The Happy Hollisters

The Happy Hollisters is a series of books about a family who loves to solve mysteries. The series was published by the Stratemeyer Syndicate and entirely written by Andrew E. Svenson (1910–1975) under the pseudonym Jerry West.Helen S. Hamilton (1921–2014) illustrated the books.

This series recounts the adventures of a young American middle-class family solving mysteries from their home on Pine Lake in the city of Shoreham (no state is ever provided). The Hollister family includes five children, their parents, a family of cats, a dog and a burro. Pete is the oldest of the Hollister children and is 12 years old. Pam, or Pamela, is 10 years old and very adventurous. Ricky is a red-headed, rambunctious 7-year-old and Holly is a 6-year-old tomboy. The youngest is Sue, age 4.

Their father, Mr. John Hollister, owns a general store named The Trading Post, where he sells hardware, sporting goods, and toys. Mrs. Elaine Hollister tries to help her children solve mysteries and is always ready with handy tips for solving cases.

Joey Brill and Will Wilson appear as rivals of the Hollister family in most books. While not actually villains, they appear as obstacles and annoyances to the Hollisters' mystery-solving efforts in most plots. Usually their disruptive actions are shown to be the result of lack of awareness, apathy, or indifference, rather than malicious motives.

The series was published between 1953 and 1970. Volumes 1-4 were published by Doubleday. Volumes 5-19 were published by Garden City, a Doubleday imprint. Volumes 20-33 were published by Doubleday. All subsequent reprints during this time period were done by Doubleday. New books were also made available as part of a subscription series with prices ranging from $1.00 to $1.50 per title.

The series was translated into over ten languages worldwide. English publication was discontinued at the end of 1983, but since 2010 it is being reissued in both trade paperback and eBook formats.

This series is unique in that the characters are based on Svenson's family from Bloomfield, New Jersey. In the series, Pete represented real son Andrew Jr., Pam represented daughter Laura, Ricky represented Eric, Holly represented Jane, and Sue was a composite of Svenson's two youngest daughters, Eileen and Ingrid. Even the dog and cat had real counterparts; "White Nose" was really the family cat, Mickey, and collie "Zip" was real border collie Lassie.

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