You know the five Happy Hollister children as Pete, Pam, Ricky, Holly, and Sue. But in the mind of author Andrew Svenson (aka Jerry West), they were his own six children!
When Andrew Svenson joined the Stratemeyer Syndicate as a writer in early 1948, he had five children under the age of thirteen: Laura, Andy Jr., Jane, Eric, and Eileen. He had been making up bedtime stories for his children for more than a decade, so when he was offered the opportunity to write children’s books for the Syndicate, the decision was a cinch.
Svenson’s first assignments for the Syndicate included the first installment of the Mel Martin Baseball Series, Mystery at the Ballpark under the pseudonym “John R. Cooper.” A year or so later, he wrote The Bobbsey Twins in Rainbow Valley as “Laura Lee Hope.” Once he became comfortable with the Syndicate’s mission and writing styles, he proposed a new children’s mystery series based on the antics and adventures of his own children.
When he was interviewed for an article in the Lebanon Daily News, Svenson explained, “research with the census bureau revealed that larger families were becoming popular again. I have six children of my own and I know how they operate.
“I decided on a fictional family of five children. Then it came to the problem of a name. We decided it should have the word happy since it was to be a series about happy children. At first it was thought that the family should be called The Happy Holidays but that sounded too much like a travel series. Finally, by means of an alliterative process, we came up with The Happy Hollisters.” [Lebanon Daily News; James Shelhamer; April 29, 1965]
Svenson’s stories were fed by things his children and their friends did, and by their family activities. The Svenson home in Bloomfield, New Jersey, purchased about the time he started working at the Syndicate, provided the perfect setting for the series. An imposing three-story home surrounded by large lawns, it was rumored by the neighborhood children to be haunted. The introductory volume for the new series was based on their experience of moving into this home and was originally titled “Fun in a New Home.”
Svenson’s basic concept for the new series was approved by Harriet Adams, his boss at the Stratemeyer Syndicate, in about 1950, and he began to flesh out the main characters. He decided that the eldest Hollister would be Pete, modeled on Andy Jr., followed by Pam (Laura), Jane (Holly); Ricky (Eric); and Sue (Eileen). Svenson’s youngest daughter, Ingrid, joined the crew in late 1949, after the initial cast of characters had been set. She and Eileen both contributed to the character of little Sue, the much-adored baby of the Hollister family.
The book characters shared many personality traits with the Svenson children, from precocious Sue and mischievous Ricky to take-charge-Pete and nurturing Pam. The main difference between the fictional and real-life children was hair color; the Svenson children all had brown hair—not a single redhead in the bunch!
Series artist Helen S. Hamilton did a swell job bringing the Hollister children to life. She met the entire family on several occasions and enlisted her own children to pose for scenes to get the action just right. Young readers often commented to Jerry West that they felt that the Hollisters must be real people because they felt like they were right there solving the mysteries alongside them. The combination of realistic descriptions by the author and engaging illustrations created a very believable world, and with five Hollister children aged four to twelve, there was always someone close to the reader’s own age to connect with.
Which of the Happy Hollisters would you have wanted to be friends with? We’d love to hear about what attracted you to them!
“I talk to children and ask what kind of stories they like. But I suppose the most important thing of all is imagination, and that’s where a lot of the stories begin—in my head.”
Andrew Svenson, author of
The Happy Hollisters, with his daughter
Laura aka “Pam Hollister” 1938
The Happy Hollisters as seen in real life and as depicted by artist Helen S. Hamilton
