Radio Boys was the title of three series of

juvenile fiction Young adult literature (YA) is typically written for readers aged 12 to 18 and includes most of the themes found in adult fiction, such as family dysfunction, substance abuse, alcoholism, and sexuality. It is characterized by simpler world build ...

book A book is a structured presentation of recorded information, primarily verbal and graphical, through a medium. Originally physical, electronic books and audiobooks are now existent. Physical books are objects that contain printed material, ...

s published by rival companies in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

in the 1920s: *

Grosset & Dunlap Grosset & Dunlap is a New York City-based publishing house founded in 1898. The company was purchased by G. P. Putnam's Sons in 1982 and today is part of Penguin Random House through its subsidiary Penguin Group. In recent years, through the P ...

- authored by "

Allen Chapman Allen Chapman (born August 18, 1974) is an American soccer referee employed by PRO. He primarily officiates in Major League Soccer. During an August 2016 USL match in New Jersey, Chapman became the first video assistant referee to be used durin ...

", a

Stratemeyer Syndicate The Stratemeyer Syndicate was an American publishing company that produced a number of mystery book series for children, including Nancy Drew, The Hardy Boys, the various Tom Swift series, the Bobbsey Twins, the Rover Boys, and others. It pu ...

pseudonym A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true meaning ( orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individual's o ...

- 13 titles. The best known, and biggest seller of the three series: ** The Radio Boys' First Wireless or Winning the Ferberton Prize ** The Radio Boys at Ocean Point or The Message that Saved the Ship ** The Radio Boys at the Sending Station or Making Good in the Wireless Room (1922) ** The Radio Boys at Mountain Pass or The Midnight Call for Assistance ** The Radio Boys Trailing a Voice or Solving a Wireless Mystery ** The Radio Boys with the Forest Rangers or The Great Fire on Spruce Mountain ** The Radio Boys with the Iceberg Patrol or Making Safe the Ocean Lanes ** The Radio Boys with the Flood Fighters or Saving the City in the Valley ** The Radio Boys on Signal Island or Watching for the Ships of Mystery ** The Radio Boys in Gold Valley or The Mystery of the Deserted Mining Camp ** The Radio Boys Aiding the Snowbound or Starvation Days at Lumber Run (1928) ** The Radio Boys on the Pacific or Shipwrecked on An Unknown Island (1928) ** The Radio Boys to the Rescue or The Search for the Barmore Twins (1930) *

A. L. Burt A. L. Burt (incorporated in 1902 as A. L. Burt Company) was a US book publishing house from 1883 until 1937. It was founded by Albert Levi Burt, a 40-year-old from Massachusetts who had come to recognize the demand for inexpensive reference works ...

Company - authored by Gerald Breckenridge - 10 titles. Unlike the other books in the series, which were published under pseudonyms, there appears to have really been a Gerald Breckenridge, a former

journalist A journalist is a person who gathers information in the form of text, audio or pictures, processes it into a newsworthy form and disseminates it to the public. This is called journalism. Roles Journalists can work in broadcast, print, advertis ...

. Some of his papers were donated to

Auburn University Auburn University (AU or Auburn) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Auburn, Alabama, United States. With more than 26,800 undergraduate students, over 6,100 post-graduate students, and a tota ...

.Jason Kneip, Paul Meier and Jimmy Kanz,"Guide to the Papers of Gerald Breckenridg

Auburn University at Montgomery Library Archives and Special Collections, Dec.11/2005. According to radio listings that were published in the

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

and other newspapers, Breckenridge was a guest on radio station Newark's WJZ three times during October 1922, reading selections from his latest "Radio Boys" book * M. A. Donohue & Co. - various authors - 6 titles There was also a related Radio Girls series, another Stratemeyer Syndicate product, published by

Cupples & Leon Cupples & Leon was an American publishing company founded in 1902 by Victor I. Cupples (1864–1941) and Arthur T. Leon (1867–1943). They published juvenile fiction and children's books but are mainly remembered today as the major publi ...

and authored by "

Margaret Penrose Margaret Penrose was a house pseudonym used by the Stratemeyer Syndicate as the author of three girls' book series published by Cupples & Leon. The name Margaret Penrose was used for: * The Dorothy Dale series – 1908 to 1924, 13 volumesJohn Axe ...

". All of these series were launched seemingly simultaneously in 1922 and the earliest books in each series were by far the biggest sellers, often incorporating details on how to build a crystal set (a simple radio receiver). Later installments tended toward routine action adventure.

References

External links

Details of the Stratemeyer Syndicate's Radio Boys series
- Also spotlights some similarly named 1920s series pertaining to radio, i.e. ''The Radio-Phone Boys''
Radio Boys books
at

Gutenberg Johannes Gensfleisch zur Laden zum Gutenberg ( – 3 February 1468) was a German inventor and craftsman who invented the movable-type printing press. Though movable type was already in use in East Asia, Gutenberg's invention of the printing ...

The Radio Boys & Girls @ seriesbooks.info
* {{Early Juvenile Series Book series introduced in 1922 Stratemeyer Syndicate Book series American children's novels Juvenile series Grosset & Dunlap books