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Edward Stratemeyer was the mostly unknown genius who created Tom Swift, the Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, the Rover Boys, and the Bobbsey Twins, among numerous others. He operated a sort of fiction factory, the Stratemeyer Syndicate, analogous to the Dumas group (or Tom Clancy today), and was ultimately responsible for over 800 books, of which he wrote about 150 himself. All of the characters, however, were his own invention, and he usually wrote at least the first book in each series.
What if Stratemeyer stayed with his stationary shop and never got into writing? What are the consequences of no Tom Swift, no Nancy Drew, no Hardy Boys?