![]() ![]() ![]() However, the Bobbsey Twins, the Hardy Boys, the Rover Boys, Tom Swift, and Nancy Drew became the syndicate’s most popular characters. From 1899 to 2005, the Syndicate produced more than 100 different series. Mildred Wirt Benson Photo via All Clips" class="wp-image-269472"/> Mildred Wirt Benson Photo via All Clips 5) A 1926 poll found that 89 percent of kids listed a Stratemeyer Syndicate book as their favorite-and Nancy’s books sold better than any other series Simon & Schuster, which began publishing the Nancy Drew Mystery Stories in 1979 and still publishes Nancy Drew’s children books today, won’t reveal the names of its current writers. Stratemeyer would create with a three-page plot for a book, including characters and a story outline, then mailed the plot to a ghostwriter and would receive a manuscript a month later in exchange for $50 to $250, which he would then edit himself.Īccording to one ghostwriter who spoke to the Atlantic, he was paid $2,000 up front and $2,000 upon completion of each Nancy Drew book in the 1980s. Fortune wrote that using a pen name gave children a way to connect with an author, but the name had to remain with a syndicate, and not depart with the ghostwriter. The edits also poorly addressed offensive stereotypes in the first 34 books-instead of correcting the depiction, they often erased the character’s ethnicities altogether.Ī portrait of Edward Stratemeyer from the Stratemeyer Syndicate records, Manuscripts and Archives Division, New York Public Library 3) All Nancy Drew books are authored by “Carolyn Keene”-a person who does not existĬarolyn Keene is the pen name used by all Nancy Drew ghostwriters, dating all the way back to 1930. ![]() ![]() The revision, and the 141 books following, also appeared to soften Nancy’s original spunk, defiance, wit, and bravery, elements that drew many young girls to the series. Hannah was rewritten to be less of a servant and more of a mother figure for Nancy, and Nancy’s real mother was written to have died when Nancy was 10, not when she was 3 as originally stated. Her iconic blue roadster, also briefly changed to maroon then canary yellow in two early books, became a blue convertible. Nancy’s hair has changed from blond, to strawberry blond, to Titian, to shades in between. However, after an overhauled edit of the first 34 books to remove offensive racial stereotypes, keep the series relevant, and shorten the plots (the process which began in 1959 and finished in the late ’70s), Nancy’s age was bumped from 16 to 18 to reflect changed driving laws, though at the time of original publishing 16 was the earliest age to graduate from high school. Nancy’s freshly graduated from high school and has all the time in the world to solve mysteries, and sometimes gets help from her friends, Bess Marvin and George Fayne, who are cousins, and her boyfriend Ned Nickerson, a student at Emerson College. She and her father reside in a fictitious town called River Heights with their housekeeper Hannah Gruen. 18 interesting facts about Nancy Drew 1) The original Nancy Drew Mystery Stories series was edited over time to appear more modern and less racistįrom the first book published in 1930 to the last in 2003, many things about Nancy have remained uniform throughout her run as a teen girl inspiration: Nancy is white, born to her affluent father, Carson, a former district attorney, and her mother, who tragically died when Nancy was a child. ![]()
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