The secret of shadow ranch

Carolyn Keene and Franklin W. Dixon are the pseudonyms under which many ghostwriters penned the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys series, respectively. Both series were created by Edward Stratemeyer, founder of the Stratemeyer Syndicate book packaging firm, in the late 1920s and early 1930s.

Stratemeyer's daughter, Harriet, and syndicate writer Mildred Wirt Benson were the two people primarily responsible for bringing the iconic character of Nancy Drew to life in the minds and hearts of millions of readers around the world.