Gordon Bates (house pseudonym)

Gordon Bates is not a real author but a house pseudonym owned by the American publisher Capels & Leon. The name was used mainly for the World War I juvenile series The Khaki Boys, which follows young American soldiers through training camps, the fields of France, and the trenches, with a clear patriotic and adventurous tone. The library holds four titles from the series, with plots centering on going to the front, fighting in the trenches, and breaking through the German lines. According to the available information, the first three volumes were written by Josephine Chase, while the later three were conceived by the Stratemeyer Syndicate and ghostwritten by Howard Garis. Public information about the real identity, life, and nationality of this "author" is limited; the name is significant mainly as a window into the publishing practices and reading tastes of early twentieth-century American juvenile military fiction.