All Things Nancy

We headed to Books A Million today, as Jen had seen a sign in the window yesterday about Webkinz. (An aside - my dad says we'll have to build an addition onto the house to hold Care Bears and Webkinz. Jen's never been much on dolls, but stuffed animals...). No Webkinz purchased, but we hit a grand sale on Nancy Drew books! Jen came away with three more to add to her collection.

She loves Nancy Drew. She's won a Nancy Drew DVD, she's been Nancy Drew for Halloween, and reading the books has inspired her to begin writing her own "Sadie Miller Mystery" series. We even found the "Nancy Drew Cookbook" in a bookstore last year.

So, in honor of all things Nancy today, I got some info off Wikipedia about everyone's favorite sleuth:

Nancy Drew is an amateur sleuth, the fictional heroine of a popular mystery series, primarily aimed at the children-young adult audience, and written under the collective pseudonym "Carolyn Keene". The series was created and outlined in detail in 1930 by Edward Stratemeyer, founder of the Stratemeyer Syndicate, with the first manuscripts written by Mildred A. Wirt Benson and edited by Stratemeyer's daughter Harriet Stratemeyer Adams. The Stratemeyer Syndicate had a strict non-disclosure contract; writers such as Mildred Benson produced books based upon outlines provided by the Syndicate. As a ghostwriter, Benson was the second most prolific writer (after Stratemeyer-Adams herself), producing twenty-three of the first thirty volumes.

Series history

Nancy Drew is alive right now, the series is actually based on a real Nancy Drew and her adventures.

Character evolution of Nancy Drew -

Original Nancy, 1930 to 1940 -

Nancy Drew was depicted as an independent-minded teenager, who has already completed her high school education. She is sixteen at the beginning of the series, but gradually aged to eighteen by the mid 1940s (this was changed when the original books were later revised; she is always eighteen), by then necessary to graduate from school in many states. Apparently affluent, she maintains an active social, volunteer, and sleuthing schedule, as well as participating in athletics and the arts, but is never shown as working for a living or acquiring job skills. Nancy is also unhindered by the Great Depression and World War II.

Nancy lives with her father, attorney Carson Drew. In volume one of the original series, it is stated that Nancy's mother died when Nancy was ten years old (changed to three in later revisions); volume four expands upon the idea by indicating she has managed a servant and the household for her father since that time. This fact was changed in later revisions.

The Drews' housekeeper, Hannah Gruen, is in charge of cooking delicious meals, cleaning, and all sorts of errands. In the early stories, "Hannah," is depicted as the servant of employer Nancy, and follows directives down to uniform appearance, menus and groceries from her young supervisor. Hannah is excluded from discussion of mysteries, and does not take meals with the family. This character gradually changed, as the role of the middle-class and their servants did in reality. By the mid 1940s, she is more a member of the family, and less formal with Nancy, often attempting to restrict her independence. She lives with the Drews in the family's three-story brick house in the fictional town of River Heights.

The evolution of the series and, as adjusted in later revisions of the early stories, Hannah assumes more of a warm, maternal role in Nancy's life and, along with the character of Nancy's cosmopolitan New York relative, Aunt Eloise (introduced in 1952) helps provide a rounded sense of family. In The Whispering Statue in 1937, a dog named Togo was also integrated into the Drew home, adding spirit and flavor to several of Nancy's adventures. This healthy presentation of a loving, but non-traditional family structure was years ahead of its time and may have helped the series maintain a fresh, contemporary accessibility among young fans while other idealized series from the same era fell out of favor.

In The Clue of the Whistling Bagpipes, published in 1964, Nancy further explores her mother's genealogy; her mother, whose maiden name was Austin, was descended from the Scottish nobility. Nancy travels to Scotland, where she meets her great-grandmother, Lady Douglas, the widow of a former member of the House of Lords. Lady Douglas is the daughter of a member of Clan Cameron.

Nancy's car -
In the first few books Nancy drives a blue roadster. During the war years, Nancy's car is only vaguely referenced as a coupe, but post-war, is again a blue open car or convertible. Later on in the series it changes to a yellow convertible, gradually she again drives a blue convertible and rents other colors of cars when hers is unavailable. In the Nancy Drew Files she drives a red Mustang.

Nancy's friends -

Many friends frequently visit the Drew household. The first of these, Helen Corning, appears in the earliest novels, and again in original volumes 8,9, and 20(after which point she is not seen in Nancy's life). From volume five upward, Nancy is accompanied by her two close friends, George Fayne and Bess Marvin. George (short for Georgia in the revised editions, named for her grandfather in the original editions) Fayne and Bess (short for Elizabeth) Marvin are 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 set hair, but not clearly described as blonde until 1936, has the most girly appearance and girly attitude 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 saw something unusual, and drove off the road into a tree.

Helen's appearances resume 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 in volume 20, was announced as having been on an extended tour of Europe (a common plot device for absent characters in Stratemeyer Series books) for one final appearance and plot device in The Clue in the Jewel Box, introducing Nancy to European acquaintances. Her loss of touch with Nancy is explained more fully in the revised series (see below).

Nancy's character -

Nancy is blue-eyed and laid-back. She was originally a blonde, and illustrators often drew Bess with hair coloring somewhat darker blonde or light brown, when the three girls appeared together. Nancy's modern hair color is described variously as "red-gold" and "titian", rather than the less glamorous "red." This change was actually due to a printer's error on the original jacket of a book; missing ink layers including yellow left Nancy's hair red. But on most covers she is shown as a blonde, redhead or strawberry blonde.

She becomes involved in mysteries without always being a welcome presence. She always carries a flashlight; occasionally drove her blue convertible at high speeds to escape her villians, but usually drove the legal speed limit; breaks and enters; trespasses; sneaks about; opens locked doors, lockers, chests, drawers, etc. 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; her opinion is often discredited.
Her early style is in the vein of a sophisticated young girl with immaculately curled hair, 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 drew the inside sketches for The Clue of the Broken Locket, but not the cover. By the end of the 1930s, Nancy was dressing along the lines of a sophisticated young woman, with smart suits, matching hats, gloves, and handbags.

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 horse back 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, stereotypical 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.

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. Plot wise, 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.

In the revisions, Nancy is eighteen, not sixteen; her mother died when she was age three, not ten. Hannah Gruen is a motherly figure who helped raise Nancy, and at times restricts her rash actions. Aunt Eloise Drew, a smart New Yorker who was Nancy's aunt, is frequently either chaperone or hostess to Nancy's New York adventures. Nancy's dog, Togo, still exists, but now occasionally helps her in her cases.

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. 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, reddish-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 Dickinson 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 cover 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 Grosset and Dunlap are older than 1957. In 1979, two million copies of Nancy Drew books were sold.

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 Harriet S. Adams' office. The syndicate's process for creating the Nancy Drew books consisted of first creating a detailed outline, with all elements of plot; then the drafting of a manuscript that was occasionally revised or rewritten; and finally editing. While Edward Stratemeyer and his daughters Harriet and Edna wrote all outlines for the Nancy Drew books except one (The Clue of the Velvet Mask, outlined by Andrew Svenson), a number of other writers wrote the manuscripts. Among these were Mildred A. Wirt Benson née Augustine, Walter Karig, George Waller, Jr., Margaret Scherf, Wilhelmina Rankin, Alma Sasse, Charles Strong, and Patricia Doll. Edward Stratemeyer edited the first three volumes and Harriet Stratemeyer all subsequent volumes with the exception of The Haunted Showboat and The Secret of the Golden Pavilion, which were edited by Jane Dunn and Jane Sanderson.

Legal disputes -

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 manuscripts of 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 and many adult fans and collectors considered her integrity irreparably compromised after the trial. Following her death, her partners continued, finally selling the entire Syndicate to Simon and Schuster. An acknowledgment 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 Schuster. The original Nancy Drew series added the last new title in 2003.

Pseudonym Carolyn Keene -

All Nancy Drew books are published under the pseudonym Carolyn Keene regardless of who the actual author was. The name Carolyn Keene has also been used to author a shorter series of books titled The Dana Girls. This series features two detective sisters.