Laura Lee Hope | Fiction 1913
212 pages
Laura Lee Hope is the pseudonym for a group of authors who wrote The Bobsey Twins, The Outdoor Girls, and five other multi-book series for children. When my Aunt Helen died in 2009, I found a box of The Outdoor Girls in her basement. She had 19 of the 23-book series, published between 1913 and 1933. She signed them “Helen Sigetich” and often included a date, 1926 in the first one, or her address, 6550 McGraw. I bought three more to fill in the gaps, but have not yet put my hands on the rare 23rd volume, The Outdoor Girls in Desert Valley.
I read three of them over the last few days, to see what these century-old stories were like. I am impressed with the number of adventures the girls find themselves in, from discovering a lost $500 bill with a note attached, to finding the truth about the white ghost with chains on Elm island. The authors use big words like obdurate and auspicious, and, even as a mature adult in another century, I did not feel talked down to.
It was fun to explore this series of books, set in a time when telephones were not yet in every home, much less any other technology.
I am most curious to know if any of you read this series while a young person? I read The Hardy Boys religiously, and an occasional Nancy Drew, but never anything by Laura Lee Hope. What do you remember?