Julie Campbell

**Julie Campbell** was born on June 1st, 1908 in Flushing, New York. Campbell was the daughter of an Army Officer, and often travelled during her childhood. She began writing from a young age, winning her first short story contest at age eight, while living in Hawaii.

Campbell married Charles Tatham Jr. on the March 30th, 1933 and they worked together on many magazine stories and articles. Together the couple had two sons. Campbell lived in a remodeled farmhouse in the Hudson River Valley with her husband and two sons when she began writing the Trixie Belden series.

Professionally, Campbell owned her own literary agency in the 1940s, and was later invited by Western Publishing literary agents to find authors who could produce mystery and adventure books that would be marketed to children at an affordable price. Campbell created four series proposals for the publishing agents, two that would be written by herself, and the others by two of her employees, authors Hal Burton and John Henry Cutler.

Throughout her career, Campbell wrote a number of series, including the Ginny Gordon series from 1948 and 1956, and the Trixie Belden series from 1948 and 1958. She also wrote for the Cherry Ames and Vicki Barr series, as well as being credited for writing "Rin Tin Tin's Rinty" for Whitman in 1954. However, it is alleged that Campbell denies having written that book.

Campbell stopped writing the Trixie Belden series after completing Trixie Belden and the Mystery in Arizona. She instead used her experience as a literary agent to gain royalties for the books she had written, while giving up her rights to the series. Because of this deal, Western Publishing was able to continue the books under the pseudonym, Kathryn Kenny.

## Known Contributions

1. The Secret of the Mansion
2. The Red Trailer Mystery
3. The Gatehouse Mystery
4. The Mysterious Visitor
5. The Mystery Off Glen Road
6. The Mystery in Arizona

## Trivia

* Julie Campbell was a dedicated believer in Christian Science, and a number of works she wrote for the religious group can be found even today on their website.
* She shares a birthday with Mart Belden.
* There are several similarities to the Trixie Belden series and Campbells other books. For example, Cherry Ames: Dude Ranch Nurse is set in Tucson, Arizona, which is the setting of Campbell's last Trixie Belden Mystery. Also, Cherry Ames: Country Doctor's Nurse and a book called To Nick from Jan, were set in Sleepyside-on-the-Hudson, the setting of the Trixie Belden mysteries.
* "The Trixie Belden series was set in "Sleepyside" but was based on the town Campbell was living in at the time in the Hudson River Valley near Ossining.  Her home, "Wolf Hollow", was the model for Crabapple Farm and Campbell actually lived on Glendale Road."
* "There is evidence that Campbell sought a writing position with the Stratemeyer Syndicate in 1957.  Timothy P. O'Herin spent an afternoon going through the Stratemeyer archives and found correspondence between Campbell and Harriet Adams, the daughter of Edward Stratemeyer... The correspondence occurred at the same time Campbell decided to stop writing for the various series she was involved in with Whitman.  Perhaps Campbell was disgruntled with Western Publishing or saw more opportunity for success at Stratemeyer, but this is not clear."

## Gallery

Julie, later in lifeJulie's WritingJulie's home, Wolf Hollow, the inspiration from Crabapple Farm
## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 "Julie Campbell." Trixie-belden.com. N.d. Retrieved April 4, 2021 from http://www.trixie-belden.com/books/JulieCampbell.htm
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Wikipedia. "Julie Campbell Tatham." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julie\_Campbell\_Tatham
3. ↑ Christian Science Sentinel. "Stability-dull and boring?" Julie Campbell Tatham. https://sentinel.christianscience.com/shared/view/1p59f2pxbzo
4. ↑ Christian Science Sentinel. "A higher viewpoint". Julie Campbell Tatham. https://sentinel.christianscience.com/shared/view/23isdcuqirs
5. ↑ "The letters occurred around 1957 and they consisted of Ms. Tatham seeking a writing position with the syndicate. Mrs. Adams responded with glowing praise for her work, but questioning whether Julie would want to relocate for the job. Julie indicated she would be willing to commute. There were only a few letters in this brief correspondence, and best of my knowledge no position was ever open to her at the syndicate. It was a brief correspondence and I suspect Harriet had no position to offer and was only being cordial in replying to her." - O'Herin, 1999. via http://www.trixie-belden.com/books/JulieCampbell.htm