This very old book is a Roy Stover Mystery Story by Philip A. Bartlett. It is titled The Mystery of The Snowbound Express and is geared to a juvenile audience. This is a rare book.
It is a first edition hard cover, no dust jacket. The boards have orange cloth cover, pictorial end papers and 4 black and white illustrations including the frontispiece. No one is credited with the illustrations.
Publisher is Grosset and Dunlap, New York. The book is a first edition published in 1929. It is 243 pages plus several pages of ads at the back. Condition is fair to good. The spine has tears at both top and bottom, corners are worn. The title page is half loose and one ad page is torn but complete. Previous owners name is written at top of title page.
The Roy Stover mysteries were part of the Stratemeyer Syndicate of books for young people which included series like Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, Bobbsey Twins and a slew of others. These books were turned out in assembly line fashion. One person wrote the outline, a second filled in the details and a third did the editing. All books were assigned a pseudonym as the author. There were numerous Carolyn Keenes and Laura Lee Hopes.
Some of the series became very popular and continue to be printed today. The Roy Stover stories were published between 1929 and 1934 and only 4 volumes were issued, meaning this is a very rare book.
The first Stratemeyer series were the Rover Boys between 1899 and 1926, issuing 30 titles. The Bobbsey Twins went from 1904 to 1979, and Nancy Drew ran from 1930 to 2003 with 175 titles during that period.
