The Daring Twins: A Story for Young Folk is a mystery novel for juvenile readers, written by L. Frank Baum , author of the Oz books. It was first published in 1911, and was intended as the opening installment in a series of similar books.
31-463: Baum's plan for a series of juvenile novels featuring the Daring family was never fully realized; a sequel to the first book, titled Phoebe Daring , was published in 1912. Unlike many of his mysteries, adventure stories, and juvenile novels, Baum published his two Daring Twins novels under his own name, rather than employing one of his multiple pseudonyms . The Daring Twins was republished in 2006 under
62-517: A monopoly, believing that trusts and monopolies are "unjust and morally unlawful" — an interesting look into Baum's values. The novel and its sequel revolve around brave, spirited teenagers in a small town called Riverdale, 30 years before the founding of Archie Comics , a popular franchise with the same basic premise. This article about a mystery novel of the 1910s is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . See guidelines for writing about novels . Further suggestions might be found on
93-512: A more successful series, the Mary Louise novels that he began in 1916. Phil Daring, who considered himself the oldest Daring, despite being five minutes younger than Phoebe, is away at college. Phoebe occupies her time learning telegraphy from Dave Hunter, brother of her best friend, Lucy, but once she has mastered it, it loses its novelty, and the town of Riverdale has only three telephones. Judge Ferguson's heart failed in his sleep, and no one
124-500: A note left admitting that it was a mistake to take the box. Phoebe sees that the notes are not in Toby's handwriting, and seeks to identify whose hand in which they are written. She notes a curl on a T as the most important clue, initially dismissing the spelling "mattrass." When she goes to the telegraph station to call for the governor as this latest bit of evidence suggests a frame up, Dave Hunter will not let her, and she fights her way into
155-456: A number of subseries titles, including ‘’Nancy Drew: Girl Detective’’ (2004-2012) and the ‘’Nancy Drew Diaries’’ (started in 2013). She is often cited as the most influential of the girl sleuth characters. The original series was published by the Stratemeyer publishing company. The books appeared under the author name of Carolyn Keene , a pseudonym used by a number of authors for the series over
186-481: A woman leave with the box during the night. Phoebe then visits Sam Parsons, who has the box in his possession, which proves that the pried-open box found on the Clark property is not Mrs. Ritchie's, even though it was the right color and her name was painted on it. Parsons, while well-meaning and certainly seeing himself innocent of police corruption , admits that Toby did not steal the box. He knows who did, but argues that
217-659: Is being allowed into his office to claim personal items they had in trust with him. Mrs. Ritchie, who hates banks, has her money and important papers in Ferguson's office, but is told by Constable Sam Parsons that she has to wait and follow procedure before she can claim her property that was in Ferguson's possession. A young lawyer, John Holbrook, has arrived in Riverdale and decides to rent out Ferguson's office. The Darings try to get him to take on Toby Clark as his clerk, as Toby had done for Judge Ferguson, and, having crippled his foot in
248-457: Is not cousin to the Darings, is the governor, and dresses down for a familial visit. He becomes very interested in the case, and agrees that Phoebe and Judith's sense of justice is more correct than Sam's. Mrs. Ritchie is upset that one of her papers, in a yellow envelope, is still missing. Eventually, the money and bonds are found under Toby's mattress, which seems to further incriminate him, with
279-791: The Mary Russell novels, and the Maisie Dobbs series, both set in and just after World War I. A subgenre with middle-school heroines also developed, starting with Louise Fitzhugh’s novel Harriet the Spy written in 1964, and including the Flavia de Luce series by Alan Bradley, begun in 2009 with the book The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie , and The Great Shelby Holmes by Elizabeth Eulberg, and Friday Barnes, Girl Detective by R.A. Spratt, both from 2016. In films of
310-456: The Oz books . Published in 1912, it was a sequel to the previous year's The Daring Twins , and the second and final installment in a proposed series of similar books. Phoebe Daring was illustrated by Joseph Pierre Nuyttens, the artist who illustrated Baum's The Flying Girl , Annabel , and The Flying Girl and Her Chum in the same period. Hungry Tiger Press announced that they would reprint
341-458: The '30s there were a number of Nancy drew films: Nancy Drew: Detective (1938); Nancy Drew... Reporter (1939); Nancy Drew... Trouble Shooter (1939); Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase (1939). On TV there were alternating episodes of The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries from 1977 to 1979, starring Pamela Sue Martin as Nancy. A Disney movie was made in 2002, starring Maggie Lawson as
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#1732868750851372-596: The Boy-Girl Detective (1854) by Edward Wheeler , which featured a teenage girl who dresses as a boy to sell newspapers and solve crimes. Nick Carter’s Girl Detective a dime novel series about Roxy, a student in Nick's detective school, and Bobs: A Girl Detective’’ by Carol Norton (1928). One of the best known and longest-running girl detective series was the Nancy Drew mystery series, started in 1930 and running under
403-594: The Randolph children, Allerton (of the infamous "naked niggers in Africa" quotation of the previous book—the only use of the epithet in either book, despite the Southern setting) and Doris. They decide to form a marching society for the innocence of Toby Clark, and after receiving an anonymous donation, decide to hire Ed Collins's town band to assist them. Phoebe finds that her friend, Nathalie Cameron, as well as John Holbrook, saw
434-408: The act, while his low upbringing creates suspicion in others, such as Tom Rathbun and Dave Hunter. Phoebe interrogates several people and comes up with a list of people who potentially could have stolen Mrs. Ritchie's box—Will Chandler, the postmaster and descendant of Riverdale's earliest family; Mrs. Ritchie herself as a scam; Sam Parsons, who guarded Ferguson's office; John Holbrook, who appeared at
465-624: The actual thief will suffer more than Toby Clark will from serving time in prison, thus finding it morally appropriate to plant false evidence on Toby Clark. She insists that she knows Toby but does not know the thief. Sam asserts that Phoebe does know the thief and her relations, just that she doesn't know who they are. This doesn't sit well with Phoebe, nor with Judith Eliot, the Darings' young but of age cousin and guardian, who refuses to take an active part in Phoebe's detective work. Judith's cousin John, who
496-442: The actual thief, Hazel Chandler, who is Will's daughter and Dave's fiancée, seeking to expedite their marriage in a moment of weakness. When Cousin John, the governor, learns that the yellow envelope contains the will of Alonzo Clark, Toby's father, he is able to shame Mrs. Ritchie into taking the blame for the theft of her own box, because the will shows that she has stolen dividends from a copper mine Clark had bought and not applied
527-483: The alternative title The Secret of the Lost Fortune . The 2006 edition carries a notice on its copyright page that "The novel contains a number of racial and ethnic stereotypes that may be considered offensive today." The story centers on a family of five orphaned children, two of whom are twins. Phil Daring works in a bank; when he is unjustly suspected of thievery, his twin sister Phoebe, a spirited 16-year-old, seizes
558-401: The article's talk page . This article about a young adult novel of the 1910s is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . See guidelines for writing about novels . Further suggestions might be found on the article's talk page . Phoebe Daring Phoebe Daring: A Story for Young Folk is a mystery novel for juvenile readers, written by L. Frank Baum , the author of
589-471: The best explanation for the book's limited popular success and the termination of the Daring Twins series after two books. It is clear that Baum had hopes of more Daring Twins novels, involving the younger of the five Daring siblings and eventually their children as well. Evidence suggests that he wrote at least a third book in the series; in the papers left after Baum's death in 1919, the file that contained
620-450: The book as Unjustly Accused! in the back of their 2006 reprint of the first book as The Secret of the Lost Fortune . Like The Daring Twins , Phoebe Daring involves two orphaned twins, Philip and Phoebe Daring; as its title indicates, the sister takes the primary role in the second book, which delivers a plot about a good man unjustly suspected of a crime – very much as the first one did. This similarity, and lack of originality, might be
651-411: The booth, telegraphs the message herself, looks in the register for the price, and pays in exact change. As she does so, she finds and pockets a slip of paper after noticing misspelling "mattrass" related to a shipment. Finally Duncan Spaythe, the town banker, insists that he took the box, in spite of the two witnesses having seen a woman do so. His son, Eric, though, admits that his father took it from
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#1732868750851682-482: The case, and invites Toby to become his clerk. Toby declines, wishing to attend law school , but expresses interest in being Holbrook's partner once he passes the bar. Girl detective (genre) Girl detective is a genre of detective fiction featuring a young, often teen-aged, female protagonist who solves crimes as a hobby. A professional female detective appeared in the popular stories Miss Madelyn Mack , Detective , written by Hugh Cosgro Weir in 1909. But
713-552: The earliest published version of a girl sought out as an amateur detective appears in the story collection The Golden Slipper and Other Problems for Violet Strange , by Anna Katharine Green , published in 1915. The latter featured a debutante who secretly solves crimes while taking part in New York high society. Several novels for young readers by L. Frank Baum also had young female characters involved in crime solving, especially in cases involving protecting their family. Phoebe Daring
744-510: The early 20th century, this character type was already seen, as in The Girl Detective (1915), a series of 2-reel thrillers directed by James W. Horner which featured a society girl who served as a special investigator for the police. Ruth Roland starred as the girl detective who worked on cases where her unique talents could help to solve crimes. Each short film was a complete story episode. Multiple versions of Nancy Drew were filmed. In
775-515: The events of The Daring Twins , there are not many jobs he can still do. Holbrook spent all the money he had setting up his business, and is not able to hire him at the present time, but when Toby is accused of stealing the box, Holbrook takes the case. A blue tin box with Mrs. Ritchie's name on it is found in the back yard of the Clark shanty by the river, and her papers are found in the back room. This seems to damn Toby, but Phoebe and many of Toby's other friends do not believe he could have committed
806-462: The funds to Toby's upbringing and education as instructed by Alonzo Clark, who was her second cousin. She didn't realize that the will had been probated and existed in file copy at the courthouse. The night before Toby's impending trial, all of those who supported him have a big party in which they reveal to him his true inheritance and that the case against him has been dismissed. Holbrook has developed his reputation and generated some income based on
837-447: The initiative in proving his innocence. (Baum was simultaneously writing a similar story, of a brave girl defending and supporting her brother, in his 1911 novel The Flying Girl . And he would re-use the plot of a girl with an unjustly-accused relative in his 1916 book, Mary Louise , the first book of yet another series.) The Daring Twins' late father had been in the sugar business; he was ruined financially when he refused to join in
868-431: The manuscript for his last Oz book, Glinda of Oz , was labelled Phoebe Daring, Conspirator . Baum's correspondence with his publisher, Reilly & Britton , mentions yet another book, titled either Phil Daring's Experiment or The Daring Twins' Experiment . Yet nothing of these other Daring books is known to have survived. The girl-detective concept had a persistent hold on Baum's imagination. He returned to it in
899-433: The office to rent it before its contents were cleared; Mrs. Miller, a deaf-mute maid; and Joe Griggs, the hardware store owner, who happened to be in place at the right time to make him a suspect. Will and Sam strongly tried to dissuade her from thinking anyone besides Toby may be the thief, but Phoebe is undaunted. Don and Becky Daring, two of the younger Darings, meet in the barn on the Randolph property, being friends with
930-494: The years. The popularity of the Nancy Drew series spawned many mid-20th-century detecting heroines such as Judy Bolton (1932 – 1967), created by Margaret Sutton ; Kay Tracey (1934 to 1942); and Trixie Belden (1948 to 1986). (See the page List of fictional detectives for younger readers for a fuller listing.) The era of some of the earlier heroines was echoed in later historical fiction , as seen in detective series such as
961-513: Was a 16-year old who took on the task of proving her twin brother's innocence in The Daring Twins: A Story for Young Folk, published in 1911. Baum's character of Mary Louise Burrows was a fifteen-year-old girl who works to reveal her grandfather's innocence in his book series begun in 1916 under the pseudonym Edith Van Dyne . The term “girl detective” was a popular enough as a concept to appear in several book titles, for example New York Nell,