Skeens talks about his passionate collection of Hardy Boys novels
Skeens, who still collects the books if he’s fortunate enough to come across one (they’ve become increasingly difficult to get hold of), has about 70 editions of the collection at his house.
The Advertiser visited Sunward Park resident Howard Skeens, who was more than happy to share his story about his big collection of Hardy Boys books.
The Hardy Boys, Frank and Joe Hardy, are fictional characters who appear in several mystery series for children and teens. The series revolves around the teenagers acting as amateur sleuths, solving cases that stumped their adult counterparts. The characters were created by American writer Edward Stratemeyer, the founder of book-packaging firm Stratemeyer Syndicate.
The books themselves were written by several ghostwriters under the collective pseudonym Franklin W. Dixon.
The Hardy Boys has evolved since its debut in 1927. Beginning in 1959, the books were extensively revised, partially to eliminate racial stereotypes. The books were also written in a simpler style to compete with television.
Skeens read his first Hardy Boys book in 1966.
He says he still reads when he’s really bored, albeit not as constant as before.
He had hoped that his son would assume the passion from him, which is one of the reasons he gave for still keeping the collection.
But perhaps more significantly, the collection improved Skeens’ English from spelling to grammar, fundamentals that contributed to his passion towards the Hardy Boys books – and now late in his 60s, it’s become apparent that it’s a passion that will last with the accountant forever.
Telling his story about how it all started, he said: “In the ’60s, I had just started high school and my English was not good, okay … lower levels.
“My mom said the only way to improve my English is to read, so I took the books and read them. One of them was a Hardy book, the Wailing Siren Mystery.”
Skeens added that the best books are the older ones, like Mystery of the Desert Giant, The Flickering Torch Mystery, The Disappearing Floor and Mark on the Door, to list a few.
Quizzed on the secret of the Hardy Boys books pulling secret, Skeens continued: “The best thing about the books is the mysteries, you want to find out and solve the mysteries with the characters. You just cannot put the books down.
“Also, the content in the books is what boys do growing up, every boy can relate. After reading a few of the books, I was top three in English in my class.
“Grow up on this kind of stuff and fly,” he concluded.
Skeens is originally from Salisbury, Rhodesia, now Harare, Zimbabwe. He came to South Africa in 1972 to study in Cape Town.
