Harriet Stratemeyer Adams (December 11, 1892 – March 27, 1982) was an American juvenile mystery novelist and publisher who authored some 200 books over her literary career. She wrote many books in the Nancy Drew series (under the pseudonym Carolyn Keene) and a few in the Hardy Boys series (under the pseudonym Franklin W. Dixon). She also oversaw other ghostwriters who wrote for these and many other series.
She was born in Newark, New Jersey, the daughter of Edward Stratemeyer. With her sister, Edna, she took over control of the Stratemeyer Syndicate upon his death in 1930. Adams is primarily credited with keeping the Syndicate afloat through the Great Depression, and with revising the two most popular series, Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys, in the 1950s and 1960s, removing stereotypes and outdated ideas and language.
Adams graduated from Wellesley College in 1914. She resided in Maplewood, New Jersey, and in Pottersville, New Jersey, an area within Tewksbury Township.
Adams was interred in Fairmount Cemetery in Newark.
Famous quotes containing the words harriet and/or adams:
“Summer is different. We now have breakfast together, for example ... it hasn’t happened in so long that we’re not sure how to go about it. So we bump into each other in the kitchen. I never saw Ozzie and Harriet bump into each other in the kitchen—not once. Ozzie knew his place was at the table, while Harriet knew that her place was at the stove.”
—Nathan Cobb (20th century)
“It’s a queer sensation, this secret belief that one stands on the brink of the world’s greatest catastrophe. For it means the fall of Western Europe, as it fell in the fourth century. It recurs to me every November, and culminates every December. I have to get over it as I can, and hide, for fear of being sent to an asylum.”
—Henry Brooks Adams (1838–1918)