Charles S. Strong

Charles Stanley Strong (November 29, 1906 – October 11, 1962) was an author, adventurer and explorer.

Charles S. Strong
Born1906
Died1962
LanguageEnglish
GenreMystery
SubjectNancy Drew

His pen names include Chuck Stanley, William McClellan, Carl Sturdy, Kelvin McKay, Nancy Bartlett, Myron Keats, Charles Stoddard, Larry Regan, the house names Carolyn Keene and Franklin W. Dixon and possibly several others.[1][2][3][4][5] His own name was used as a pseudonym for other writers, including Samuel Epstein and Beryl Williams.[6] He wrote the Hardy Boys book The Hooded Hawk Mystery[7] and the Nancy Drew book The Scarlet Slipper Mystery,[8] and once machine-gunned a shark from an airplane.[9]

Early life

Born in Brooklyn, New York on November 29, 1906,[10] Strong studied at the Pace Institute of Accounting and Law and Royal Fredrick University Oslo [11]

Writing career

In 1931 the Brooklyn Eagle Magazine carried a feature article titled Long Island Man Kills Sharks from Airplane by Joan Crockett which said

For the past three years he has enjoyed a wide reputation as a traveler, explorer, lecturer and photographer. ... During the past seven years he has had more thrilling adventures than the hero of a dime novel. He has visited fifty different countries. He has explored unknown parts of Scandinavia. He has migrated across the frozen tundras with Swedish, Norwegian, and Finnish Lapps. He has been shipwrecked off the coast of Norway. He has traced a lost colony of the old Norse civilization, taken part in a mapping expedition over northwestern Canada with the Canadian Royal Air Force, led a party across Finland from the northern end of the railway and shot a shark with a machine gun from an airplane. He is an honorary police commissioner in Norway, and a popular hero in Sweden.[9][12]

The article adds that a Norwegian newspaper called him "The American who knows Scandinavia thoroughly" and a Swedish newspaper "The American who discovered Sweden".[9] He studied Scandinavian literature at the University of Oslo, and his hobbies included riding, hunting, fishing, and automobile and motorboat racing. His "hydroaerographic chart" was used by European pilots. He proposed a peace plan after World War I to the Woodrow Wilson Foundation and the American-Scandinavian Foundation.[9]

Strong was one of the authors who popularized the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in fiction, with his leading characters: Corporal Buchanan and Constable Carter of the RCMP, writing as Charles Stoddard.[13]

He wrote one of the chapters, "Twelve Days Eastward", in Conquerors of the Sky by Joseph Lewis French which has an introduction by Amelia Earhart.[14]

He was even mentioned in the Icelandic newspaper Morgunblaðið on November 1, 1928, describing him as the editor of the Scandinavian American News Bureau.[15]

Strong was also the New York correspondent for the short-lived radio publication What's On the Air circa 1931.[16]

Death

Strong died at the age of 55 on October 11, 1962.[17]

Works

He was a noted writer of series books, including a Hardy Boys book for the Stratemeyer Syndicate in 1954, (The Hooded Hawk Mystery Hardy boys#34), Lassie: Treasure Hunter, the Nancy Drew book The Scarlet Slipper Mystery (Nancy Drew#32) based on an outline by Harriet S. Adams. He wrote a series of books about Snow King, Herd Dog of Lapland based on his 1928 treks in Lapland.[24][25]

He wrote a two-page text article for Real Life Comics#2 (1941) Light of Liberty about the Statue of Liberty.[26]

References
  1. Detecting Canada: Essays on Canadian Crime Fiction, Television, and Film Jeannette Sloniowski, Marilyn Rose; Wilfrid Laurier Univ. Press, March 25, 2014
  2. Wisconsin Valley Library Service catalog Archived November 22, 2015, at the Wayback Machine
  3. Science Fiction Encyclopedia
  4. Library of Congress Name Authority File "Keats, Myron 1906–"
  5. Joseph F. Clarke (1977). Pseudonyms. BCA. p. 239.
  6. Publishers Weekly
  7. Who Wrote the Hardy Boys? Secrets from the Syndicate Files Revealed Archived 2019-11-04 at the Wayback Machine James D. Keeline
  8. Rediscovering Nancy Drew Carolyn Stewart Dyer, Nancy Tillman Romalov; University of Iowa Press, 1995, page 155
  9. The Brooklyn Daily Eagle Brooklyn Eagle Magazine, 25 January 1931
  10. Passport Application image
  11. Bernard Alger Drew (1990). Lawmen in Scarlet: An Annotated Guide to Royal Canadian Mounted Police in Print and Performance. Scarecrow Press. p. 115. ISBN 9780810823303.
  12. Svenska Dagbladet 1929-03-11 and Aftonbladet 1929-03-11
  13. David Skene-Melvin (2014). Canadian Crime Writing in English. Detecting Canada: Essays on Canadian Crime Fiction, Television, and Film. Jeannette Sloniowski, Marilyn Rose (editors). Wilfrid Laurier Univ. Press. p. 25. ISBN 9781554589272.
  14. Mcloughlin Brothers, 1932
  15. Strong Charles Strong Charles S. Strong. Meðal farþega á Lyru í kvöld er Mr. Charles S. Strong, ritstjóri Scandinavian American News Bureau í New York. Roughly:"Charles S. Strong. Among the passengers on the Lyre tonight is Mr. Charles S. Strong, editor of Scandinavian American News Bureau in New York. – Mr. Strong said he was very impressed by the acceptance he had received throughout Hjerting (in Denmark) ..." (note: The Kingdom of Iceland was then in existence)
  16. American Radio History What's On the Air vol.2 no. 5, March 1931 page 10
  17. Obituary in The New York Times October 12, 1962
  18. New York Times book Review Frances Smith, March 24, 1948, Book ASIN=B00502E7UC
  19. Kirkus Reviews "Canadian Arctic, vivid descriptions of the Eskimos, and the trail of explorers, these are freshly described by the author who is an experienced Arctic traveler as well as the author of many stories and articles"
  20. Kirkus Reviews "One could wish that Charles Strong, whose own adventurous life should provide many an exciting true story, had not submerged a good yarn in somewhat uncoordinated factual minutiae"
  21. Kirkus Reviews "Vic and the son of a Los Angeles dog biscuit maker, is given the chance to follow the Byrd ex by Captain Nilsen whose Norwegian whaling ship is acting as a supplier"
  22. Kirkus Reviews "this text with 25 line cuts by Albert Orbaan presents a forceful picture of the still unconquered South Pole."
  23. Kirkus Reviews "Superb drawings by Gordon Grant and H.B. Vestal hail the equally fine sea-swept history of great American vessels; of schooners, sloops, whalers; of great naval engagements in The Story of American Sailing Ships. Iron men and wooden ships and their part in America's history, told with spanking illustrations and memorable style."
  24. AUTHOR TO WINTER WITH ARCTIC LAPPS; Charles S. Strong Sails on Gripsholm to Make Long Trek With Mongolian Tribe. TO STUDY LIVES AND HABITS Also Intends to Collect Scandinavian Dolls for Brooklyn institute of Arts. The New York Times; August 12, 1928
  25. Life Among the Lapps; SNOW KING, Herd Dog of Lapland The New York Times; GEORGE A. WOODS; June 6, 1954
  26. Michigan State University Libraries Special Collections Division Reading Room Index to the Comic Art Collection "The story of the symbol of freedom greeting Americans and their neighbors in New York Harbor."
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