Leslie McFarlane

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Leslie McFarlane (October 25, 1902 – September 6, 1977) was a Canadian journalist, novelist, and screenwriter.

Born Charles Leslie McFarlane in Carleton Place, Ontario, he is most famous for ghostwriting many of the early books in the very successful Hardy Boys series using the pseudonym Franklin W. Dixon.

As a young man he worked in Sudbury, Ontario as a newspaper reporter then for a weekly paper in Toronto before taking a job at the Springfield Republican newspaper in Springfield, Massachusetts. While in the U.S., during 1926 and 1927 he freelanced as one of the authors using the pseudonym Roy Rockwood to write seven of the Dave Fearless serialized mystery novels. This led to his involvement with the Hardy Boys, a project on which he was a large contributor, writing 19 of the first 25 books between 1927 and 1946 and 21 overall.

While still writing for the series for the Stratemeyer Syndicate, McFarlane returned to Canada to work for the National Film Board of Canada (NFB). As part of the NFB, in 1953 he was nominated for an Academy Award for Live Action Short Film for his documentary titled Herring Hunt. Moving to Toronto he wrote for CBC television and at the suggestion of his friend Lorne Greene, moved to Hollywood for a time to write scripts for the TV Western Bonanza in which Greene starred.

McFarlane also wrote the first four volumes of The Dana Girls series for the Stratemeyer Syndicate under the pseudonym Carolyn Keene.

The Leslie McFarlane Public School in Whitby, Ontario is named in his honour. His son, Brian McFarlane, is well known as a former commentator on Hockey Night in Canada.

Listen to Leslie McFarlane Talk about his Hardy Boys Stories


Hardy Boy books by Leslie McFarlane:

  1. The Tower Treasure (1927)
  2. The House on the Cliff (1927)
  3. The Secret of the Old Mill (1927)
  4. The Missing Chums (1928)
  5. Hunting for Hidden Gold (1928)
  6. The Shore Road Mystery (1928)
  7. The Secret of the Caves (1929)
  8. The Mystery of Cabin Island (1929)
  9. The Great Airport Mystery (1930)
  10. What Happened at Midnight (1931)
  11. While the Clock Ticked (1932)
  12. Footprints under the Window (1933)
  13. The Mark on the Door (1934)
  14. The Hidden Harbor Mystery (1935)
  15. The Sinister Signpost (1936)
  16. A Figure in Hiding (1937)
  17. The Flickering Torch Mystery (1943)
  18. The Melted Coins (1944)
  19. The Short-Wave Mystery (1945)
  20. The Secret Panel (1946)
  21. The Phantom Freighter (1947)


Note:

  • The Phantom Freighter was co-written with Amy McFarlane, his wife.
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