Julie Campbell (1908-1999)

Full name Julie Campbell Tatham. American author, mainly of children's novels. Born in Long Island, New York in 1908. As well as writing books, Ms. Campbell Tatham worked as an editor and ran her own literary agency.

Perhaps best known amongst book collectors as the creator of the long-running and very popular Trixie Belden mystery series. This was a Nancy Drew type series, although with a younger, more realistic and down-to-earth heroine. Although the series ran on into 39 titles Ms. Campbell Tatham only wrote the first six in the series, which was continued by other writers. The main character of Trixie loves horses and they feature in the books, although usually more as a backdrop than part of the main plot. I am not sure how much horse content was in the later books, I will be researching these at a later date.

The Trixie Belden brand name was later extended to cover a few other girl's stories in the 'Trixie Belden Presents' series of books by different authors. These included horse stories by Estelle Grey and the Shelley Peters series by Ellen Bosworth

Julie Campbell also wrote another mystery series featuring the character of Jinny Gordon, and wrote some of the Cherry Ames nursing stories. As far as I know these do not feature horses.

There is a comprehensive Trixie Belden website.

Trixie Belden Series:
The Trixie Belden series was a very long mystery series featuring a teenage Trixie and her friends. Trixie was something of an anti-thesis to the Nancy Drew character in that she was less perfect, less rich and more down-to-earth than Nancy and the series is preferred by many readers over the Nancy Drew books for those reasons.
Trixie is a horse-lover and horses form a backdrop to the books, although only the first book and Mystery in Arizona have a lot of horse content.

The series continued for another 33 books but these were written by different authors. For the compete series click here


1) THE SECRET OF THE MANSION
(WHITMAN [USA] 1948)
ILLUSTRATED BY MARY STEVENS
Reprinted a number of times in hardback and paperback.
In print at the moment.
SUMMARY: Teenage Trixie is horse-mad and longs for a pony of her own. She is overjoyed when new neighbours arrive on the scene as the daughter of the family, Honey, has her own horse! The girls soon become friends and Trixie learns to ride. Together they begin to investigate a mystery involving a nearby mansion house and estate and a runaway boy called Jim.

2) THE RED TRAILER MYSTERY
(WHITMAN [USA] 1950)
ILLUSTRATED BY MARY STEVENS
Reprinted a number of times in hardback and paperback.
Some of the later editions had different illustrators.
In print at the moment.
SUMMARY: Whilst searching for the runaway Jim whom Honey hopes her parents will adopt, the girls find themselves on the trail of thieves.

3) THE GATEHOUSE MYSTERY
(WHITMAN [USA] 1951)
ILLUSTRATED BY MARY STEVENS
Reprinted a number of times in hardback and paperback.
Some of the later editions had different illustrators.
In print at the moment.
SUMMARY: Trixie's brothers Bobby, Brian and Mart join with Trixie and Honey to form a secret club called the Bob-Whites of the Glen. Together they attempt to solve a diamond robbery.

4) THE MYSTERIOUS VISITOR
(WHITMAN [USA] 1954)
ILLUSTRATED BY MARY STEVENS
Reprinted a number of times in hardback and paperback.
Some of the later editions had different illustrators.
In print at the moment.
SUMMARY: The gang invite lonely girl Di to join their group and they set out to prove that her unpleasant long lost Uncle Monty is an imposter.

5) THE MYSTERY OFF GLEN ROAD
(WHITMAN [USA] 1956)
ILLUSTRATED BY MARY STEVENS
Reprinted a number of times in hardback and paperback.
Some of the later editions had different illustrators.
In print at the moment.
SUMMARY: When the gang's club house is damaged in a storm this leads to a series of events culminating in Trixie having to pretend to be in love with Honey's cousin Ben. The children also get involved with apprehending a gang of poachers.

6) MYSTERY IN ARIZONA
(WHITMAN [USA] 1958)
ILLUSTRATED BY MARY STEVENS
Reprinted a number of times in hardback and paperback.
Some of the later editions had different illustrators.
In print at the moment.
SUMMARY: Trixie and the Bob-Whites go to stay at a dude ranch in Arizona, but find themselves busy when they offer to take the place of a number of ranch hands who have disappeared. Despite having to work hard in the stables, Trixie still has time to find mysteries to solve!

Collector's Info:
The books were extremely popular and reprinted a number of times in hardback and paperback. For detailed publishing information please visit the Trixie Belden web page on the 'links' section. They have also recently been reprinted and are at the time of writing all in print. All the books are easy to find in the USA and UK in both new and used editions.