Although she was capable, therefore, it was with some trepidation that Harriet Adams contemplated herself and her sister's partnering in the running of their father's book empire following his death in 1930. Unwilling to disappoint the readers of Syndicate books, however, they rose to the challenge. They become legal partners, and Syndicate offices were moved to East Orange, New Jersey, to be closer to Harriet's family home. By 1942, after her sister's marriage, Harriet assumed full control and became senior partner of the Stratemeyer Syndicate.
Harriet Stratemeyer Adams ran the book empire for 40 years. She wrote complete books and story outlines, and, like her father before her, had final editorial control over all manuscripts, in full command of all aspects of the business, until literally the day of her death in 1982 at age 89. It was an amazing feat for her time, as successful business women were virtually unknown. She steered the business through economic depression and World War, reducing the number of series and introducing new ones, altering the books and allowing film and TV versions to increase their popularity. She was vigilant and rewrote books to reflect changing attitudes to ethnic stereotyping and dialect and changes in federal and state laws.
In the 70's, pressure mounted from the media to expose the secrets behind popular series books. It had been discovered that series such as The Bobbsey Twins, Honey Bunch and Norman, The Happy Hollister, The Hardy Boys, Tom Swift, Linda Craig, The Dana Girls and Nancy Drew were but a few of the 150 series produced by the Stratemeyer Writing Syndicate. Harriet eventually succumbed to their persistent requests and broke with her father's convention concerning anonymity. She revealed the current face behind the Syndicate pseudonyms, Harriet Stratemeyer Adams. The resulting notoriety, however unjustifiably, but not unexpectedly, brought problems for the Syndicate's senior partner.
The Stratemeyer Syndicate's head had the full, legal, and moral right to claim ownership and authorship of Syndicate books, their characters and pen names. As senior partner of the Syndicate, Edward, and then Harriet, exercised final authority over their books' content, with the right to assert authorship of their stories. Some fifty ghost writers were, at various times, employed by the Syndicate. They were each required, as a condition of their employment, to sign an unequivocal anonymity contract. Any rights to their contributions to Syndicate stories were relinquished by legal contract after completion of each piece of their work. They were always extremely well paid for their writing relative to monetary values at that time, and happily sold their work, whether this involved Syndicate type, commissioned stories of their own, or fleshed-out Stratemeyer story outlines. Ghost writers were fully aware of the ramifications of the contracts they signed.
In order to understand the position taken by the Syndicate's head, an analogy can be drawn with historical grand master painters and their studios. Various apprentices and other painters, needing work, were hired to assist in the master painter's commissions. This was acceptable in order to increase his output. They studied the master's style, under his direction, in order to mimic his work. Their contributions to his paintings varied from a few brush strokes, detailing work, to complete copies. The paintings, in subject, concept, and detail, any work undertaken on the master's behalf and the final products were the property of the studio master. There was no question that he had the right to sign his name to his finished paintings. This concept and the details of the terms of employment in the Stratemeyer Syndicate of its ghost writers are salient in comprehending the puzzle of the "mystery" of authorship of the Nancy Drew books.
The Nancy Drew mystery stories were one of the Syndicate's most popular series. After its introduction in 1930, they soon began to outsell all other series books. As a result of their popularity and later media attention concerning Harriet Adams' authorship of Nancy Drew stories, Syndicate ghost writer, Mildred Benson, began to desire more recognition for her part in their production. Despite the fact that she had not written any of the actual story plots, had signed contracts relinquishing any rights or claims to authorship over her work and knowing that she had only contributed to Stratemeyer conceived characters and stories, she began to crave acknowledgment.
By 1979, many newspaper articles had appeared in praise of Harriet Adams as the author of the Nancy Drew books. This mounting publicity began to, in her words, "disturb" Ms. Benson. By the time of a 1980 court case between long time Syndicate publishers, Grosset & Dunlap, and new publishers, Simon & Schuster, and the Syndicate over publishing rights, her desire for recognition induced her to agree to appear for Grosset. Although the case legally established the fact that Ms. Benson did not have any right to claim ownership or authorship of the Nancy Drew books on which she had worked, her exposure caused literary debate. Because of secrecy surrounding the Syndicate and the contracted anonymity of its ghost writers, very few facts were known concerning its workings.
Ms. Benson's work on the Nancy Drew books was publicized by herself and others. Erroneous conclusions were drawn from the "evidence" and it was stated that Ms. Benson, the "true" author of the Nancy Drew books, had finally been exposed.
Encouraged by the media, despite legal findings to the contrary, Ms. Benson cultivated their attention as the books' author. She gave numerous interviews in support of her claims and did not object when these books were placed among lists of her literary works. The Smithsonian accepted her donation to their collection of the typewriter on which she had "written her" stories. Ms. Benson's statements to the press became increasingly broad, including that she had conceived Nancy's character as published and her work was cardinal to the entire series and not just the stories on which she had worked.
