Fascinating, though short, article regarding the two page plot outline author Edward Stratemeyer directed writer Leslie McFarlane to follow in crafting The House on the Cliff, the second Hardy Boys book which was originally released in 1927:
I’ve probably mentioned it before, but The Hardy Boys were among my first reading passions. Over perhaps five or so years I found and read just about every book in their series available at the time (we’re talking up to the late 1970’s) before going into Nancy Drew and, to a far lesser extent, The Bobbsey Twins. I can’t even guess as to how many books of those three series I read, though they must have totaled close to 100 before I finally outgrew them and explored other works.
Still, I distinctly recall the thrill of realizing one could string together a series of words that eventually resulted -magically, it seemed!- in a singular work of entertainment. There is little doubt these quickly written works influenced me a great deal, leading me in their own way to become an author as well.
Anyway, as I looked up the book, I found images of the various cover designs for The House on the Cliff. It is interesting to see how the cover design evolved over time while retaining the same general concept.
The above are three very early versions, while the one below is the one I’m most familiar with. However, this is a more recent version, too, as the one I knew didn’t have “The Hardy Boys and the flashlight and #2 to indicate where it fell in the series.
Finally, a more recent “update”:
