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About 10 years ago at a tag sale in Old Lyme, I found a real treasure. It was a book I hadn’t seen in many years but one that I immediately recognized. There was that familiar symbol of girlhood days—the silhouette of a young woman peering through a magnifying glass. Who could ever forget that amateur sleuth extraordinaire—good ol’ Nancy Drew?
Generations of girls have grown up reading Nancy Drew Mystery Stories. The books were first published in 1930 and were a success right from the start. Hard to believe that Nancy has been on the scene for almost 80 years now and this very summer she was in the headlines as well.
When President Obama noted that the fictional teen detective was one of Sonia Sotomayor’s childhood heroes, many articles appeared in the press about Nancy’s influence not just on our new Supreme Court justice but on others as well. Turns out that Sandra Day O’Connor, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Laura Bush, and Hillary Clinton were all fans of Nancy.
 The book that I bought at the tag sale that day was of late 1950s vintage, the very era when I worshipped Nancy. It was “The Secret of the Old Clock”—the very first mystery in the series.
By that time, the original stories had been updated and Nancy was now zipping around town in her spiffy, blue convertible. (In the 1930s, she was driving the famous “roadster.”)
But Nancy was ever the perfect lady—always fetching hat and gloves before heading downtown to shop for a new “frock.” And she and her “chums” would stop at quaint inns for “luncheon.”
To this day, I still associate the word “luncheon” with Nancy Drew.
But what I remember most about these mysteries is how much fun they were to read. I could hardly wait to finish one in order to start reading about Nancy’s next case. Great literature they were not; but page-turning entertainment they certainly were. Chapters would end in cliff-hanging suspense—“The next moment she heard a piercing scream!”
We were with Nancy every step of the way as she tapped on walls to discover trap doors and as she explored hidden staircases. Oh sure, Nancy was invariably tied up somewhere and left to die; but we knew that she would always figure a way out of her dilemma.
Not only does Nancy Drew have spine-tingling adventures, she leads a peachy life. In these stories she is eternally 18, slim and attractive, and living in River Heights with her father (the well-known lawyer, Carson Drew.)
 When we first meet her in “The Secret of the Old Clock,” Mr. Drew has just given her the blue convertible for her 18th birthday. She has graduated from high school (where she was very popular, of course.) And, other than solving her current case, Nancy’s most pressing concern is to shop for a dress to wear to the country club dance.
No wonder pre-adolescent girls looking forward to their teen years love Nancy—they probably dream of being just like her when they turn 18. Nancy is, after all, not merely an amateur sleuth; she is a girl goddess.
Like all goddesses worth their salt, Nancy performs wonderful deeds. In “The Secret of the Old Clock” alone, consider her accomplishments: She rescues a child who has fallen off a bridge; she aids a destitute and bedridden elderly woman; she arranges for a talented singer to audition with a famous voice teacher; and she’s responsible for the capture of a trio of thieves.
 Then Nancy solves the mystery and locates the missing will of eccentric Mr. Crowley, thereby restoring all his worthy (and poor) relatives to their rightful inheritances. In the process, she foils the scheme of the nasty Topham family to get their hands on the old man’s dough. What a girl! Why, Nancy can even change a flat tire!!
Nancy Drew has in spades that quality common to all girl heroines—in a word, “spunk.” She’s resourceful, independent, and uses her brains to unravel each mystery.
This is the central core of her character and why she has been a positive role model through the decades.
If you grew up reading Nancy Drew books, you’ve probably wondered who “Carolyn Keene”—the fictitious author—really was. For the answer to that mystery, read “Girl Sleuth: Nancy Drew and the Women Who Created Her” by Melanie Rehak. The book was published in 2005 and is a fascinating account of the Nancy Drew books themselves.
 The character “Nancy Drew” was actually the brainstorm of a man. Edward Stratemeyer (pictured right) was a successful creator of juvenile fiction including such series as “The Bobbsey Twins” and “The Hardy Boys.” In the late 1920s, Stratemeyer came up with the idea of a detective series starring a teenage girl—possibly with the name of Stella Strong, Diana Dare, or maybe Nan Drew . . .
He began to write plot outlines for the first few books and already had in mind a writer for his new project. That was Mildred A. Wirt (later Mildred Wirt Benson) who was the original “Carolyn Keene” and is credited today for infusing Nancy with a can-do confidence. Mildred herself was quite a character, demonstrated by the fact she was the first woman to receive a master’s degree in journalism at the University of Iowa (in 1927.) She also worked as a reporter right up until the day she died, at the age of 96.
 The other woman who helped to shape Nancy Drew was Edward Stratemeyer’s daughter. Harriet Stratemeyer Adams (pictured left) took over her father’s company after his death—just a few weeks after the first Nancy Drew books appeared in 1930.
Interesting to note that Harriet, who attended Wellesley College, had to turn down several job offers after graduation because her father didn’t approve of his own daughters working. He did, however, permit Harriet to edit books at home until she married.
At a time when it was rare for a woman to be in an executive position in the business world, Harriet took over the Stratemeyer company and successfully managed it until her death in 1982. In addition to overseeing Mildred and the other ghostwriters of the books, Harriet herself became “Carolyn Keene” and wrote many of the Nancy mysteries.
After Simon and Schuster bought the Stratemeyer company in 1984, the teenage detective underwent a series of transformations. In the Nancy Drew Files (now discontinued), Nancy was much more interested in boys and clothes. Of course, we Nancy purists know that she was always beautifully dressed, but was never vain or obsessive about clothes.
In the Nancy Drew on Campus series (published for several years in the mid-1990s), she actually leaves River Heights for Wilder University. Here Nancy encounters such modern-day issues as date rape and the mystery plots take a back seat to college life concerns. Nancy and the ever-faithful Ned even break up! Paging the real Nancy Drew . . .
The latest incarnation of Nancy began in 2004 when Simon and Schuster started publishing the Nancy Drew Girl Detective Series. She is now driving a hybrid car and the stories are told in the first person.
 But through all these makeovers, the “classic” Nancy Drew Mystery Stories (volumes 1 through 56 starting with “The Secret of the Old Clock” through “The Thirteenth Pearl”) have never been out of print. In her book about Nancy Drew, Melanie Rehak notes that in 2002 about 150,000 copies of “The Secret of the Old Clock” were sold, “which put it—outdated fashions, lingo, and all—among the top 50 children’s books.”
“The Secret of the Old Clock” written by Mildred Wirt Benson in 1930 and revised in 1959 by Harriet Stratemeyer Adams still appeals to fifth-grade girls. Why has Nancy endured so long? Perhaps because she was so ahead of her time right from the very beginning.
Don’t let her white-gloved, good girl perfectionism fool you.
It’s amusing to think that what would baffle Nancy totally is the concept of sexism. The fact that she is a “girl” detective would never stop Nancy (or even occur to her) simply because she is so competent.
Nancy is not just a pretty and popular teenage girl who drives a cool car; she is smart and independent. And in 1930, Nancy was already a “liberated” woman—she was out in the world and carving out her identity in her chosen field.
Editor's Note: Happy birthday, Linda! |
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