Do you remember reading about the Bobbsey twins and how much fun they had? Perhaps you're a young person and have never read a Bobbsey Twin book. If so, you are in for a treat!

The Bobbsey Twins are known as the longest running series of books for children. Did you know that The Stratemeyer Syndicate, a children's book publisher, asked Lilian McNamara Garis, to write a series of books for children almost a century ago?

Lilian's husband, Howard R. Garis, was already writing books for Stratemeyer. Later, he became famous for his Uncle Wiggily series as well as other books.

Since Lilian and Howard Garis both worked for the same syndicate, many people believe they worked on the Bobbsey series together, as a team. Why wouldn't they? They also had two children who may have served as their guide for the little Bobbsey twins.

Can you imagine you parents creating two characters known as the Bobbsey twins in your very own home? Perhaps the dinner conversation was often what  adventure the famous twins would be up to next.

**********

The Stratemeyer publishers would not allow the authors to use their name, so each Bobbsey Twin book was authored by "Laura Lee Hope." If you have any of the Whitman classics as I do, you can see it wrote on the inside. One of mine says, The Bobbsey Twins at the Seashore by Laura Lee Hope.

 Although other ghost writers came along, Lilian wrote many of the famous books. But, few people today even know who Lilian Garis was. The first book, The Bobbsey Twins came out in 1904, and today less than a dozen copies survive. If you come across one they are worth at least $500.

**********

The Bobbsey Twins:

Actually, there were two sets of twins. Can you believe it? It only makes it more interesting.

Bert and Nan - were the oldest pair with dark brown hair and brown eyes. Flossie and Freddie were the younger with light hair and blue eyes. They lived in an upper middle class neighborhood in the eastern city of Lakeport on Lake Metoka, somewhere in the USA. Their father was a lumber merchant and their mother a housewife who had two black servants named Dinah, the cook and Sam.

The twins enjoyed extraordinary days filled with lots of sunshine and love. They shared it all with their playmates, Grace, Nellie, Charlie, and Dannie. Their dog Snap, and Snoop the cat got to go along on many of their adventures. The Bobbsey twins took trips to the country with their parents to visit their Uncle Daniel, and traveled to the seashore to stay at Uncle William's house.

Some of their adventures included riding on a houseboat, camping on Blueberry Island, and taking a trip to the west. Each new volume that came out usually had a short summary of the previous adventure, which helped in case the reader had missed it.

Sad to say, no one knows for sure exactly how many Bobbsey Twins books were written because in the early years records were not kept.

Read more about the Bobbsey Twins in Part Two.

Bib:
Best in Children's Books.New York.
The Bookshelf for Boys and Girls.New Jersey.
The Home Adv. Library.Chicago.

©2000 jpinkerton