Who dunnit? It is a popular question, especially in the Literary World. It is no wonder, as there are so many mysteries in this world. One excellent quote by Anais Nin goes like this: “The possession of knowledge does not kill the sense of wonder and mystery. There is always more mystery.”
No matter how much we know, there is always more. This place in which we exist, is quite infinite. The endless.
I’m reminded of this because of a birthday today. On this date, in 1862, a man named Edward L. Stratemeyer was born. Most of us don’t immediately recognize his name, but we might know his books. He is the brain who created the Hardy Boys, the Bobbsey Twins, the Rover Boys, and Nancy Drew.
Since we are speaking about the endless wonders of this world, old Edward wrote 150 books of his own. This seems most incredible to me. For anyone who has ever written a book, this seems somehow impossible. But it is true. He wrote, and wrote and wrote. And I’ve read quite a few of those books. After he penned all those mysteries, he created a company called the Stratemeyer Syndicate. There, he employed a team of ghostwriters to write books based on his outlines. This guy was quite a character, I’ll tell you. With all those ghostwriters on task, he swore everyone to secrecy. Like some sort of Hardy Boys secret handshake. He even made up fake biographies for the imaginary writers.
His company, Stratemeyer Syndicate, would go on to publish more than 700 titles. And, there were 65 pseudonyms in that network of his writers. To this day, those books are still selling like hotcakes. In all, about 6 million books each year. That’s prolific.
As I mentioned, people love a good mystery. Which brings me back to the good mysteries of life. The wonders. They are everywhere we turn, when we notice. Although, I will concede, sometimes the things that perplex us are not so good. They can confuse us, anger us, or even make us sad. But in each of those is something new to consider. Be assured.
Regardless, there is an unfathomable amount of good mystery in this world. The wonderful wonders. The intricate design of the every unique snowflake — which, I might add — could be just around the corner. The shape of a dog’s paw. The inside of an apple. Electricity. The 100 uses for Arm & Hammer Baking Soda. Otter arm-pockets for their collected rocks. People in outer space. People, the 7 billion of them, on the outer side of the earth. And so much more.
So. Who dunnit? There is a lot of wonder about that too.
Today, may we all find our little mysteries, and be perfectly content with the fact that they will always be the wondrous part of life’s good secrets.
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“The world is full of obvious things which nobody by any chance ever observes.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle
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“The world, even the smallest parts of it, is filled with things you don’t know.”
― Sherman Alexie
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“We need the tonic of wildness…At the same time that we are earnest to explore and learn all things, we require that all things be mysterious and unexplorable, that land and sea be indefinitely wild, unsurveyed and unfathomed by us because unfathomable.”
― Henry David Thoreau
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