William George "Gilbert" Patten (October 25, 1866 – January 16, 1945) was a writer of dime novels and is best known as author of the Frank Merriwell stories, with the pen name Burt L. Standish.
Biography
Gilbert Patten was born in Corinna, Maine in 1866. His father, a carpenter, and his mother were deeply religious pacifists. They were Seventh Day Adventists. He entered Corinna Union Academy at fourteen, but when his father threatened that he would be put to work if he did not improve at school, Patten ran away to Biddeford, Maine where he worked in a machine shop. When he returned home and told his father that he would become an author, he was given thirty days to prove himself. He sold his first two stories in this period to the dime novel company of Erastus Flavel Beadle, and combined his resumed studies for the next four years with writing and publishing stories. When he was twenty, he married his schoolmate Alice Gardner on 25 October 1886. Their son Harvan Barr Patten was born in 1892. They divorced in 1898 and Gilbert Patten remarried to Mary Nunn of Baltimore (1900–1916) and he married a third time to Carol Kramer in 1918 until her death in 1938. American Heritage Volume 12 #4 : Frank Merriwell at Yale Again and Again and Again by Stewart Holbrook (June 1961]
Patten worked at the Pittsfield Advertiser before creating in 1888 his own newspaper, the Corinna Owl. He sold it the next year to the Advertiser, and devoted his time to the stories, mostly westerns, for Beadle's Half-Dime Library.
Meanwhile, he managed a semi-professional baseball team in 1890–1891 in Camden, Maine before leaving for New York City.Joel Zoss and John Bowman in Diamonds in the Rough: The Untold History of Baseball page 265 (2004) But after this season he again mostly worked as an author, working for Norman Munro, and for most of his career for Street & Smith.John T. Dizer, Authors Who Wrote Dime Novels and Series Books, 1890–1914 in Pioneers, Passionate Ladies, and Private Eyes, page 81 (1996)
He was a writer of dime novels. His first published dime novel was The Diamond Sport; or, The Double Face of Bed Rock, published in 1886 by Beadle.J. Randolph Cox, in The Dime Novel Companion: A Source Book page 271 (2000) He wrote westerns with the pen name Wyoming Bill,John A. Dinan in Sports in the Pulp Magazines page 66 (1998) but is best known for his sporting stories in the Frank Merriwell series, written as Burt L. Standish. Patten started writing the Merriwell stories in April 1896 for the publisher Street & Smith and produced one each week, at a length of twenty thousand words, for twenty years. The series, which appeared in Tip-Top Weekly, was immensely popular, selling some 135,000 copies a week, and the brothers Frank and Dick Merriwell became icons of All-American sportsmanship, entering the jargon of sports commentators.Steven Serafin and Alfred Bendixen in The Continuum Encyclopedia of American Literature page 1072 (2003)Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of Allusions page 357 Patten, however, never received any royalties for them, being paid up to $150 per story as a hack writer. The series was originally inspired by the success of the British Penny Dreadfuls like Jack Harkaway.E.M. Sanchez Saavedra in Pioneers, Passionate Ladies, and Private Eyes, page 113 (1996) Gibert Patten also contributed to the Frank Merriwell comic strip from 1928, and supervised the 1934 NBC radio series.J. Randolph Cox, in The Dime Novel Companion: A Source Book pp. 172–173 (2000) In 1893, he hired Edward Stratemeyer as a writer for the Street & Smith publication Good News.John A. Dinan in Sports in the Pulp Magazines page 134 (1998) 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.J. Randolph Cox, in The Dime Novel Companion: A Source Book pp. 87–88 (2000) 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.James M. Cain in Sixty Years of Journalism page 157 (1985) In total, some 500 million of his books were in print,Chester G. Mayo in The New England Quarterly vol. 38 #3 page 422 (1965) 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.Associated Press, “Creator of ‘Frank Merriwell’ Dies”, The San Bernardino Daily Sun, San Bernardino, California, Wednesday 17 January 1944, Volume 51, page 1.
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 Boltwood of Yale (1914) The College Rebel (1914) On College Battlefields (1917) The Call of the Varsity (1920) Sons of Old Eli (1923) 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)
Frank Merriwell's School Days By Burt L. Standish Frank Merriwell's Chums By Burt L. Standish Frank Merriwell's Foes By Burt L. Standish Frank Merriwell's Trip West By Burt L. Standish Frank Merriwell Down South By Burt L. Standish Frank Merriwell's Bravery By Burt L. Standish Frank Merriwell's Hunting Tour By Burt L. Standish Frank Merriwell in Europe By Burt L. Standish Frank Merriwell at Yale By Burt L. Standish Frank Merriwell's Sports Afield By Burt L. Standish Frank Merriwell's Races By Burt L. Standish Frank Merriwell's Party By Burt L. Standish Frank Merriwell's Bicycle Tour By Burt L. Standish Frank Merriwell's Courage By Burt L. Standish Frank Merriwell's Daring By Burt L. Standish Frank Merriwell's Alarm By Burt L. Standish Frank Merriwell's Athletes By Burt L. Standish Frank Merriwell's Skill By Burt L. Standish Frank Merriwell's Champions By Burt L. Standish Frank Merriwell's Return to Yale By Burt L. Standish Frank Merriwell's Secret By Burt L. Standish Frank Merriwell's Danger By Burt L. Standish Frank Merriwell's Loyalty By Burt L. Standish Frank Merriwell in Camp By Burt L. Standish Frank Merriwell's Vacation By Burt L. Standish Frank Merriwell's Cruise By Burt L. Standish Frank Merriwell's Chase By Burt L. Standish Frank Merriwell in Maine By Burt L. Standish Frank Merriwell's Struggle By Burt L. Standish Frank Merriwell's First Job By Burt L. Standish Frank Merriwell's Opportunity By Burt L. Standish Frank Merriwell's Hard Luck By Burt L. Standish Frank Merriwell's Protégé By Burt L. Standish Frank Merriwell on the Road By Burt L. Standish Frank Merriwell's Own Company By Burt L. Standish Frank Merriwell's Fame By Burt L. Standish Frank Merriwell's College Chums By Burt L. Standish Frank Merriwell's Problem By Burt L. Standish Frank Merriwell's Fortune By Burt L. Standish Frank Merriwell's New Comedian By Burt L. Standish Frank Merriwell's Prosperity By Burt L. Standish Frank Merriwell's Stage Hit By Burt L. Standish Frank Merriwell's Great Scheme By Burt L. Standish Frank Merriwell in England By Burt L. Standish Frank Merriwell on the Boulevards By Burt L. Standish Frank Merriwell's Duel By Burt L. Standish Frank Merriwell's Double Shot By Burt L. Standish Frank Merriwell's Baseball Victories By Burt L. Standish Frank Merriwell's Confidence By Burt L. Standish Frank Merriwell's Auto By Burt L. Standish Frank Merriwell's Fun By Burt L. Standish Frank Merriwell's Generosity By Burt L. Standish Frank Merriwell's Tricks By Burt L. Standish Frank Merriwell's Temptation By Burt L. Standish Frank Merriwell on Top By Burt L. Standish Frank Merriwell's Luck By Burt L. Standish Frank Merriwell's Mascot By Burt L. Standish Frank Merriwell's Reward By Burt L. Standish Frank Merriwell's Phantom By Burt L. Standish Frank Merriwell's Faith By Burt L. Standish Frank Merriwell's Victories By Burt L. Standish Frank Merriwell's Iron Nerve By Burt L. Standish Frank Merriwell in Kentucky By Burt L. Standish Frank Merriwell's Power By Burt L. Standish Frank Merriwell's Shrewdness By Burt L. Standish Frank Merriwell's Set Back By Burt L. Standish Frank Merriwell's Search By Burt L. Standish Frank Merriwell's Club By Burt L. Standish Frank Merriwell's Trust By Burt L. Standish Frank Merriwell's False Friend By Burt L. Standish Frank Merriwell's Strong Arm By Burt L. Standish Frank Merriwell as Coach By Burt L. Standish Frank Merriwell's Brother By Burt L. Standish Frank Merriwell's Marvel By Burt L. Standish Frank Merriwell's Support By Burt L. Standish Dick Merriwell At Fardale By Burt L. Standish Dick Merriwell's Glory By Burt L. Standish Dick Merriwell's Promise By Burt L. Standish Dick Merriwell's Rescue By Burt L. Standish Dick Merriwell's Narrow Escape By Burt L. Standish Dick Merriwell's Racket By Burt L. Standish Dick Merriwell's Revenge By Burt L. Standish Dick Merriwell's Ruse By Burt L. Standish Dick Merriwell's Delivery By Burt L. Standish Dick Merriwell's Wonders By Burt L. Standish Frank Merriwell's Honor By Burt L. Standish Dick Merriwell's Diamond By Burt L. Standish Frank Merriwell's Winners By Burt L. Standish Dick Merriwell's Dash By Burt L. Standish Dick Merriwell's Ability By Burt L. Standish Dick Merriwell's Trap By Burt L. Standish Dick Merriwell's Defense By Burt L. Standish Dick Merriwell's Model By Burt L. Standish Dick Merriwell's Mystery By Burt L. Standish Frank Merriwell's Backers By Burt L. Standish Dick Merriwell's Backstop By Burt L. Standish Dick Merriwell's Western Mission By Burt L. Standish Frank Merriwell's Rescue By Burt L. Standish Frank Merriwell's Encounter By Burt L. Standish Dick Merriwell's Marked Money By Burt L. Standish Frank Merriwell's Nomads By Burt L. Standish Dick Merriwell on the Gridiron By Burt L. Standish Dick Merriwell's Disguise By Burt L. Standish Dick Merriwell's Test By Burt L. Standish Frank Merriwell's Trump Card By Burt L. Standish Frank Merriwell's Strategy By Burt L. Standish Frank Merriwell's Triumph By Burt L. Standish Dick Merriwell's Grit By Burt L. Standish Dick Merriwell's Assurance By Burt L. Standish Dick Merriwell's Long Slide By Burt L. Standish Frank Merriwell's Rough Deal By Burt L. Standish Dick Merriwell's Threat By Burt L. Standish Dick Merriwell's Persistence By Burt L. Standish Dick Merriwell's Day By Burt L. Standish Frank Merriwell's Peril By Burt L. Standish, ©1904 Dick Merriwell's Downfall By Burt L. Standish Frank Merriwell's Pursuit By Burt L. Standish Dick Merriwell Abroad By Burt L. Standish Frank Merriwell in the Rockies By Burt L. Standish Dick Merriwell's Pranks By Burt L. Standish Frank Merriwell's Pride By Burt L. Standish Frank Merriwell's Challengers By Burt L. Standish Frank Merriwell's Endurance By Burt L. Standish, ©1905 Dick Merriwell's Cleverness By Burt L. Standish Frank Merriwell's Marriage By Burt L. Standish Dick Merriwell, the Wizard By Burt L. Standish Dick Merriwell's Stroke By Burt L. Standish Dick Merriwell's Return By Burt L. Standish Dick Merriwell's Resource By Burt L. Standish