Edward Edson Lee


Edward Edson Lee, who wrote under the pen name of Leo Edwards, was a popular children's literature author in the 1920s and 1930s.

Biography

Lee had a difficult childhood, dropping out of school to go to work in his early teens. He got his start as a writer writing serialized stories, most notably in The American Boy magazine. His first book, Andy Blake in Advertising, was published in 1922.
He wrote five series of books: the Jerry Todd series of sixteen books; the Poppy Ott series of eleven books; the Trigger Berg series of four books; the Andy Blake series of four books; and the Tuffy Bean series of four books. All of the series were interrelated in some way; the Todd and Ott stories took place in the town of Tutter, Illinois, a fictional town modeled on the town of Utica, which Lee experienced in his childhood. The supporting characters in the Todd and Ott books — "Red" Meyers, "Scoop" Ellery, and "Peg" Shaw — were real boys that Lee befriended around the time he began writing the stories while living in Shelby, Ohio.
Edward Edson Lee is buried in Beloit, Wisconsin.

Legacy

Initially forgotten after his death, Lee's books have become highly valued by juvenile book collectors.
The end of each Jerry Todd book had the unusual feature of printed letters from readers and Lee's warm, informal responses to them. This tradition — and intimate tone — was later imitated by Marvel Comics editor/publisher Stan Lee in the "Marvel Bullpen Bulletins" pages printed in the pages of all Marvel comics.
The 1990s power pop band Cockeyed Ghost took its name from one of Edwards' more obscure books, Trigger Berg and the Cock-Eyed Ghost.
In his autobiography, "Where's the Rest of Me?" Ronald Reagan wrote that, growing up in Tampico, Illinois, he had a boyhood much like Jerry Todd.

List of works

Andy Blake series

  1. Andy Blake - 1922, republished 1928
  2. Andy Blake's Comet Coaster - 1928
  3. Andy Blake's Secret Service - 1929
  4. Andy Blake and the Pot of Gold - 1930

    Jerry Todd series

  5. Jerry Todd and the Whispering Mummy - 1923
  6. Jerry Todd and the Rose-Colored Cat - 1924
  7. Jerry Todd and the Oak Island Treasure - 1925
  8. Jerry Todd and the Waltzing Hen - 1924
  9. Jerry Todd and the Talking Frog - 1925
  10. Jerry Todd and the Purring Egg - 1925
  11. Jerry Todd in the Whispering Cave - 1927
  12. Jerry Todd, Pirate - 1928
  13. Jerry Todd and the Bob-Tailed Elephant - 1929
  14. Jerry Todd, Editor-In-Grief - 1930
  15. Jerry Todd, Caveman - 1932
  16. Jerry Todd and the Flying Flapdoodle - 1934
  17. Jerry Todd and the Buffalo Bill Bathtub - 1936
  18. Jerry Todd's Up-The-Ladder Club - 1937
  19. Jerry Todd's Poodle Parlor - 1938
  20. Jerry Todd's Cuckoo Camp - 1940

    Poppy Ott series

  21. Poppy Ott and the Stuttering Parrot - 1926
  22. Poppy Ott's Seven-League Stilts - 1926
  23. Poppy Ott and the Galloping Snail - 1927
  24. Poppy Ott's Pedigreed Pickles - 1927
  25. Poppy Ott and the Freckled Goldfish - 1928
  26. Poppy Ott and the Tittering Totem - 1929
  27. Poppy Ott and the Prancing Pancake - 1930
  28. Poppy Ott Hits The Trail - 1933
  29. Poppy Ott & Co., Inferior Decorators - 1937
  30. The Monkey's Paw - 1938
  31. The Hidden Dwarf - 1939

    Trigger Berg series

  32. Trigger Berg and the Treasure Tree - 1930
  33. Trigger Berg and His 700 Mousetraps - 1930
  34. Trigger Berg and the Sacred Pig - 1931
  35. Trigger Berg and the Cock-Eyed Ghost - 1933

    Tuffy Bean series

  36. Tuffy Bean's Puppy Days - 1931
  37. Tuffy Bean's One-Ring Circus - 1931
  38. Tuffy Bean At Funny Bone Farm - 1931
  39. Tuffy Bean and the Lost Fortune - 1932