Five Classic Series That Have Endured

September 2007 Special Sections
What makes a classic a classic? It’s the kind of question that’s often tackled by literati armed with bestseller lists and scholarly reviews. But those of us who stalk the racks at used bookstores hoping to spy Hardy Boys #36—The Secret of Pirate’s Hill don’t need an expert to tell us what children’s series qualify as classics. We read them…all.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise, then, that many classic series are still available, published with modern storylines and updated characters or are being re-released with a nod to nostalgia and the new generation of readers waiting to scoop them up. Here are five whose popularity rightly endures.

Nancy Drew

Publishing History
Edward Stratemeyer, owner of the Stratemeyer Syndicate and creator of the Bobbsey Twins, Tom Swift, and Hardy Boys series, hired a young female journalist to write stories featuring a resourceful, sleuthing teen. The journalist and nearly a dozen ghostwriters—both men and women—who penned the Nancy Drew series over the years wrote under the pseudonym Carolyn Keene. The first three books in the Nancy Drew Mystery Stories series were published in 1930 by Grosset & Dunlap. In 1979, Simon & Schuster continued the series in paperback, ending with volume 175 in 2003.

On Shelves Now?
In 1991, Applewood Books began issuing reprints of the originals, using the original text and illustrations. The paperback segment of the series is mostly out of print. Simon & Schuster releases a new book every other month or so in the spinoff series Nancy Drew: Girl Detective.

The Controversy
In 1959, a project was undertaken to revise the first thirty-four books in the series; they were condensed; racial stereotypes were removed; and anachronistic language was replaced. A few titles were completely rewritten, much to the chagrin of purists, who contend that the revised versions lacked the originals’ polish.

Pop Culture Spinoffs
The Nancy Drew character has spawned feature films, including a movie released this past June; television series, board games, a cookbook, a picturebook, and computer games.

Did You Know?
Originally a blonde, Nancy’s hair took on a reddish tint in a misprinted cover illustration, causing the writers to describe her thereafter as “titian-haired.”

Adventures of Tintin

Publishing History
In 1929, Belgian cartoonist Georges Rémi (who went by the nom de plume Hergé) created Tintin, an intrepid teenage reporter, and his white-haired fox terrier, Milou, for a Brussels newspaper. A year later the comic strips were collected in Tintin, Reporter, in the Land of the Soviets. Ensuing Tintin stories were collected in twenty-four albums. The English translations of Tintin were commissioned in 1958 by Methuen Children’s Books of London and sold in the United States by Golden Press.

On Shelves Now?
Atlantic Monthly Press partnered with Little, Brown and Company in the 1970s to re-publish the albums. They are currently being published by Little, Brown and Company through Hachette Book Group. When Hergé died in 1983, he forbade the production of any further Tintin books (though the last album, of an unfinished storyline, was published posthumously). The Hergé Foundation honors his edict, authorizing commercial use and adaptations of the work.

The Controversy
Hergé was criticized for using stereotypes and racist, misogynistic elements in his earlier strips; defenders point out that he was a product of his time. Because Tintin continued to be published during the German occupation of Belgium during WWII, Hergé was accused of collaboration.

Pop Culture Spinoffs
A movie, documentary, musical, and BBC radio adaptation have been made about Tintin and directors Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson have planned a series of Tintin movies for release in 2009 or 2010. This year would be Hergé’s 100th birthday, so European countries are celebrating with Tintin events and exhibitions.

Did You Know?
Hergé paid incredible attention to detail. Look close at the street scenes in The Blue Lotus—every Chinese character is accurate.

Cherry Ames

Publishing History
At the outbreak of World War II, a buoyant, resourceful student nurse named Cherry Ames was created to encourage women to enter the nursing profession. Cherry’s exploits were recorded in a series of twenty-seven  books published by Grosset & Dunlap from 1943 to 1968. Author Helen Wells stepped aside for a time, letting Julie Campbell, the original author of the Trixie Belden series, pen Cherry’s adventures as a cruise nurse, a dude ranch nurse, and a night supervisor. (Wells resumed writing the series with the seventeenth book.) Four books were issued in 1972 in paperback by Grosset & Dunlap, which published three of those four titles again in 1978.

On Shelves Now?
Springer Publishing Company is reprinting all the Cherry Ames books, in boxed sets of four facsimile hardcover editions, finishing by early 2008.

The Controversy
Some view Cherry’s nursing work as adhering to traditional gender roles, while others see a feminist statement in her pursuit of a career instead of a husband.

Pop Culture Spinoffs
The Cherry Ames series can claim a board game and a first-aid book.

Did You Know?
When Julie Campbell wrote Country Doctor’s Nurse, her last book in the Cherry Ames series, she slipped in references to two other series for which she had written: Trixie Belden and Vicki Barr: Flight Stewardess.

Tom Swift

Publishing History
The Stratemeyer Syndicate series,  written by several ghostwriters under the pen name Victor Appleton from 1910 to 1941, featured a bright young inventor named Tom Swift who experimented with such cutting-edge technologies as airships and motorboats. His son appeared in the next iteration of the series, the New Tom Swift Jr. Adventures, published from 1954 to 1971 (the author was, appropriately, Victor Appleton II). This Tom got to explore space and play with nuclear subs and supersonic jets. Some technologies predicted in the books, like photo telephones and vertical takeoff aircraft, became realities; others, such as the triphibian atomicar, thankfully did not.

On Shelves Now?
Books from the two early Tom Swift series are still printed by various publishers. There were two other Tom Swift series produced during the early eighties and nineties, and there’s the Ultra Thriller books starring Tom and the Hardy Boys. The series latest guise, Tom Swift: Young Inventor, was released in paperback starting in 2006 with updated modern lingo.

The Controversy
During the early 1900s, the series was blamed for inciting thrill-seeking teenaged boys to run away on adventures. As a result, some libraries banned the books and many bookstores refused to carry them.

Pop Culture Spinoffs
A Tom Swift board game and a short-lived television show were made.

Did You Know?
The word Taser, a brand name for the non-lethal device that police use to stun criminal assailants, is an acronym that stands for “Thomas A. Swift’s Electric Rifle.” (The “A” is superfluous; Tom Swift was never given a middle name.)

Anne of Green Gables

Publishing History
Lucy Maud (L.M.) Montgomery got the idea for her book Anne of Green Gables from a newspaper article about an orphan girl sent to live with a couple. The exploits of her spunky, precocious red-headed protagonist Anne Shirley were so popular with readers that the book went through six editions and sold 19,000 copies in the five months after it was initially published in 1908. Demand for more Anne led Montgomery to pen seven more books in the series, which ended with Rilla of Ingleside in 1920.

On Shelves Now?
Penguin Group is publishing a 100th anniversary collectible edition of the Anne of Green Gables series featuring the original cover art of M.A. Claus and W.A.J. Claus. An official prequel to the series will be published this year by Penguin Group, as will Imagining Anne: The Scrapbooks of L.M. Montgomery, a collection of Montgomery’s notes and writings from 1893 to 1908.

The Controversy
Montgomery sued publisher Page & Co. over reprint rights and withheld royalties for the Anne books. She testified against them again when they published against her wishes Further Chronicles of Avonlea, assembled from manuscripts in their possession. The company sued her for libel; the lawsuit, which went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, lasted nine years before it was settled.

Pop Culture Spinoffs
Feature films, television series, stage productions, and made-for-TV movies were produced, including the well-regarded Canadian Broadcasting Corporation television mini-series from 1985 and an anime television series Akage no An (Red-Haired Anne) in Japan. Prince Edward Island, which hosts an annual L.M. Montgomery Festival, will celebrate the 100th anniversary of the publication of Anne of Green Gables in 2008. Commemorative postage stamps have also been issued honoring Anne.

Did You Know?
Among the hundreds of fan letters Montgomery received when Anne of Green Gables first came out was one from Mark Twain; she kept it under her pillow.