Edward Stratemeyer (1862-1930) was an American publisher and writer of children's fiction. He was one of the most prolific writers in the world, producing in excess of 1,300 books himself, selling in excess of 500 million copies. He also created many well-known fictional book series for juveniles, including The Rover Boys, The Bobbsey Twins, Tom Swift, The Hardy Boys, and Nancy Drew series, many of which sold millions of copies and are still in publication today. In the early 1880s he began writing shorts after the style of Horatio Alger under several pseudonyms, mainly using the pen names "Arthur M. Winfield" "Allen Chapman", and "Capt. Ralph Bonehill." Stratemeyer formed the Stratemeyer Literary Syndicate in 1905 and hired journalists to write stories based on his ideas. He paid them a flat rate for each book and kept the copyrights to the novels.