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The Sweet Public Domain: Celebrating Copyright Expiration with the Honey Bunch Series

Honey Bunch: Her First Days on the Farm

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Honey Bunch: Creation and History of the Series 119 Deidre Johnson image_header 2020-02-14T10:55:29+00:00
“Honey Bunch is a dainty, thoughtful little girl, and to know her is to take her into your heart at once,” proclaimed advertisements for the Honey Bunch series. Young girls did just that. The series began in 1923 with the release of the first three volumes, Honey Bunch: Just a Little Girl, Honey Bunch: Her First Visit to the City, and Honey Bunch: Her First Days on the Farm. By 1925 a nationwide reading survey showed 97 percent of the girls who read the first title liked it; the figure increased to 100 percent for the second volume. (No boys admitted to reading the books.) At that point, sales of the first five volumes exceeded 60,000 copies; in 1926, they leapt by almost 100,000 more; by the end of the decade, they were nearing 400,000 copies. This auspicious start, in part due to the talents of several experienced craftspeople, helped Honey Bunch become one of the Stratemeyer Syndicate’s more popular and longest-running children’s series.
Edward Stratemeyer and the Stratemeyer Syndicate
Despite the name Helen Louise Thorndyke showing as author, Honey Bunch was actually created by Edward Stratemeyer (1862-1930) and initially given form by Josephine Lawrence (1889-1978). Both were writers well versed in producing stories with popular appeal. Stratemeyer began his career in 1889 and, within a few years, was writing for some of the most successful publishers of mass-market fiction, rapidly turning out manuscripts for dime novels and story papers as well as learning more about the trade by working as an editor. His first clothbound books were published in 1894, paving the way for his series empire. A creative and enterprising man, Stratemeyer was filled with concepts for series and ideas for plots. About 1905, after initial success writing over one hundred stories and starting at least twenty boys’ series under his own name and pseudonyms, he founded the Stratemeyer Syndicate as a means of transforming even more of his ideas into publications. He recruited experienced writers and supplied them with story ideas and outlines, which they turned into complete manuscripts.
By 1910, Stratemeyer’s fiction factory was well underway, with over a dozen series under contract to three different publishers. Most of his early series targeted boys—military or historical fiction (Old Glory, Mexican War, Frontier), career and business success (Boys of Business, Ralph of the Railroad), school and adventure (Rover Boys, Putnam Hall). During the 1910s, he further expanded his offerings, adding several more publishers and at least forty new series, including Tom Swift (a popular series about a boy inventor, later shading into science fiction) and several highlighting contemporary careers or technology (Motion Picture Chums, aviator Dave Dashaway). Stratemeyer also devoted more attention to two previously underrepresented areas in Syndicate offerings—girls and young children. Between 1910 and 1920, he created ten new series for girls, such as the Girls of Central High, Ruth Fielding (who progressed from school into a career in film), and the Outdoor Girls (four friends who hike or travel about the countryside in their cars and motorboats). Most series for younger children premiered a bit later: between 1915 and 1925, Stratemeyer introduced three series about siblings similar to the Syndicate’s highly successful Bobbsey Twins (Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue, Six Little Bunkers, Four Little Blossoms), along with a few sliding into fantasy (Make-Believe Stories, about the adventures of toys), and several single-character series—including Honey Bunch—that focused on a child in fortunate circumstances. The years between 1925 and 1930 saw not only the continuation of almost a dozen long-running series, but also approximately fifteen new creations, including his two most famous, the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew. While not all series were successful, during the last decade of his life Stratemeyer routinely issued two dozen or more new books annually. In 1929, the year before his death, he had at least twenty-five ongoing series and published thirty-six titles, supplying material to three different publishers.
Josephine Lawrence
Maintaining so many series required reliable ghostwriters. By the mid-1910s, Stratemeyer had forged relationships with several talented wordsmiths, such as Howard Garis and W. Bert Foster, but recognized the need for additional authors to meet the growing demand for stories.
Josephine Lawrence—like Stratemeyer—seems early to have demonstrated an affinity for the printed word, joining the Newark Sunday Call after leaving school and assuming editorship of the children's page in 1915. In 1917, she interviewed Stratemeyer for the paper and later contacted him for advice about marketing a children’s book. Instead, he recruited her for the Syndicate. Her first assignment was the opening volumes of a new series, Sunny Boy, the male forerunner of Honey Bunch. Able to write quickly and meet Syndicate requirements, Lawrence was soon devoting her evenings to turning out manuscripts for series for younger children or girls. In 1919 and 1920, she ghostwrote not only the first three books in the Sunny Boy series (since Syndicate series usually debuted with three or more titles, thereby presenting readers with a ready-made set) but also the first three volumes in another series for younger children, Four Little Blossoms, and three more in a series for older girls, Betty Gordon. During the 1920s, she usually penned three to five volumes annually for the Syndicate—while holding down a full-time position editing both the children’s and the household pages of the Sunday Call as well as publishing non-Syndicate stories for children under her own name. Her non-Syndicate books include The Man in the Moon Stories Told over the Radio-Phone (1922), containing tales taken from her Sunday Call children’s page that had aired over local radio, and several non-Syndicate series for the same audiences as her Syndicate fiction, among them Brother and Sister (six volumes, 1921-27), Elizabeth Ann (eight volumes, 1923-29), Linda Lane (six volumes, 1925-29), and Two Little Fellows (five volumes, 1927-29).
Honey Bunch: Development of a Series
Although there were some variations, the process of creating a Stratemeyer Syndicate series and marketing it to potential publishers usually involved several steps. It began with a proposal containing a series title, short description of the concept, and possible volume titles and synopses—most of which could then be transferred into advertising copies if the proposal was accepted. In some cases, proposals offered several options for the name of the protagonist and the pseudonym. (The character of Nancy Drew, for example, was named Stella Strong or Nell Cody in earlier iterations.) If a publisher expressed interest, Stratemeyer wrote a one-to-three-page outline of a title, specifying length and number of chapters, and approached a writer. Because the story was already plotted, many ghostwriters were able to complete a manuscript in four to eight weeks. They mailed the outline and story to Stratemeyer, who edited the manuscript. The writer signed a release, relinquishing all rights to the story and pseudonym, and received payment of about $75 to $125. Each time a new volume was needed, Stratemeyer would submit a list of titles to the publisher, often recycling previous offerings. The publisher would select one or more, and the cycle would begin again.
In the case of Honey Bunch, Stratemeyer’s early proposals indicate he had already settled on the character’s name as Honey Bunch (with Lovey May as an alternate) but with Aunt Gertrude as the pseudonym. (Gertrude would become Honey Bunch’s first name.) The suggested titles followed a formula similar to that of the Bobbsey Twins, involving a foundational volume with domestic adventures at home, followed by trips to the countryside and seashore, and other recreational outings. The title of the first book remained the same from proposal to published volume, but some of the others were modified, preserving the concept while substituting general terms for specific locales. Thus, the second title on Stratemeyer’s list, “Honey Bunch: Her First Days at Rose Brook Farm,” became Honey Bunch: Her First Days on the Farm (vol. 3) when the book was published by Grosset & Dunlap, and the third, “Honey Bunch: Her First Visit to New York,” was issued as Honey Bunch: Her First Visit to the City (vol. 2).
Several other “firsts” lower on the list of possible titles—seashore, automobile tour—also showed up within the first few years of the series’ run, as did a few Stratemeyer had added by hand to the original typed list (“summer on an island,” “trip on the Great Lakes”). Others never did. “Honey Bunch: Her First Days at School” appeared on the original list and several subsequent ones, to no avail. Possibly the publishers thought the concept too mundane to include among Honey Bunch’s succession of firsts. In later years, Stratemeyer would repeatedly offer Grosset & Dunlap “Honey Bunch: Happy Days with Her Four Cousins” and “Honey Bunch: Her First Red Sled” which would regularly be bypassed in favor of other options.
Stratemeyer’s correspondence with Grosset & Dunlap from September 1922 indicates that although not fully committed to Honey Bunch at that point, the publisher had expressed enough interest to merit Stratemeyer producing a detailed outline and commissioning a manuscript. His outline for the first Honey Bunch title leads off with a paragraph providing general information about the character (“a little girl not quite five years of age”) and concept (“this line of stories is to relate her first experiences, so to speak, at home, in a big city, on a farm, down at the seashore, etc.”). The actual outline—1½ single-spaced pages—reflects the cozy tone of the stories. It begins:
It was a very busy day for Honey Bunch. The washwoman had come in to do the washing and Mother had allowed Honey Bunch to have a little basin of her own, and she was busy washing out some of her dolls’ clothing while conversing with the washwoman and with the cat that finally went to sleep at her feet. Then Honey Bunch’s tub fell over the cat, that sprang up hastily, scaring the washwoman and disappearing into the garden.
The exact date of Stratemeyer’s initial communication with Lawrence about undertaking the project is not known but probably occurred in mid-September. Correspondence indicates Lawrence finished the manuscript in mid-October and brought it to Stratemeyer’s New York office on October 23, 1922. That same week, Stratemeyer delivered the edited manuscript to the publisher, adding in a letter that Honey Bunch was “positively the best little girls’ story of that sort I have handled.” (He neglected to mention it was also the only little girls’ story of that sort he had handled.) Grosset & Dunlap apparently concurred. In late November both parties agreed that the first three volumes of the series would be issued the following year “in a style somewhat similar to ‘The Bobbsey Twins’ and the ‘Bunny Brown [and His Sister Sue] Series’” (two other Syndicate series for younger children also published by Grosset & Dunlap) with Stratemeyer receiving a royalty of two cents per copy.
By then, Lawrence was already working on the series’ second volume, which she finished in three weeks, starting the third volume on December 7. (Stratemeyer assured her there was “no hurry” on this one—she could take until the middle of January if necessary. Lawrence completed it by January 10.) Volumes 4 and 5 were published the following year. Lawrence received one hundred dollars per manuscript.
Because Stratemeyer lived in Newark and had offices in New York, Lawrence often delivered manuscripts or picked up outlines in person, giving her an opportunity to discuss the material with Stratemeyer. On one of those visits, she also may have asked him about the possibility of outlining one volume herself, for it appears that both the outline and manuscript for volume 5, Honey Bunch: Her First Little Garden, are her work. She continued to write the manuscripts (but not the outlines) for an additional eleven Honey Bunch titles. Lawrence seems to have enjoyed working on the series, telling Stratemeyer after the initial volume, “I had a delightful time making [Honey Bunch’s] acquaintance,” and, on another occasion, commenting when submitting a completed manuscript that ‘Honey Bunch has been as good as gold.”
Although Lawrence and Stratemeyer deserve much of the credit for Honey Bunch’s early success, Lawrence attributed some of the series’ popularity to the books’ appearance, specifically the dust wrappers. In a letter to Stratemeyer, she remarked that Sunny Boy (which she was still ghostwriting for the Syndicate) “never had a square deal” in his jacket design, whereas Honey Bunch “had illustrations that really illustrate.” While Sunny Boy's dust jackets—issued in a uniform format—bore only an image of Sunny Boy and his dog against a plain white background, Honey Bunch wrappers were individualized, each capturing a scene or key location from the book. The cover of the first volume, illustrated by Walter S. Rogers, shows the illustrator’s attention to detail and character delineation. Honey Bunch is making pies in the kitchen. She stands on a chair (thus subtly reinforcing her status as “a little girl”), her oversized pink apron and broomstick rolling pin corresponding to the descriptions in the text. Rogers did take some liberties with the scene by adding Honey Bunch’s cat, Lady Clare, and her doll, Eleanor, but in so doing, incorporated two characters that the story presents as important to Honey Bunch and that figure in a number of other adventures in the book. Rogers, who went on to illustrate the next eleven volumes, often designed covers that place Honey Bunch near unconstrained nature (mountains, oceans) or modern technology (automobiles, airplanes) but depict her holding her doll, thereby recognizing the dual aspects of the series—novelty and adventure combined with childish innocence and domesticity.
Later Years: Honey Bunch and the Syndicate
After Edward Stratemeyer’s death in 1930, his daughters, Harriet Stratemeyer Adams (1892-1982) and Edna Stratemeyer (later Squier, 1895-1974), gradually assumed management of the organization. Within a few years, the Syndicate had undergone extensive changes. Economic conditions and decisions by the new management brought about drastic reductions in the number of series and the loss of some experienced workers. When the sisters moved the Syndicate offices from New York to New Jersey, Stratemeyer’s long-time assistant, Harriet Otis Smith, tendered her resignation—shortly after writing the outline for Honey Bunch: Her First Trip in an Airplane and doing initial editing on Lawrence’s manuscript. From then on, Stratemeyer’s daughters assumed responsibility for the outlines, which were longer and more structured than Stratemeyer’s. The outline for Honey Bunch: Her First Little Mystery, for example, completely fills four single-spaced pages, with all chapter breaks specified; two additional paragraphs of instructions carry the information onto a fifth page. The sisters also reduced payment for manuscripts, dropping Lawrence’s rate to $75 in 1934.
Lawrence cut back on her work for the Syndicate almost immediately after Stratemeyer died, writing only for the Honey Bunch series. She ended her connection with the Syndicate following the completion of volume 16, Honey Bunch: Her First Little Mystery, in 1935. It was also her last children’s book: by then she had begun earning acclaim as an adult novelist and thereafter concentrated on works for older readers. For a brief time, Mildred Wirt Benson, already ghostwriting several successful Syndicate series, including Nancy Drew and the Dana Girls, replaced Lawrence on the Honey Bunch series, providing manuscripts for volumes 18-22. Afterward, Harriet Adams or an unidentified writer penned most of the remaining volumes.
Walter S. Rogers was another who ceased working for the Syndicate after Stratemeyer’s death. Marie Schubert replaced him as illustrator in 1931, and her artwork moved Honey Bunch from a demure little girl into a near-nymphet, skirt billowing in an ever-present breeze. Schubert stayed with the series for a decade (through volume 23), before other illustrators, often uncredited, took on the visual depiction of the character. Beginning with the twenty-fith volume (Honey Bunch: Her First Winter at Snowtop), a uniform design by Harry Lane replaced the individualized dust wrappers. Drawn with a plain background, the new covers show Honey Bunch standing on a small hill, clutching a bunch of flowers—a striking contrast with the busier images of previous years.
Over time, Norman Clark, Honey Bunch’s neighbor, took on a more prominent role, presumably in hopes of extending the audience to boys as well as girls. In the last two volumes of the series, he even shared title billing and, for the first time in three decades, the title no longer referenced a “first” for Honey Bunch. Honey Bunch and Norman Visit Beaver Lodge, the final volume advertised as part of the Honey Bunch series, was issued in 1955. Two years later, the Stratemeyer Syndicate relaunched the series, now called Honey Bunch and Norman, reissuing several of the earlier Honey Bunch books with Norman’s name added to the titles, creating some new titles, and commissioning individualized dust wrappers. That series ended in 1963.
In the 1950s and 1960s, Honey Bunch also reached an international audience. The British publisher Sampson Low reprinted the first six Honey Bunch and Norman volumes, and a Norwegian publisher, A/S Forlagshuset, issued translations of at least two dozen titles, with Honey Bunch rechristened Gulltopp (“gold top”).
Reception
Like many Stratemeyer Syndicate series, Honey Bunch was popular with readers but not librarians. Two reading studies from the 1930s identify Honey Bunch as a favorite of fourth-to-sixth grade girls; another places the series among “the most popular books” for ages 8-10 at a local bookstore. In April 1939, the publisher reported that Honey Bunch sales had already surpassed 1.2 million copies. Librarians were less enthusiastic. As early as 1925, the books were deemed “of low literary value” (in part, one suspects, because they were part of a series). A 1940 pamphlet, Weeding the Library, included Honey Bunch among many series on a list of works “not approved for purchase with library funds nor for placing on the shelves . . . [of] an approved collection of children’s books”; that list was reprinted in various library bulletins for the next decade.
Other than inclusion on weeding lists, the Honey Bunch series has received little critical attention from librarians or critics. In recent years, commentators often have sniffed disdainfully at its sweetness (in contrast to its original readers, at least one of whom told an interviewer she liked the books because Honey Bunch was “sweet and good”) but said little more. The few critics and academics who have looked more closely at the series generally adopt an ambivalent approach, acknowledging both its appeal and its shortcomings. The most extensive commentary can be found in a chapter titled “The Land of Milk and Honey Bunch” in Bobbie Ann Mason’s study of girls’ series fiction, The Girl Sleuth. Mason begins by calling Honey Bunch “my first friend in fiction,” adding, “she offered me tantalizing glimpses of the outside world.” Nonetheless, Mason charges that Honey Bunch’s obedience and docility “attune the child to orthodox thinking," and that the series, with its depiction of Honey Bunch’s “luxurious world" filled with travel and tourism, “celebrate[s] materialist values.” A similar ambivalence toward the series emerges in literacy theorist Margaret Mackey’s writings. In her autobiography, Mackey, who read the books in the 1950s, recalls that even as a child she “sneered at Honey Bunch’s naïveté” but also states that she “followed her tame adventures,” evidently finding enough enjoyment to read more than one volume. In a study of series fiction and emergent readers, Mackey quotes a passage about shopping for dresses from Honey Bunch: Her First Visit to the City, criticizing the “banal” style but recording that “early exposure to Honey Bunch gave me my first access to the mutable detail and enduring importance of descriptions of girls’ clothing in series fiction.” Other readers, discovering or returning to the series decades after its original publication, occasionally remark on cultural elements, such as the visual similarities between the actress Shirley Temple and Honey Bunch, but more often recall their pleasure in vicariously sharing Honey Bunch’s comfortable existence with its “soft-core adventures” and “kind deeds.” One reader, observing that the books “transport” their audience “into a land of endless bounty” where children are safe and “adults are available” as needed, concisely summarized the series’ appeal with the statement, “the writer was telling little girls like me exactly what we wanted to hear.”
Although the series is now remembered only by a few readers and collectors, in its early years it was one of the Stratemeyer Syndicate’s clear successes, demonstrating Edward Stratemeyer’s ability to design stories for a range of audiences and showcasing the skills of some of the Syndicate’s key writers and artists. A generation of girls found Honey Bunch a welcome companion, one who offered ready access to sights and experiences not otherwise within reach and who provided a cozy world of comfort and adventure.
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1. Carleton Washburne and Mabel Vogel, “Supplement to the Winnetka Graded Book List," The Elementary English Review 4, no.2 (1927): 48, https://www.jstor.org/stable/41382206. ↵
2. Sales figures courtesy of James Keeline, email message to author, October 27, 2018. ↵
3. Deidre Johnson, Stratemeyer Pseudonyms and Series Books: An Annotated Checklist of Stratemeyer and Stratemeyer Syndicate Publications (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1983), xiv-xxx. Information in the next paragraphs is also from this source. For additional histories of Edward Stratemeyer and his syndicate reflecting research after the release of the Stratemeyer Syndicate Archives, see James D. Keeline, “Edward Stratemeyer, Author and Literary Agent, 1876-1906," https://www.scribd.com/document/419925839/Edward-Stratemeyer-Author-and-Literary-Agent; “Origins of the Stratemeyer Syndicate," Stratemeyer, http://stratemeyer.org/stratemeyer-syndicate/syndicate-origin/; “Stratemeyer Syndicate," Stratemeyer, Edward Stratemeyer & the Stratemeyer Syndicate, http://stratemeyer.org/stratemeyer-syndicate/. ↵
4. Deidre Johnson, “Josephine Lawrence." 19th-Century Girls’ Series, last modified January 28, 2004, http://www.readseries.com/joslaw/index.htm. ↵
5. James D. Keeline, “Mechanics of the Stratemeyer Syndicate," Newsboy 30, no. 6 (November/December 1992): 11-13, https://www.horatioalgersociety.net/newsboys/newsboys1990-1999/nb1992-11nov-dec.pdf. See also Deidre Johnson, “‘The Typewritten Equivalent of Spinach and Orange Juice’: Josephine Lawrence and the Ghostwriting of Stratemeyer Syndicate Series," Dime Novel Round-Up 72, no. 2 (April 2003): 39-48. For another example of the process of developing a syndicate series book, see Deidre Johnson, “Transitions: From Nell Cody to Nancy Drew, from Bungalow Outline to Book," Dime Novel Round-Up 73, no. 1 (February 2004): 3-15, https://digitalcommons.wcupa.edu/eng_facpub/49. ↵
6. “Suggestions for books from Edward Stratemeyer" [Honey Bunch]; "Suggestions for Grosset & Dunlap List [for Honey Bunch]," 1925-30, Stratemeyer Syndicate Records, Archives and Manuscripts Division, New York Public Library. Information in the next paragraph is also from this source. A detailed description of the extensive holdings and an overview of Stratemeyer’s life and the Syndicate's history can be found at “Stratemeyer Syndicate Records 1832-1984," Archives and Manuscripts, New York Public Library. ↵
7. Edward Stratemeyer to Grosset & Dunlap, 12 September, 1922, Stratemeyer Syndicate Records. ↵
8. [Edward Stratemeyer], “Honey Bunch: Just a Little Girl," typed outline, Stratemeyer Syndicate Records. ↵
9. Ibid. ↵
10. Josephine Lawrence to Edward Stratemeyer, 19 October 19 1922; Edward Stratemeyer to Grosset & Dunlap, October 26, 1922; Edward Stratemeyer to Grosset & Dunlap, 11 November 1922, Stratemeyer Syndicate Records. ↵
11. Josephine Lawrence to Edward Stratemeyer, 6 November 1922; Josephine Lawrence to Edward Stratemeyer, 16 November 1922; Edward Stratemeyer to Josephine Lawrence, 7 December 1922; Josephine Lawrence to Edward Stratemeyer, 10 January 10 1923, Stratemeyer Syndicate Records. ↵
12. Josephine Lawrence to Edward Stratemeyer, 26 October 1922; Josephine Lawrence to Edward Stratemeyer, 23 September 1926, Stratemeyer Syndicate Records. ↵
13. Josephine Lawrence to Edward Stratemeyer, 11 June 11 1923, Stratemeyer Syndicate Records. ↵
14. James D. Keeline, “Edward Stratemeyer’s New York (and New Jersey)," Fine Books & Collections (Spring 2010): 29; Stratemeyer Syndicate [Harriet Otis Smith] to Josephine Lawrence, 3 July 1930; Stratemeyer Syndicate [Harriet Otis Smith] to Josephine Lawrence, 23 July 1930; Stratemeyer Syndicate [Harriet Otis Smith] to Josephine Lawrence, 11 August 1930, Stratemeyer Syndicate Records. ↵
15. “Outline for Honey Bunch: Her First Little Mystery," Stratemeyer Syndicate Records. ↵
16. Releases: Honey Bunch; Releases: Honey Bunch and Norman, Stratemeyer Syndicate Records. The records indicate that Syndicate partners Andrew Svenson and June Dunn were responsible for some of the Honey Bunch and Norman books. For more on Josephine Lawrence’s later career, see Deidre Johnson, “Josephine Lawrence: A Writer of Her Time," Garden State Legacy, no. 28 (June 2015), http://gardenstatelegacy.com/files/Josephine_Lawrence_Johnson__GSL28.pdf. ↵
17. Cover art for the first thirty-four Honey Bunch volumes can be seen at Jim McNamara, The Cover Art of Series Books, Honey Bunch, http://seriesbookart.weebly.com/honey-bunch.html. For most of the Honey Bunch and Norman covers, see The Cover Art of Series Books, Honey Bunch and Norman, http://seriesbookart.weebly.com/honey-bunch-and-norman.html. ↵
18. “Schedule E—Foreign Works," 30-31, 37, Legal Documents, series 1, box 2, folder 41, Stratemeyer Syndicate Records, Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Yale University. A finding aid for the collection is available online, http://hdl.handle.net/10079/fa/beinecke.strat. Sean Bourke Books, “The European Connection: Honey Bunch," shows several of the Sampson Low dust wrappers, which appear to be the Grosset & Dunlap jackets with the new publisher’s imprint on the spine, http://theeuropeanconnection.eu/book-covers/honey-bunch/. ↵
19. A. M. Jordan, “Children's Interests in Reading: A Review of Research Articles from 1935 through 1939," The High School Journal 25, no. 7 (1942): 326, 329, https://www.jstor.org/stable/40367594; Florence Brumbaugh, “Children’s Choices of Reading Material," The Elementary English Review 16, no. 6 (1939): 227, https://www.jstor.org/stable/41383104. ↵
20. Grosset & Dunlap to Harriet Stratemeyer Adams, 5 April 1939, Stratemeyer Syndicate Records, New York Public Library. ↵
21. Washburne and Vogel, 47. ↵
22. Weeding the Library: Suggestions for the Guidance of Librarians of Small Libraries (Albany: The University of the State of New York, 1940): 19. Examples of the list in library publications include “List of Series Not Circulated by Most Libraries," Illinois Libraries 25, no. 6 (June 1943): 211-13; “A Partial List of Series Not Circulated by Standard Libraries," Iowa Library Quarterly 14, no. 12 (January 1944): 183-185, https://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015036853847?urlappend=%3Bseq=469; and “Why Not Begin [Weeding] With These?" Minnesota Libraries 17, no. 4 (December 1952): 126-27, https://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015036849498?urlappend=%3Bseq=132. An early study of librarians' attitudes toward the Stratemeyer Syndicate and its series can be found in John T. Dizer, “Fortune and the Syndicate," in Tom Swift and Company (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 1982), 15-29. ↵
23. Quoted in Jordan, 329. ↵
24. Bobbie Ann Mason, The Girl Sleuth: A Feminist Guide (Old Westbury, NY: The Feminist Press, 1975), 19-20. ↵
25. Margaret Mackey, One Child Reading: My Auto-Bibliography (Edmonton: University of Alberta Press, 2016), 151. ↵
26. Margaret Mackey, “The Emergent Reader’s Working Kit of Stereotypes," Children’s Literature in Education 44 (2013): 92, doi 10.1007/s10583-012-9184-1. ↵
27. Margie Reins Smith, “Serial Addict," Grosse Point [MI] News, July 4, 2002: 7A, http://digitize.gp.lib.mi.us/digitize/newspapers/gpnews/2000-04/02/2002-07-04.pdf. Newbery award-winning author Lois Lowry also recalls fond memories of the series in “A Long Way from Pleasantville,” in Children’s Literature Remembered: Issues, Trends, and Favorite Books, ed. Linda M. Pavonetti (Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2004), 179-85. ↵
28. Christine Bird, quoted in Elizabeth Bird, “Designated Reviews: Honey Bunch: Her First Little Circus (1936) by Helen Louise Thorndyke," Fuse 8 Production (blog), School Library Journal, (January 6, 2010), http://blogs.slj.com/afuse8production/2010/01/06/designated-reviews-honey-bunch-her-first-little-circus-1936-by-helen-louise-thorndyke/. ↵
Honey Bunch: Her First Days on the Farm 9 Table of Contents plain 660 2019-12-20T08:09:24+00:00
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This digitization of Her First Days on the Farm (1923). Generously provided by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library Digitization Services, is based on a reprint dating c.1927 in order to preserve the original 1923 copy in the Rare Book and Manuscripts Library collection. Because Stratemeyer Syndicate reprints were reproduced using the same stereotype plates, rather than through a new typesetting of the original manuscript, to the best of our knowledge, we believe the original 1923 text and its artifacts are preserved in the digitization. This reprint is illustrated with the original Walter S. Rogers cover and internal illustrations. The reformatted plain text edition was created through a processes of correcting the OCR of the digitization based on the original text, however some basic spelling and grammatical errors have been corrected silently.
1. Furlong, Jennifer. "Edward Stratemeyer." In Immigrant Entrepreneurship: German-American Business Biographies, 1720 to the Present, vol. 3, edited by Giles R. Hoyt. German Historical Institute. Last modified August 28, 2014. http://www.immigrantentrepreneurship.org/entry.php?rec=186 ↵