Frank Merriwell’s Support

Frank Merriwell was the fictional creation of Gilbert pattern who wrote under the pseudonym Burt L. Standish. The model for all later American Juvenile sports fiction Merriwell excelled at football baseball crew and track at Yale while solving mysteries and righting wrongs. He played with great strength and received traumatic blows without injury. A biographical entry on Pattern noted that Frank Merriwell “had little in common with his creator or his readers.” pattern offered some background on his character: “the name was symbolic of the chief characteristics I desired My hero to have. Frank for frankness Merry for a happy disposition well for health and abounding vitality.”.