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Nancy Drew

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Image:Origndtsotoc.jpg Nancy Drew is a fictional character, the heroine detective of a popular mystery series. The series was created in 1930 by Edward Stratemeyer, founder of the Stratemeyer Syndicate.

Contents

[edit] Series history

The Stratemeyer Syndicate was known for publishing book series using one invented author's name for all books, no matter who wrote them. In the case of Nancy Drew, the name Carolyn Keene was chosen. Mildred Wirt Benson, however, was the author of most of the early books: #1 through 7, 11 through 25, and #30. Edward Stratemeyer wrote outlines for the first four stories in the series, but died before the books were published. His daughter, Harriet Stratemeyer Adams, who succeeded him as the head of the syndicate, contributed a number of volumes and oversaw the substantial revisions of the earlier titles begun in the 1950s.

Over 200 million books have been sold worldwide. Many people collect the series, which has gone through several formats over the years. The books have been in print continuously since 1930. However, starting in the 1960s, many of the early titles were revised or changed completely to eliminate outdated references such as "roadsters," "running boards," and "rumble seats," and to make Nancy and her friends more identifiable with contemporary readers. All titles currently in print are known as "revised text", except the original series reprints by Applewood Books.

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The original books have 25 chapters while the revised editions have only 20. Only volumes 1 through 34 were printed in the original format. Volumes 35 and up never had the 25-chapter texts. Volumes 35 and up each had the 20-chapter text in their very first printings and still are printed with the original 20 chapter texts to this day.

Only volumes 1 through 13 were printed with four glossy illustrations. Volumes 14 through 17 were printed with one glossy illustration during the late 1930s and early 1940s, and during the same time period, volumes 1 through 13 were reprinted with only one glossy illustration. Volumes 18 and up never had glossy illustrations; these volumes had only the plain paper frontispiece illustration.

Thus, any existing copy of a Nancy Drew book with 25 chapters and four glossy illustrations is extremely rare and very valuable to collectors.

Starting in 1979, the original series was extended with new volumes published in paperback, and in the late 1980s a new spin-off series The Nancy Drew Files was created for Simon & Schuster, Inc., starting with Secrets Can Kill. In recent years, the spinoff series Nancy Drew Notebooks and Nancy Drew: On Campus have been published. The Nancy Drew Girl Detective series is the newest version of tales about the titian-haired sleuth.

Nancy Drew also appeared with the Hardy Boys in the 36 volume Supermystery series, plus a Be A Detective series (written in the style of Choose Your Own Adventure series).

[edit] Character evolution of Nancy Drew

[edit] Original Nancy, 1930 to 1940

Nancy was depicted as an independent-minded sixteen-year-old who has graduated from high school. Apparently affluent, she maintains an active social, volunteer, and sleuthing schedule, but is never shown as working for a living or acquiring job skills. Nancy is also unhindered by the Great Depression or World War II.

Nancy lives with her lawyer father, Carson Drew (Nancy's mother died when Nancy was three years old.) As the only woman in the family, Nancy is in charge of the household, including giving orders to the housekeeper, Hannah Gruen. The housekeeper lives with the Drews in the family's three-story brick house in the fictional town of River Heights, Illinois. Hannah acts in place of Nancy's mother, as she has since Nancy was three.

Many friends frequent the Drew household. The first of these, Helen Corning, appears in the first four volumes but is not depicted as a sleuthing companion. Nancy is joined in her sleuthing activities by her close friends George (short for Georgia) Fayne and Elizabeth ("Bess") Marvin, cousins who have opposite personalities and appearance. George, tall and slim, with short black hair, makes a point of being a tomboy, while Bess, slightly plump with luxurious hair, denoted blonde in 1936, is the most girly girl of the threesome. Early George Fayne characterizations depict her as bold, slightly clumsy, blunt, and untowardly forward, resulting in the nickname, "George the Terrible," from series fans. Bess, on the other hand, tries to be proper, and is also easily frightened — once wrecking a car simply because she spotted something odd. Helen returns briefly in the original volumes Nancy's Mysterious Letter and The Password to Larkspur Lane, which were ghostwritten by Walter Karig. In these volumes, her personality is more like George Fayne's. Helen disappeared when Mildred Benson resumed ghostwriting, but returned from Europe (a common plot device for absent characters in series books) for one final appearance and plot device in The Clue in the Jewel Box, introducing Nancy to European acquaintances. Boyfriend Ned Nickerson is introduced in volume seven, and appears in nearly every story. He frequently appears at Nancy's mystery sites across the United States, despite the fact that he is a student at Emerson University in the next town.

Physically, Nancy is a blonde in early books. She is blue-eyed and bold, and becomes involved in mysteries without always being a welcome presence. She occasionally carries a gun (1-5 early volumes only), and actually uses it against dangerous animals at Shadow Ranch, drives in her blue roadster at high speeds on gravel roads, breaks and enters, trespasses, sneaks about, opens locked doors, lockers, chests, drawers, (etc.) and is rather high-handed with adults, including law enforcement, from time to time. She is more courageous than her friends, and undaunted by the money or time spent in investigating a clue. Hannah voices her concerns about Nancy's behavior, but is clearly the Drews' employee in these early tales.

Ned is so enamoured by Nancy, he frequently allows her to control the relationship. She often changes their plans to pursue sleuthing.

Her early style is in the vein of a sophisticated flapper with immaculately curled hair, with pearls, high heels, and elegant dresses. This is largely the work of commercial artist Russell H. Tandy, the first illustrator for the series. He was a fashion artist and infused Nancy with a modern fashion sensibility. He painted the dust jackets and drew the inside sketches for volumes 1-10 and 12-26. He also drew the inside sketches for The Clue of the Broken Locket, but not the cover. By the end of the 1930's, Nancy was dressing along the lines of a young sophisticated co-ed, with smart suits, matching hats, and gloves.

[edit] 1940-1950: Teen-aged Nancy

With the start of the 1940s, Nancy began to evolve into a less reckless, and also less obviously affluent, character with The Mystery at the Moss-Covered Mansion. Her fashion style becomes a bit more casual, and she no longer pursues angles that greatly endanger herself or her friends. Her car changes makes and models a few times, finally becoming a blue convertible in the post-World War II era. She pursues hobbies, particularly art and music, but also dancing, and various athletics, including sailing, swimming, skin-diving, tennis, and even trick riding. Her age also gradually changes to eighteen. Other than some minor allusions in 1943's The Clue in the Jewel Box, the war rationing doesn't seem to affect River Heights, or Ned Nickerson.

Many of Nancy's mysteries in this era involve her application of knowledge gained from avid reading, or from consultation with teachers, professors, or other experts, and this is passed on to the readers, a trend which grows and continues to the end of the series. Nancy thus shows greater respect for authority figures, such as her father, the local police, and others willing to help with her investigations.

Although still illustrated as very mature during the war years, this style gives way to a more casual, normal teen appearance by the end of the decade, partially due to a switch in illustrators. Book covers began to replace the flapper style favored on early jackets with a conservative, more classic appearance. Following the post-war trend for young people to have their own, casual style, instead of dressing the same as adults, Nancy becomes less constrained. Sweater or blouse and skirt ensembles, as well as a pageboy hairstyle, are introduced in 1948, and continue with new artist Bill Gillies, who updated 10 covers and illustrated three new jackets from 1950 to 1952. Gillies invented the modern-era trademark as a spine symbol: Nancy in side profile with a quizzing glass. Benson wrote her last volume for the series, The Clue of the Velvet Mask, in 1953.

[edit] 1950s-1970s: Revisionist Nancy

During the 1950s, Harriet Stratemeyer Adams took on responsibility for writing the books and also revised the earlier volumes to speed pacing and remove regional and racist references.

Internal illustrations were returned to the books beginning in 1954. In 1957, most Stratemeyer Syndicate books dropped from 200 to 180 pages in length, including the rewrites. Plotwise, stories begin to involve more travel away from River Heights. Nancy's hometown is now more metropolitan and less rural; fairly close to Chicago, and not too far from New York City and other metropolitan destinations on the East Coast of the United States.

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In the revisions, Nancy is eighteen, not sixteen; mother died when she was age three, not ten. Hannah Gruen is a motherly figure who helped raised Nancy, and at times restricts her rash actions. Aunt Eloise Drew, a smart New Yorker, is frequently either chaperone or hostess to Nancy's New York adventures.

Other characters are developed as well. George Fayne develops into a more personable, but still masculine girl, while Bess becomes obsessed with boys and food. George and Bess are given their own respective boyfriends early in the 1950s, Burt Eddleton and Dave Evans, both chums of Nancy's boyfriend Ned Nickerson.

When the original stories began to be updated in 1959, Helen Corning became an older friend of Nancy's, and is bolder than the original Helen, serving as actual sleuthing sidekick in the first four volumes. The stage is also set to explain her departure from regular involvement with Nancy -- Helen becomes engaged; and in her last appearance before she is married, she is planning her wedding while she helps Nancy sleuth. She and her husband Jim Archer appear in some later volumes, and revised versions of several stories as well.

Rudy Nappi, artist from 1953 to 1979, illustrates a more average teenager, but still in very preppy, conservative clothing. Nancy's hair changes to strawberry-blonde or titian by the end of the decade. The change, due to a printing ink error, was so favorable that it was adopted in the text. Mrs. Adams herself even explained regular changes in Nancy's hair color as possibly induced by the young sleuth's beautician. In 1962, all Grosset and Dunlap books become "picture covers," to reduce costs. Several of the 1940s illustrations were updated by Rudy Nappi for this change, but contained the old story. The books themselves were gradually updated, in some cases only sharing a title with the original, with completely new plots and settings. For example, the original Lilac Inn really was only a setting for a crime. In the 1961 revision, it is the setting for almost all of the story. Settings in the series involve travel to several different regions in the United States, and also international destinations, including France, Peru, Scotland, Hong Kong and Africa.

None of the stories in hardcover issue today as published by Grossett and Dunlap are older than 1957.

[edit] The Quest for Carolyn Keene

Due to confusion and difficulties in protecting the secrets of series production, ghostwriters for the Stratemeyer Syndicate signed away all rights to authorship or future royalties, and all correspondence was handled through Hariett S. Adams' office. Walter Karig tried to claim rights with the Library of Congress in 1933, something that angered the Syndicate.

In 1980, dissatisfied with the lack of creative control at Grosset and the lack of publicity for the Hardy Boys' 50th anniversary in 1977, Adams switched publishers to Simon and Schuster, which would also make the American versions available in mass-market paperback. Grosset and Dunlap filed suit against the Syndicate and the new publishers, claiming some control over publishing as their firm provided illustrations.

Although Adams had written many of the titles after 1953, and edited others, she claimed to be the author of all of the early titles. In fact she had rewritten the older titles, but not been the original author. When Adams filed a countersuit, claiming the case was in poor taste and frivolous, Mildred Benson was called to testify about her work for the Syndicate. Benson's role in writing the early titles was revealed in court with extensive documentation, contradicting Adams' claims to authorship. The court ruled that Grosset had the rights to publish the original series as they were in print in 1980, but did not own characters or trademarks. Further, any new publishers chosen by Adams were completely in their right to print original titles.

Adams was rumored to be embarrassed about the negative publicity of the trial; many adult collectors and fans believed her character to be less after the trial. After her death, her partners continued, finally selling the entire Syndicate to Simon and Schuster. An acknowledgement to Mildred Benson was added to Grosset copyright pages; they currently print the original 56 hardcovers and recently began publishing out-of-print titles originally issued by Simon and Shuster. The original Nancy Drew series added the last new title in 2003.

[edit] Pseudonym Carolyn Keene

All Nancy Drew books are published under the pseudonym Carolyn Keene regardless of actual author. The name Carolyn Keene has also been used to author a shorter series of books entitled The Dana Girls. This series features female detective sisters and is a kind of crossbreed of The Hardy Boys (detective brothers) and Nancy Drew (female detective).

[edit] Special editions

[edit] The Reader's Club or Cameos

Nancy Drew was issued as a book club feature, the Nancy Drew Reader's Club, from 1959 to early 1961. Several volumes, no. 30-35, were issued with new illustrations by artist Polly Bolian. The volumes matched Grosset's other Doubleday Book Club publication, Young Library. A full color jacket illustration was repeated as the frontispiece, and double-page pen and ink drawings highlighted the texts. References or notices for other volumes, and volume numbering, was removed from the text and the jackets. The series saw six more volumes, 36, 27-29, and revised 1-2 added in 1960. Plans for additional titles were abandoned after two years and the series ceased publication in early 1961. The volumes are highly desired by today's collectors due to their original artwork.

[edit] Regular Book Club Editions

Nancy Drew was issued in the yellow-spine picture format, as a book club, in 1962. The back covers were solid yellow, and spines feature no volume numbers. "Book Club Edition" appears on the title page. The entire series in print was not issued in this format; only volumes 1-32 were issued. In the 1970s, a book club offer was available directly from the publisher, but these volumes are exactly the same as regularly purchased volumes. They were simply mailed on schedule to the subscriber. Nancy drew is about a perfect book for Girls the age of 10 ad up.

[edit] Twin Thriller

Nancy Drew had two-volumes in one published in the 1970s. These are collected for their uniqueness; evidence indicates however that libraries and schools seemed to be targeted for the marketing of these books. Covers featured geometric clover designs on lilac grey, with a vignette from one of the two volumes' original cover art. All of the volumes are sequential, i.e. 1-2, 3-4, except for the final two issued. 17 and 24 appear together as one, as they were not revised until the mid 1970s.

[edit] Applewood Books Reprints

Applewood Books began reprinting facsimile editions of the early Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys in 1991. The books feature the original dust jacket art, original illustrations, although not scattered through the text, original texts, and duplication binding of the early Nancy Drew format. Many of the volumes contain forewords from adult author fans of the series. The series has currently been issued up to volume 19, The Quest of the Missing Map. Sales were originally good, and have inspired interest in the collector's market.

[edit] Books in the series

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Revised cover art for the second book in the original series

[edit] The original 56 Nancy Drew Mystery Stories books

[edit] Nancy Drew books subsequent to the original series

[edit] Series in film and television

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Former child actress Bonita Granville portrayed Nancy Drew in four films directed by William Clemens in the late 1930s, Nancy Drew: Detective, Nancy Drew: Reporter, Nancy Drew: Trouble Shooter, and The Hidden Staircase, which borrowed the title but not the plot from the second volume of the original series. Frankie Thomas was cast as the rechristened "Ted" Nickerson, who acted more as a sidekick than boyfriend. Carson Drew remained as her father, but Hannah Gruen became Effie Schneider and George and Bess were eliminated completely.

A television series called The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries ran from 1977 to 1979 and starred Pamela Sue Martin as the girl detective. Another brief series starring Tracy Ryan appeared in 1995. In 2003, ABC broadcast a TV film featuring Maggie Lawson as Nancy Drew.

Warner Bros. Pictures reportedly will shoot a new Nancy Drew film, Nancy Drew: The Mystery in Hollywood Hills [1], directed by Andrew Fleming and starring Emma Roberts (niece of Julia Roberts) as Nancy Drew, in early 2007. This new film will also star Kay Panabaker (Phil of the Future, Read it and Weep, Summerland) as George and Amy Bruckner (Phil of the Future) as Bess.

In the film Nancy Drew will be much younger than she is in books, considering the ages of the cast members are mostly about 15.[2]

[edit] Series in computer games

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Computer game

Several Nancy Drew titles have been adapted and released as computer games by Her Interactive. The games are targeted at "ages 10 and up" and follow the popular adventure game style of play. Players must move Nancy around in a virtual environment to talk to suspects, pick up clues, solve puzzles, and eventually solve the crime. High sales and a general growing demand for girls' CD-ROM titles have led to several Nancy Drew game releases, including:

  • On the original packaging, Message in a Haunted Mansion is listed as the first game, Secrets Can Kill as the second, and Stay Tuned for Danger as the third.

For a list of culprits, see Nancy Drew Computer Game Culprits.

[edit] External links

fi:Paula Drew

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