hack writer. The series was originally inspired by the success of the British Penny Dreadfuls like Jack Harkaway. Gibert Patten also contributed to the Frank Merriwell comic strip from 1928, and supervised the 1934 NBC radio series. In 1893, he hired Edward Stratemeyer as a writer for the Street & Smith publication Good News. From 1927 to 1930, Gilbert Patten would start a new series of Frank Merriwell stories, aided now by a few ghostwriters. In 1930, Patten started his own publication, The Dime Novel, but only one issue appeared. Apart from the Merriwell stories, Patten wrote 75 complete novels and an unknown number of stories. He estimated that he had written 40 million words as an author. In total, some 500 million of his books were in print, making him one of the best-selling fiction authors of all time. He lived most of his life in Camden, Maine, but moved to California in 1941. He died aged 78 in his sleep at the home of his son H. V. Patten in Vista, California in 1945. Partial bibliography As himself The Diamond Sport, 1886, 1 story Violet Vane, 8 stories between 1889 and 1892 The Deadwood Trail, 1 novel published by D. Appleton and Co. in 1904 Football stories in Popular Magazine, a Street & Smith publication (1903) Cliff Stirling or Clif Sterling, a series of five sporting novels published by David McKay between 1910 and 1916 Jack Lockwill, a 1927-1928 comic strip, different illustrators The College Life Series 1. Boltwood of Yale (1914) 2. The College Rebel (1914) 3. On College Battlefields (1917) 4. The Call of the Varsity (1920) 5. Sons of Old Eli (1923) 6. Ben Oakman, Stroke (1925) As Burt L. Standish NEW Tip Top Weekly: An Ideal Publication For The American Youth Owen Clancy's Run of Luck or, The Motor Wizard in the Garage (1914) Owen Clancy's Happy Trail or, The Motor Wizard in California (1914) Frank Merriwell, 209 dime novels between 1896 and 1930 (some between 1927 and 1930 written by other authors with the same pen name), 28 of them reprinted as hard covers Big League, 16 episodes of baseball stories The following are the first 143 titles of the Merriwell series (Stories of Frank and Dick Merriwell) 1. Frank Merriwell's School Days By Burt L. Standish 2. Frank Merriwell's Chums By Burt L. Standish 3. Frank Merriwell's Foes By Burt L. Standish