The Bobbsey Twins are the principal characters of what was, for many years, the Stratemeyer Syndicate's longest-running series of children's novels, penned under the pseudonym, "Laura Lee Hope." Edward Stratemeyer himself is believed to have written the first volume, in its original form in 1904, and when the original series was halted in 1979, it had reached an impressive total of 72 volumes. At least two abortive attempts to restart the series were launched after this, but neither achieved the popularity of the original series.

The popular legend that Stratemeyer himself wrote all of the first three volumes of the series is believed to be pure fiction; the second and third volumes are generally attributed to Lilian Garis , wife of Howard Garis, who is credited with volumes 4-28 and 41. Elizabeth Ward is credited with volumes 29-35, while Harriet Stratemeyer Adams is credited with 36-38, 39 (with Camilla McClave), 40, 42, 43 (with Andrew Svenson ), and 44-48. Volumes 49-52 are generally attributed to Andrew Svenson , while 53-59, and the 1960s rewrites of 1-4, 7, 11-13, and 17, are attributed to June Dunn . Grace Grote is generally regarded as the real author of 60-67 and the rewrites of 14, 18, 19, and 20, and Nancy Axelrad is credited with 68-72. Of the 1960s rewrites not already mentioned, Vols. 5 and 16 are credited to Mary Donahoe , 6 and 25 to Patricia Doll , 8-10 and 15 to Bonnibel Weston , and 24 to Margery Howard .

The Bobbsey family consists of the father, Richard, a successful lumber merchant, the mother, Mary (referred to at least once as "Edith"), a "stay-at-home mom," Bert and Nan, the older of two sets of fraternal twins, and Flossie and Freddie, the younger twins. Also living under the Bobbsey roof are Dinah and Sam Johnson, an African-American couple. Dinah is the Bobbsey family's cook and housekeeper, while Sam has been described, depending on the vintage of any particular book, as either the Bobbseys' chauffer, a neighborhood handyman, or a truck driver at the Bobbsey lumberyard (in later volumes, Mr. Bobbsey's most trusted employee). Other characters include Charlie Mason, Bert's best friend, Nellie Parks, Nan's best friend, Susie Larker, Flossie's best friend, and Teddy Blake, Freddie's best friend, as well as "Aunt" Sallie Pry, an elderly, nearly deaf woman, who was a close family friend, and Danny Rugg, a neighborhood bully and nemesis to the Bobbseys. They all live in the fictional city of Lakeport, on the shore of the equally fictional Lake Metoka, presumably somewhere in the Northeastern U.S. The Bobbseys have relatives "in the country" (Richard Bobbsey's brother Daniel and his family, introduced in Vol. 2) on a farm near the rural town of Meadowbrook (in most books set there, that is also the name of the farm itself), and other relatives "at the seashore" (Mary Bobbsey's sister Emily Minturn and her family, introduced in Vol. 3), who live in the seaside hamlet of Ocean Cliff.

The earliest Bobbsey books were mainly episodic strings of adventures; with the growing popularity of the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew, detective plots began to dominate the series. Even so, few of the mysteries involved violent crime, and quite a few didn't involve any crime at all.

In 1960, a project was begun to completely rewrite most of the older volumes, many of which became almost unrecognizable (although in most cases, the rewritten versions were actually quite a bit better-written than the originals). This was done concurrently with the release of a new edition of the series, with picture covers, no dust jackets, and a lavender spine and back cover (replacing the various green bindings that had been used before). Many of the cover paintings were originally dust-jacket paintings that had been added in the 1950s (before which, a single common dust-jacket painting had been used throughout any given edition), but most were new with the "purple" edition. In all, 20 were completely rewritten, all but two with modernized titles, while 16 were never released in this edition, evidently having been deemed to be dated beyond economic salvage.

Most of the rewrites were motivated by changing technology (automobiles replacing horses and buggies) or changing social standards (particularly in how Sam and Dinah were portrayed). What is generally regarded as the most extreme rewrite is The Bobbsey Twins and Baby May, a story about the Bobbsey family's adventures trying to find the parents of a foundling baby. Since, by the 1960s, modern social services had rendered the original story utterly implausible, an entirely new novel was written, about the twins' adventures with a baseball-playing baby elephant (The Bobbsey Twins' Adventures with Baby May). This, however, had a ripple effect, as the original The Bobbsey Twins at Cherry Corners had been a sequel to the original Baby May. Thus, a second book had to be written, The Bobbsey Twins: The Mystery at Cherry Corners, incorporating only a very little bit of material from its original version.

While many of the early volumes were constructed from whole cloth, with little or no connection to the real world, by 1917 (The Bobbsey Twins in a Great City, Vol. 9, rewritten in 1960 as The Bobbsey Twins' Search in the Great City), they were beginning to visit real places, and by the 1950s, (The Bobbsey Twins at Pilgrim Rock, Vol. 50), those visits to real places were as well-researched as any fictional visits to real places. By 1971, when the Bobbseys visited Colonial Willamsburg (The Bobbsey Twins' Red White and Blue Mystery, Vol. 64), real places were being depicted in meticulous detail, down to the names of well-known hotels and restaurants (and, in that particular case, even the color of Colonial Williamsburg shuttle buses).

It is said that Vol. 68, The Bobbsey Twins on the Sun-Moon Cruise, was the result of a research trip for a proposed Nancy Drew book: Harriet Stratemeyer Adams and Nancy Axelrad (her personal assistant at the time) took an actual eclipse cruise, but when they returned, the publisher was more interested in a new Bobbsey title.

Many of the earliest Bobbsey novels can be found online, in Project Gutenberg e-texts.

External links

• A table of release dates and revision history of the original Bobbsey Twins series
• Information on the ghostwriters behind "Laura Lee Hope"
• A general commentary on the series as a whole
• A general publication history of the series