In 1959, Grosset & Dunlap, which published the Stratemeyer books, asked Adams to revise the original Nancy Drews - not only to make them shorter and snappier (they had to compete with television) but to update Nancy’s clothes and cars, as well as her casual racism. However, many young women encountering those classic yellow-spine editions for the first time aren’t actually reading Benson’s unabridged versions. When Adams saw her feisty nemesis, she turned white. It all came to a head in 1980, when Benson appeared in a court case involving Nancy Drew’s two rival publishers, brandishing documents proving that she wrote the original series. “There’s still a whole ‘whose side are you on’ thing.” “By the same token, I think Mildred was perfectly fine not letting anyone know until it suddenly became a story,” said Rehak, adding that the feud is ongoing among Nancy Drew fans. “I don’t think did it maliciously,” said Melanie Rehak, author of “ Girl Sleuth: Nancy Drew and the Women Who Created Her.” “I think she felt that she had shepherded this series, which she did, and … that she rightfully owned the character.”
As Nancy Drew grew more and more popular, Adams began to give interviews referring to the character as her “daughter,” and taking credit for her creation, much to Benson’s chagrin. Yet by the 1970s, several newspapers and magazines were touting another woman - Stratemeyer’s oldest daughter, Harriet Adams - as the original Carolyn Keene.Īdams had taken over for her father, supplying all her “ghosts” with detailed outlines and - once Benson quit in 1953 - taking over as Carolyn Keene herself. Pamela Sue Martin on the cover of Playboy Magazine as Nancy Drew in 1978.īenson ended up writing 23 of the first 30 volumes in the series, long after Edward Stratemeyer died in 1930. “She told me she got out of it by thinking, ‘What would Nancy Drew do?’ ” Fisher said. Benson, who died in 2002, was not only a reporter, but an aviator and amateur archeologist who was once kidnapped during an expedition to Guatemala. “She was an appealing character herself.”īenson imbued Nancy with her own pluckiness, spunk and bravery. “She was a 1930s newspaper reporter with a very wry sense of humor,” journalism professor Carolyn Dyer says of Benson, whom she befriended. In the late 1920s, he hired a go-getting young woman named Mildred Wirt (later Benson), who was studying journalism at the University of Iowa, to draft a compelling mystery out of a 3¹/₂-page outline about a 16-year-old sleuth named Nancy Drew.
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A prolific children’s author who couldn’t meet the demands for his thrilling page-turners, Stratemeyer started the Stratemeyer Syndicate, which hired ghostwriters to churn out books based on outlines for series such as the Hardy Boys and Bobbsey Twins. Keene - and Nancy Drew - were created by Edward Stratemeyer. Never mind that Carolyn Keene wasn’t a real person. 1 spot? Carolyn Keene, who beat runner-up Louisa May Alcott with twice as many votes. In 1942, the teen magazine Calling All Girls ran a poll asking readers to pick their favorite author. The mystery of Carolyn Keene Harriet Adams and Mildred Benson Jennifer Fisher Nancy Drew Collection (2) Nancy Drew has had her fair share of controversies in her nearly nine decades, from the two women who claimed to be the original books’ author, Caroline Keene to an attempt - in the 1950s and ’60s - to whitewash some of the original series’ racism to a Playboy magazine centerfold homage.Īs Fisher said, “The history of Nancy Drew is almost like a Nancy Drew mystery,” with twists and turns and thrills along the way. She was breaking into private property, stealing evidence and even outrunning the cops in her trusty blue roadster, going far above the speed limit.Īnd that’s not all. “Nancy was brash, bold and disrespectful to authority,” said historian Jennifer Fisher of the original girl gumshoe who dominated bookshelves from the 1930s to ’50s. But it may not be further off than you think.
In other words, this isn’t your mom’s - or your grandma’s - Nancy Drew. Gritty, dark and salacious, it’s more like the sexy teen drama “Riverdale” than “The Secret of the Old Clock,” the 1930 tale that launched the almost 90-year-old series. Premiering on The CW on Wednesday, “Nancy Drew” is the latest take on the young-adult classic.
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