The Girls of Lighthouse Island by May Hollis Barton, Cupples & Leon Company, New York, 1929, 204pp, hardcover, 5 x 7.5”, 12mo

Fair condition.   Protective plastic cover over dust jacket.  Wear to dust jacket; headcap and tail of dust jacket are lacking.  Tearing and creasing along edges of jacket.  Dust jacket shows fully-colored illustration on front.  Illustration on front board in black ink.  Title in black ink on front board and spine.  Minor bumping to tips.  Scuffing/rubbing to edges.  Front hinge is cracked.  No known marginalia.  Toning and minor instances of age-staining throughout textblock.  Please see photos.

#9 of The Barton Books for Girls series, consisting of 15 titles produced and marketed by the Stratemeyer Syndicate under the "May Hollis Barton" house name.  The series was published by Cupples & Leon between 1926 and 1932.  The prolific W. Bert Foster is credited by some sources as the ghostwriter for this series.

The Stratemeyer Syndicate was a publishing company that produced a number of mystery book series for children, including Nancy Drew, The Hardy Boys, the various Tom Swift series, the Bobbsey Twins, the Rover Boys, and others.  It published and contracted the many pseudonymous authors who wrote the series from 1899 to 1987, when it was sold to Simon & Schuster.  Created by Edward Stratemeyer, the Stratemeyer Syndicate was the first book packager to have its books aimed at children, rather than adults.  The Syndicate was wildly successful; at one time, it was believed that the overwhelming majority of the books children read in the United States were Stratemeyer Syndicate books, based on a 1922 study of over 36000 American children.