The Iconic Nancy Drew
It starts off with a bang. Nancy gets ready for a special date with her boyfriend, Ned, only to get the shock of her life when he asks her to marry him! Confused and flabbergasted, Nancy tells him she’s not ready for such a commitment only get an even bigger shock when she finds out the next day that he is engaged to a new girl in town, Jessica Thorne. Nancy is naturally jealous and hurt, but also suspicious about Jessica’s intentions, as she does not seem to love Ned and is extremely nice to Nancy—too nice. Following a series of exhilarating, life-threatening events including a sabotaged parachute while falling through the sky and wild chases both on the ground and up in the air, Nancy finally puts the pieces together that Jessica wants to kill Ned in a fire in order to obtain a large sum of money. Ned and Nancy are reunited and Till Death Do Us Part (1989) is happily concluded with a kiss. And so it is with most of the Nancy Drew stories: Nancy is confronted with a problem, she goes through a whirlwind of suspense driven events, and always uncovers the mystery. Time and time again, she proves her exceptional talents of crime solving, thus winning the hearts of the people in her community and thousands of young readers around the world.
Interestingly enough, Till Death Do Us Part is not a part of the original Nancy Drew Mystery Stories that was first published in 1930, but a later series called The Nancy Drew Files which was started for older audiences in 1986. Based solely on that fact, one would wonder about the indestructible stamina of the attributed author, Carolyn Keene, when considering the immensity of the Nancy Drew books, as it seems far-fetched that one woman, no matter how gifted and dedicated, would be able to spew out as many books as she did in a single lifetime. As Benjamin Lefebvre recounts, the complete Nancy Drew books consist of:
56 volumes …between 1930 and 1979,…119 volumes between 1979 and 2003; …124 volumes in The Nancy Drew Files between 1986 and 1997; 36 volumes in A Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys SuperMystery between 1988 and 1998; 17 volumes in the spin-off series River Heights between 1989 and 1992; 69 volumes in The Nancy Drew Notebooks (for younger readers) between 1994 and 2005; 25 volumes in Nancy Drew on Campus between 1995 and 1998; and numerous miscellaneous titles. (236) With a grand total of more than 446 books over the course of 69 years thus averaging 6 books per year, every year, the legendary Carolyn Keene must have been a little more than human to fulfill such an accomplishment.
Unfortunately for those who prefer to buy into the idea that Carolyn Keene was indeed a brilliant mastermind, the reality is that Carolyn Keene does not and never did exist. In her review of the book Girl Sleuth: Nancy Drew and the Women Who Created Her by Melanie Rehak, Elizabeth Vander Lie reveals that, created for the first time by entrepreneur Edward Stratemeyer, owner of the Stratemeyer Syndicate that is also responsible for “series like The Rover Boys, the Bobbsey Twins, Ruth Fielding, and…the Hardy Boys,” the Nancy Drew books were written by “a handful of authors under contract to keep silent” and protect the pseudonym Carolyn Keene (65). Nevertheless, Carolyn Keene’s non-existence does not in any way reduce the genius of the craftsmen behind the Nancy Drew stories. Three people worth recognizing are Edward Statemeyer himself, his daughter, Harriet Stratemeyer Adams, and Mildred Wirt Benson, the principle ghostwriter who, according to Amy Boesky, “wrote 27 of the first 30 books” (198). As previously mentioned, the idea of Nancy Drew was birthed by Stratemeyer himself. Vander Lie writes that while “Stratemeyer drafted detailed plot notes and character descriptions[,] Benson followed, enlarged upon, and altered Stratemeyer’s outlines to breathe life into Nancy Drew” (65). Later on upon Stratemeyer’s death, Harriet took over her father’s place in coming up with the plotlines and communicating with the authors. Although the books were not written by a single person, the collaboration of authors did a remarkable job at forming a single character that left such a significant mark in children’s and adolescent literature.
One advantage about this setup of multiple authors is that the book is always current—relevant to the culture of the time in which it is published. However, the early days of Nancy Drew are especially interesting as many social reforms took place during the time of its incipience, and Nancy was not a typical young woman who went along with the social conventions. As a result, Nancy was very much a ground-breaking character who became a huge success in the midst of hard times. What makes the stories even more compelling is that the writers themselves poured much of their own experiences into the character of Nancy. Vander Lie writes:
Harriet and Mildred, [offer] the reader a window into not only the personalities of the women who crafted Nancy Drew in their own images but also into American society’s ideas about acceptable roles for women—ideas that changed both radically and imperceptibly during Harriet and Mildred’s lifetimes. Like Harriet and Mildred, Nancy Drew responded to changes in fashion, sexuality, and career roles for women while never abandoning her social status, independence, good manners, willingness to serve others, and ability to think clearly under pressure. These values, the ones most central to Nancy Drew’s character (and to the women who created her), are key to Nancy Drew’s popularity. According to Rehak, these values, though outdated, continue to thrive in American society and continue to draw girls to the series. (66-67) In response to the traditional and shifting cultures surrounding them, the outcome of Harriet and Mildred’s works took on a certain authentic identity which continues to reflect on the foundational American values which are still idealized today.
For these reasons among others, the Nancy Drew series can be considered an American icon. Not only is Nancy Drew loved by a large majority of the American population, especially among young female readers and adult women who grew up reading Nancy Drew books, it is also known throughout the world. Tilda Maria Forselius, a Swede, writes in her article that Nancy Drew remains one of her childhood heroines that she will never forget. Although she read a variety of books and remembers them all, “Nancy Drew stands out more clearly than the other protagonists. She embodies the girl sleuth of all times and we are constantly reminded of her, since the stories…still constitute a huge success in Sweden, too” (24). She goes on talk about the millions of Nancy Drew books that have been sold worldwide and how authors from other countries like her own are now coming up with their own mystery novels which seem to follow in the footsteps of Nancy Drew.
Not only are authors from other parts of the world mimicking the female teenage sleuth theme, authors here in the United States have likewise come up with series of their own and do not hesitate to refer to their protagonists as “the local Nancy Drew.” One such author is Patricia H. Rushford who wrote the Jenny McGrady series. Writing from a Christian worldview, Rushford’s series of 14 books depict story after story of Jenny somehow winding up in trouble and ultimately solving the mystery. The impact that Nancy Drew has made in the lives of children all around the world as well as the literary world is undeniable. Nancy Larson Bluemel writes from her experience as a librarian that “[j]uvenile readers love mysteries!” (79) and Nancy Drew is at the top of the list as can be seen from Arthur Daigon’s claim that “[p]erhaps no single fictional character is so familiar to girls between the ages of ten and fourteen (and is remembered with twinges of conscience by their mothers) as that intrepid teen-aged sleuth, Nancy Drew” (666). The longevity of Nancy Drew can be summed up in Lefebvre’s words that “[p]art of [her] wide appeal…is that she is both conservative and revolutionary, genteel and modern, feminist and antifeminist, in periods of both progress and regression” (231). For as long as children love mystery, Nancy Drew will remain the success that she has been for the past 83 years.
Although the Nancy Drew books are not without flaws, they carry with them a rich cultural history and are definitely worth the read as they are entertaining as well as didactic. However, there are also dangers about these books that should not be ignored. Although biblical standards of morality, virtue, and justice are strongly advocated, there are times when the lines are blurred and actions that would be considered bad if the bad guy were to do it would somehow not be considered bad if Nancy were to do the same. For instance, Nancy is constantly breaking into people’s homes, offices, etc., in the name of gathering evidence while in reality, she is really intruding and stealing. Children should therefore be guided in their thinking when reading Nancy Drew books to be careful not to idealize her and assume that everything she does is right. This is especially vital since, as Jacqueline Reid-Walsh and Claudia Mitchell write, “each new generation of young female readers regularly discovers Nancy and appears to re-enact a pattern of engagement with her” (21-22).Although Nancy is a good role-model for the most part, she can also be a dangerous person to put on a pedestal especially if children begin to justify their wrong-doings in the name of morality or justice.
Because of the thrill and suspense that comes with mystery novels, children are drawn into the excitement and are eager to find out what’s next. However, a good mystery novel is driven by its characters, and Nancy Drew is one that has found her way into the hearts of readers everywhere so much so that despite the many shortcomings that can be named including stereotypical settings and predictability in the plot, readers are able to look past those deficiencies and continue to love the stories that “Carolyn Keene” produces. Although nobody expected Nancy Drew to become such a success when it first started, the imprint that it has left on people all around the world has made the name Nancy Drew just short of being a legend.
Works Cited
Bluemel, Nancy Larson. “I Need a Good Mystery”: Selecting for the Juvenile Reader.” Collection Management 29.3/4 (2004): 73-82. Academic Search Complete. Web. 28 Oct. 2013.
Boesky, Amy. “Solving The Crime of Modernity: Nancy Drew in 1930.” Studies in the Novel 42.1/2 (2010): 185-201. Academic Search Complete. Web. 28 Oct. 2013.
Daigon, Arthur. “The Strange Case of Nancy Drew.” The English Journal. 53.9. (1964):666-669. JSTOR. Web. 28. Oct. 2013.
Elizabeth, Vander Lie. “Girl Sleuth: Nancy Drew and the Women Who Created Her.” The Lion and the Unicorn 31.1 (2007): 65-III. ProQuest. Web. 28 Oct. 2013.
Forselius, Tilda Maria. “Probing Pioneer Girl Sleuths: Puck Larsson and Nancy Drew in 1950s Girls’ Book Series in Sweden.” The Lion and the Unicorn 35.1 (2011): 24-46. Project Muse. Web. 28 Oct. 2013.
Keene, Carolyn. Till Death Do Us Part. New York: Simon Pulse. 1989. Print.
Lefebvre, Benjamin. “Writing and Rewriting Nancy Drew, Girl Detective. Children’s Literature 35(2007):230-238. ProQuest. Web. 28 Oct. 2013.
Reid-Walsh, Jacqueline, and Claudia Mitchell. “The Case of The Whistle-Blowing Girls: Nancy Drew and Her Readers.” Textual Studies in Canada 13.14 (2001): 15-23. Academic Search Complete. Web. 28 Oct. 2013.