There was a secret place under the basement stairs at my aunt’s house. In this “secret” place were boxes and boxes of books, all sizes and colours.  Huddled under those stairs, I got lost in the adventures of Joe and Frank, Freddy and Flossie, Nan and Bert, Trixie Belden and, my very favourite, Nancy Drew. Nancy was a teenager who had great friends, a fantastic car, unlimited funds and Ned. Each book immersed me in her world of adventure and with Nancy I began my love affair with mystery books. I loved trying to figure out “who done it”.

I wanted to be just like Carolyn Keene when I grew up.  Yes, I thought she was a real person.  You see, when I was young, you couldn’t just Google a name and find out all about them. And there was no reason for me to believe she wasn’t a real person. I was an adult before I found she was just a name for a stable of authors who wrote from a publisher’s outline. I was a bit let down I have to say. It seems it wasn’t an unheard of phenomena either. Franklin W. Dixon (Hardy Boys) and Laura Lee Hope (Bobbsey Twins) where also pseudonyms, crushing my hopes of every meeting them some day. I wonder if there are any more I should know about. Does James Patterson really write a book a month (she said sarcastically)?
I decided to see what else I didn’t know about Nancy (which is quite easy now we have Google) and was interested to learn that she has quite a transformation over the years).  It appears the original 1930’s Nancy was quite a tomboy with a sassy mouth. (I need to see if I can get my hands on some of those originals). The Nancy I knew (1950’s Nancy) was more respectful of male authority and went to church as often as she could.  That was the post-war Pollyanna image of women that the media was using to promote home and family.

 I had all of these 1960’s/60’s Nancy Drews; the real ones with the list of books on the back. Until recently, I didn’t realize that most of them came from that original collection I had discovered under my aunt’s basement stairs. Even more importantly I didn’t realize this treasure
trove under the stairs belonged to my cousin before my aunt found them a new home (with me).  I continued to add to that original collection and each time a new one came out I bought it and read it within a day. My favourite was Phantom of Pine Hill and I’m a little ashamed to say it was because it was the one that featured Nancy’s “romance” with Ned.

I stopped reading Nancy in my teens although do remember trying one or two of the Nancy Drew Files. I don’t remember much about them but I do find it interesting to look at the difference in these covers and those of the original series. On the original books, Nancy was presented with a magnifying glass, or a clue or in some kind of setting. On the new series it was with a boy. I guess the mystery wasn’t enough in the 80’s. There needed to be more romance.

My last post was a result of my brother’s rhapsody about The Great Brain, and dedicated to him. This post is dedicated to my cousin, whose pain at losing her Nancy Drew collection to me was matched only by my own when my mother gave them all to a garage sale. My cousin has always been my kindred spirit, loving books and writing as I do (she also shares my feelings about cooking and cleaning but I digress). I have to wonder how much of an impact Nancy had on her.  After all she did grow up to write her own mysteries!  Head over to Amazon to get her novel A Bother of Bodies.  Murder never was so much fun!

Resources and Links           

http://digital.lib.uiowa.edu/bai/lapin.htm

http://series-books.blogspot.ca/2010/05/nancy-drew-first-pc-that-isnt.html

Kismaric, Carole; Marvin Heiferman (2007). The Mysterious Case of Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys. Fireside. ISBN 1-4165-4945-5. (via Wikipedia)