The Hardy Boys in the context of "Pseudonym"

Detective fiction is a subgenre of crime fiction and mystery fiction in which an investigator or a detective—whether professional, amateur or retired—investigates a crime, often murder. The detective genre began around the same time as speculative fiction and other genre fiction in the mid-nineteenth century and has remained extremely popular, particularly in novels. Some of the most famous heroes of detective fiction include C. Auguste Dupin, Sherlock Holmes, Kogoro Akechi, Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot. Juvenile stories featuring The Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, and The Boxcar Children have also remained in print for several decades.

The Tower Treasure is the first volume in the original Hardy Boys series published by Grosset & Dunlap. The book ranks 55th on Publishers Weekly's All-Time Bestselling Children's Book List for the United States, with 2,209,774 copies sold as of 2001. This book is one of the "Original 10", generally considered by historians and critics of children's literature to be the best examples of all the Hardy Boys, and Stratemeyer Syndicate, writing.

This book was written for the Stratemeyer Syndicate by Leslie McFarlane and published in 1927. US Copyright expired in 2023, releasing it into the US public domain. However, the 1927 edition is still under copyright in Canada until January 1, 2048 (70 years after Leslie McFarlane’s death, as Canada uses the life of the author plus 70 years for works-for-hire) when it will enter the Canadian Public Domain, along with the rest of McFarlane’s Hardy Boys books. The 1959 version will enter the US Public Domain on January 1, 2055, while it will enter the Canadian Public Domain on January 1, 2053. Between 1959 and 1973 the first 38 volumes were systematically revised as part of a project directed by Harriet S. Adams, Edward Stratemeyer's daughter. While some volumes only had minor changes, the original version of this book had the plot significantly rewritten in 1959 by Adams. In 2024, the original 1927 version was republished by Bauer World Press.

Edward L. Stratemeyer (/ˈstrætəˌmaɪər/; October 4, 1862 – May 10, 1930) was an American publisher, writer of children's fiction and founder of the Stratemeyer Syndicate. He is one of the most prolific writers in the world, having penned over 1,300 books and selling more than 500 million copies.

Stratemeyer created many well-known children's fiction book series, including The Rover Boys, The Bobbsey Twins, Tom Swift, The Hardy Boys, and Nancy Drew, many of which sold millions of copies and remain in publication. On his legacy, Fortune wrote: "As oil had its Rockefeller, literature had its Stratemeyer."

The Stratemeyer Syndicate was an American book packaging company that produced a number of book series for children, including Nancy Drew, The Hardy Boys, the various Tom Swift series, the Bobbsey Twins, the Rover Boys, and others. It contracted the many pseudonymous authors who wrote the series from 1899 to 1987, and arranged the publishing by firms such as Grosset & Dunlap. In 1987 it was sold to Simon & Schuster.

Franklin W. Dixon is the pen name used by a variety of different authors who were part of a team that wrote the Hardy Boys novels for the Stratemeyer Syndicate (now owned by Simon & Schuster). Dixon was also the writer attributed for the Ted Scott Flying Stories series, published by Grosset & Dunlap.

Canadian author Charles Leslie McFarlane is believed to have written the first sixteen Hardy Boys books, but worked to a detailed plot and character outline for each story. The outlines are believed to have originated with Edward Stratemeyer, with later books outlined by his daughters Edna C. Squier and Harriet Adams. Edna and Harriet also edited all books in the series through the mid-1960s. Other writers of the original books include MacFarlane's wife Amy, John Button, Andrew E. Svenson, and Adams herself; most of the outlines were done by Adams and Svenson. A number of other writers and editors were recruited to revise the outlines and update the texts in line with a more modern sensibility, starting in the late 1950s.