To Kill A Mockingbird4 essays

To Kill A Mockingbird4 essays In, To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee refers to Oliver Optic, Edgar Rice Burroughs, and Victor Appleton as three authors whose works were enjoyed by Scout, Jem and Dill. These 19th and 20th century authors had similar writing styles and plot formulations. Adventure stories, which were the genre of the tales written by these particular authors, were extremely appealing to the young children in Harper Lees novel. Scout and her friends wove detailed imaginary dramas portraying characters discovered in these works. The most popular works, which were also mentioned in the book, were Tarzan, The Rover Boys, Tom Swift, and The Gray Ghost. Not only were they popular with fictional Jem, Dill, and Scout, but they swept the country and were popular with all children during that time period. Victor Appleton was the pen name of Edward Stratemeyer. He wrote numerous fictional series for young children, although rarely using his real name. The Rover Boys (1899-1916) was his best selling series although it was followed up with many more which were equally liked. The Rover Boys was based on tales of preparatory school and college life. These works were so popular that Stratemeyer continued the series with a follow up one, on the lives of the original characters children. Other series included Tom Swift (1910), The Peripatetic Motor Boys (1906), The Bobsey Twin series, although written under the pseudonym Laura E. Hope. After creating at least 150 full-length, hardbound novels, he opened the Stratemeyer Syndicate, established in 1914, which completed works that Stratemeyer outlined and edited. Oliver Optic was the pseudonym of W.T Adams, a Boston author and schoolteacher. In 1965, he left his teaching job and began writing novels full time and editing a magazine called Oliver Optics magazine for Boys and Girls (1867-1875). His Juvenile books and magazines were said to compare the works of another famous author at that tim...