gained:

“Nobody ever got anywhere by calling names,” sneered Skinny. “You fellows can’t prove anything, and if you could it wouldn’t make any difference. Anybody with any sense could get out of that jug at Hawley, so don’t fool yourselves. Skinny Judson’s a long way from getting it in the neck.”
“Let’s shoot him and get rid of him,” suggested Teddy (Manley), holding his pistol in line with Skinny’s heart and causing the puncher to wince at its nearness. “Nobody would ever know, Roy, but ourselves.”
“Much as I’d like to get rid of the despicable Skinny, we can’t murder him in cold blood.”
X Bar X Boys, Riding For Life, page 179-180

Luckily for us, one half of the Manley boys got some sense.
In the future I will be adding more examples to this article that points out either strange plots in mystery series books or incredible plots that are beyond normal reason in today’s world or even in the world of the 1930s and 1940s. If you have any example, please forward them.