If most people know Leslie McFarlane today, it is because of his contract work with the Stratemeyer Syndicate on the early volumes of the Hardy Boys series.   He wrote 33 manuscripts for the Syndicate in this series and others.  At least two and possibly three of these stories were never published.  This page is an attempt to present as complete a list as possible of McFarlane's writings so that fans and scholars might put a particular work into a broader perspective.  Like a number of writers of this period of time, McFarlane wrote for many types of publications, virtually all that were available at the time, including newspapers, pulp and slick magazines, books, radio, television, and film.  He wrote short stories and long fiction along with various types of nonfiction. This will almost certainly be a perpetual work in progress.  As such, I would very much appreciate additional listings from those who see this page and know his work.  This is especially needed in the areas of the newspaper articles and pulp and slick magazine materials which can show up virtually anywhere but are very hard to trace with traditional research tools.  Those who submit entries will have their initials near the entries which are linked to a list of contributors.

A.  Books for the Stratemeyer Syndicate

It is through the books that Leslie McFarlane wrote for the Stratemeyer Syndicate that we know him today so it is fitting that this be the first category.  The Stratemeyer Syndicate was established by Edward Stratemeyer (1862-1930) in 1905 as a way to produce material for publishers at a faster rate than he could do alone.   A typical Syndicate series would be proposed to a publisher with several sample titles and brief summaries.  When selected by the publisher, these would be expanded by Edward Stratemeyer, or his successors in later years, into outlines which were next turned over to the "ghostwriter."  This writer, frequently a newspaper reporter for their "day job" would then expand the limited outline into a book whose published length would be some 220 pages (roughly 30,000 words).  In the early years this work would take about four to six weeks though it could be much shorter at times.   For their work, the ghostwriter would be paid a flat commission for all rights to the work and they were expected to sign a release which transferred rights to Stratemeyer or the Syndicate.  During Stratemeyer's lifetime, writers would also get a Christmas bonus which reflected the success of their books and the amount of work they did for the Syndicate.  After his death, the writers were bequeathed a sum of money based on their Syndicate writing for the previous five years.  The amount paid for a manuscript (for example $125 in 1927 for The Tower Treasure) was roughly equivalent to the salary of a newspaper reporter for two month's work.  Another way of looking at it was the number of 50¢ books which had to be sold before Stratemeyer earned back the amount he invested in the story.  In this case 6,250 copies of a title needed to be sold, based on a 2¢ per copy royalty, before the investment was earned back.  For the Hardy Boys volumes this was not a problem.  However, for the Dave Fearless paperback books, the sales did not justify continuing this or the other Syndicate series handled by Garden City in 1926 and 1927.  The fact that the ghostwriters were often with the Syndicate for up to 30 years is a testament to their feelings on the fairness of this payment policy. Below is a list of the Stratemeyer Syndicate books written by McFarlane in chronological order according to the date the release was signed.

B.  Other Books

Leslie McFarlane wrote fourteen books on his own behalf.  The earliest of these were two adult mysteries published by E.P. Dutton while he was working on the Hardy Boys series for the Stratemeyer Syndicate.  When he began to do more writing for radio in the 1940s, he discontinued his writing for the Syndicate.  He spent most of his time for the next twenty years writing for film and television. He published two books under his own name in 1965 and 1966. The first of these was a story about a Dominion Day picnic in the 1880s.  The other one was a paperback hockey story which was the basis of a television program. In 1972, he wrote a play to comemorate the 50th anniversary of a fire in his boyhood town of Haileybury, Ontario.  A bookstore in the area, The Highway Bookshop, published this play, some reprints of his reporting of the fire, and a memoir by McFarlane about his boyhood in Haileybury. In 1975 and 1976 he adapted several of his pulp magazine stories to very short paperback novels which were published by Methuen.  That same publisher also published his memoir, Ghost of the Hardy Boys, in 1976.

C.  Periodicals

McFarlane began his writing career as a newspaper reporter with the Cobalt Nugget and the Sudbury Star.  He sent in stories to the Saturday fiction section of the Toronto Star and later wrote stories for slick and pulp magazines in his spare time.  In 1926 when he answered the ad placed by Edward Stratemeyer, he was working for the Springfield Republican in Massachusetts.  Within a couple of months he returned to Canada.   From time to time McFarlane would write to Stratemeyer or his daughters to tell them of his success in placing stories.   In November 1926 when Stratemeyer was sending the first Hardy Boys outline, he congratulated McFarlane on his article in Everybody's Magazine.   Stratemeyer even asked him to write a story in February 1927, "Mystery Ranch," which he intended to sell to one of the pulp magazines. In May 1927 McFarlane sent a photo and a description of the location of Haileybury.  In Stratemeyer's reply he congratulated him on winning the Maclean prize and sent the printed copies of the early Hardy Boys volumes.   In June 1927 he was congratulated on his "theatrical venture."   In April 1928, Stratemeyer congratulated him on his forthcoming marriage to Amy Arnold and his success in selling to Mystery Stories while noting at the same time that he had been unable to sell "Mystery Ranch."   Stratemeyer purchased a copy of Munsey's Magazine in April 1929 which contained a serial by McFarlane.  Later that month Stratemeyer sent the manuscript for "Mystery Ranch" to McFarlane in hopes that he could place it with a publisher.   In March 1930, Stratemeyer learned that another publisher was offering a title called "Mystery Ranch" necessitating a change in title for the story.   In February 1934 the Syndicate congratulated him on selling 100% of his literary output for 1933.   Below is a list of the periodicals for which McFarlane wrote followed by a list of specific stories or issues of magazines containing his stories which are known to exist.  This is probably his largest body of work yet the one which is hardest to trace.  Please e-mail me if you have additional listings or corrections.

Note:  Some pulp magazines published two issues per month, usually on the 10th and 25th.  However, sometimes these were labeled "First November 1938 Issue" and "Second November 1938 Issue", respectively.  Ordinary dates are included in the table above for sorting purposes and simplicity of the listings.

Special thanks to Brian McFarlane, Christopher Oslund, Dr. Douglas B. Yarbrough (DBY), J. Randolph Cox (JRC) and his article in the Dime Novel Round-Up (DNRU), Augustine Funnell Books (AFB), Geoff Lapin (GL), William Contento (WC) for magazine dates and some of these listings.  Other entries were found in Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature and through research and serindipity by the author of this page.

D.  Radio, Television, and Film

After working with the Stratemeyer Syndicate, McFarlane (like so many writers of the day) turned their skills towards the growing market for radio, television, and film scripts.  In 1938 he wrote radio scripts for the Canadian Broadcasting System.   For many years he worked on the National Canadian Film Board as a writer, director, and producer, working on more than fifty films according to the article in the Dictionary of Literary Biography. He wrote at least one script for American television, an episode of Bonanza in 1969, and approximately seventy screenplays for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation according to DLB.  He was the chief editor of television drama for the CBC in 1959 and 1960. He knew another Syndicate ghostwriter, James Duncan Lawrence, while both were writing for WYXY, the Detroit radio station which created many of the well-known radio dramas, including the Lone Ranger, Green Hornet, and Challenge of the Yukon (Stg. Preston).