The Hidden Harbor Mystery

The Hidden Harbor Mystery is Volume 14 in the original The Hardy Boys Mystery Stories published by Grosset & Dunlap.

This book was written for the Stratemeyer Syndicate in 1935, purportedly by Leslie McFarlane; however, the writing style is noticeably different from other books in the series known to have been written by McFarlane. Between 1959 and 1973 the first 38 volumes of this series were systematically revised as part of a project directed by Harriet Adams, Edward Stratemeyer's daughter. The original version of this book was rewritten in 1961 by James Beuchler resulting in two different stories with the same title.

The original story contained racial stereotypes which were removed during the revision. For example, the chief villain, a young Black man named Luke Jones is described in the 1935 edition as "the worst scoundrel we have ever come across", but is completely removed from the 1961 version, and most characters identifiable as Black have been reworked as racially ambiguous.

Read more about The Hidden Harbor Mystery:  Plot Summary (revised Edition), Plot Summary (original Edition)

Famous quotes containing the words hidden, harbor and/or mystery:

    Lap me in soft Lydian airs,
    Married to immortal verse,
    Such as the meeting soul may pierce
    In notes with many a winding bout
    Of linked sweetness long drawn out,
    With wanton heed and giddy cunning,
    The melting voice through mazes running,
    Untwisting all the chains that tie
    The hidden soul of harmony;
    John Milton (1608–1674)

    What do we want with this vast and worthless area, of this region of savages and wild beasts, of deserts, of shifting sands and whirlwinds, of dust, of cactus and prairie dogs; to what use could we ever hope to put these great deserts, or those endless mountain ranges, impenetrable and covered to their very base with eternal snow? What can we ever hope to do with the western coast, a coast of 3,000 miles, rockbound, cheerless, uninviting and not a harbor in it?
    —For the State of Kansas, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)

    There is a mystery that floats between
    The tourist and the town. Imagination
    Estranges it from her. She need not suffer
    Or die here. It is none of her affair,
    Its calm heroic vistas make no claim.
    Adrienne Rich (b. 1929)