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The Brian McFarlane Page |
| Famous people links
(me included)
Leslie McFarlane simply answered an ad from the Stratemeyer company in the United States for a writer of boys' mystery stories. He at first wrote many volumes of other boys' mystery stories, and even girls' mystery stories, and always under a pseudonym. Of course he is most famous for being Franklin W. Dixon. I read all of the Hardy Boys stories when I was in my pre-teens, and I still have all of them. The books evolved from blue hardcover editions to various types of paperbacks, of which I am trying to collect all of them. I have most of them but many are hard to find, especially in bookstores in Sudbury. I also have the Nancy Drew collection and the Three Investigators collection. I used to rush to the bookstore on Sherbrooke Street in Montreal just sweating for a Hardy Boy issue I didn't have. The excitement of getting one was indescribable. I've actually tried writing a story line for a Hardy Boy book, but I never got back to it - some day maybe. Anyway, the legacy continues, the stories are still being written and published.
|  With Leslie McFarlane's son Brian in Haileybury.
Brian McFarlane is the son of the prolific author of the Hardy Boys mystery series. But, he has more going on than just that. He also spent several decades commentating for Hockey Night in Canada, and has written many books on Canada's favourite ice sport (not including drinking and curling). His father Leslie wrote the first 20 Hardy Boy mysteries (both men are Canadian of course). In fact, the first story, The Tower Treasure, was written on an ancient typewriter on the shores of Lake Ramsay in Sudbury (before the million-dollar homes went up). According to Leslie in his autobiography, when he needed some 'juice', he would canoe into town to get some drink, then canoe back to his shack to continue writing. Leslie wrote many other books, and according to his autobiography, if he needed quick cash, he would hammer out another Hardy Book. He ended up in Haileybury and it was there where I attended the dedication ceremony for him. It was a huge gala - his son Brian was there, and his daughter, and permanent plaques are now up all over the Haileybury area commemorating Leslie McFarlane (mainly the homes he and his family at one time lived in). Direct any comments or requests for photo copies to the Webmaster at [email protected]. |
