Nancy, Old and New

Nancy Drew is back:
I was excited to recently acquire a 1941 copy of a Nancy Drew mystery, Mystery at the Moss-Covered Mansion. For some time now (especially after reading Girl Sleuth) I’ve been immensely curious about the differences between the original Nancy Drews and the revised editions done starting in the 1960s. Why were they rewritten? What changed? Which would I like better? So I did some sleuthing of my own by reading the two editions of Moss-Covered Mansion back to back. 

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I read the 1941 original first. I enjoyed it for the most part (its unconscious details of daily life back then, such as how cars and telephones worked, were helpful for my own story!). It involved an isolated mansion in the woods with shady goings-on, a missing heiress, and a hostile troublemaker. It had twists and turns and red herrings, and I was able to guess a couple of the solutions at the same pace as Nancy Drew, which is always fun. Nancy was clever and delightful. But the mystery plot didn’t seem very tight; Ned Nickerson, Nancy’s boyfriend, made a rather pointless, one-time token appearance; George and Bess, her friends, were paper dolls and completely interchangeable; and the sensibilities toward heritages other than white American were definitely pre-Civil Rights.

So I must admit I liked the 1971 revised edition more. The mystery was completely different – it hardly involved any of the same characters, and the only thing the two books really had in common was the mysterious moss-covered mansion inhabited by wild animals, which concealed two totally different things. (It was interesting to note a couple of “nods” to the original in the 1971, such as a fire, an airplane crash landing, and an impersonator.) It wasn’t the mysteries, though, that made up my mind, because both were good; it was more the characters, structure, and writing.

The newer Nancy Drew seemed more modest and approachable somehow – she’s the girl detective I grew up loving. She didn’t leave Bess and George so far in the dust; they really helped her, and each was a more defined character – bold, Judo-flipping George (I love George almost as much as Nancy) and timid, girly Bess. Having interesting sidekicks made Nancy herself more interesting because of their contrasting personalities. Ned Nickerson was a partner who served a definite purpose in solving the mystery. The story was shorter and more streamlined, and all the action seemed more to the point. No ethnicities were demeaned. I’m a lover of detailed, educational settings in novels, and this one was set in a real place – Merritt Island, Florida, which contains the Kennedy Space Center.

So there’s my honest opinion. In conclusion, this Nancy Drew nerd wants to say: The two are very different books and they each have their own charms – they’re time capsules of two different eras, after all! I’m very glad I read both. And I’m just comparing two editions of one mystery – every other pair will have to be considered in its own right. (Whether I’ll be able to do that myself remains to be seen!)

Have you read the two versions of Nancy Drew? Which do you like better?

Book Review: Girl Sleuth

Perhaps you’re thinking what I’m thinking…another book review? Yes, I know, but it isn’t my fault the books I’ve been reading lately have been so fascinating they’re worthy of a blog post! (Or maybe it is my fault for picking such intriguing books…)

Anyway, I’ve just finished a book about Nancy Drew, the heroine of my favorite childhood series. And my, did it reinvigorate my interest in her! It made me nostalgic for what I loved to read in my pre-teen/early teen days…fast-paced, plot-based mysteries and adventures. In fact, I got this writerly thought in my head: Maybe I should reread a bunch of my Nancy Drew’s to give me an infusion of plot ideas…I feel weak on that in my own writing!

Goodreads

Girl Sleuth: Nancy Drew and the Women Who Created Her by Melanie Rehak is a must-read for anyone who is or has been an ardent fan of Nancy Drew, original or revised. It clears up the mystery of her authorship, the identity of pseudonym Carolyn Keene, the wide appeal of Nancy, and the differences between her old and new versions and when exactly she changed. It goes into all things Nancy Drew in pop culture. Beyond that, it gives a fascinating peek into the history of children’s book publishing in America and into the lives of the people responsible for Nancy's creation: Edward Stratemeyer, Harriet Stratemeyer Adams, and Mildred Wirt Benson.

The Stratemeyer Syndicate is the principal “character” of this book. Its inner workings were quite intriguing. It turns out Edward Stratemeyer was the hero behind many of the classic dime-novel characters—Nancy Drew, the Hardy Boys, the Bobbsey Twins, Tom Swift, the Rover boys, and so on—and all these series were written under pseudonyms. Some reading this probably already knew that, but I wasn’t aware of these books’ origins.

The only thing I, personally, did not like about Girl Sleuth was the author’s feminist bias. Nancy Drew became an icon during the women’s lib movement of the 1960s and ’70s, even though the women who created her were conservative on that front (they were of the previous generation, after all). The author used Nancy Drew as a measuring rod and a jumping-off point to go into the history of feminism, though the character herself was never intended as such a symbol. But, the cultural tie-ins were interesting, because American women did live through these attitudes and events. I found myself agreeing with Harriet S. Adams, one of Nancy’s creators, who though not a women’s libber believed that women have brains, rather than the author, who counted stay-at-home motherhood as an unfortunate setback to women’s advancement.

So, it will make you think about the issue of feminism, but at the same time, I think you’ll be pleased with how Nancy is presented. (One warning: Toward the end, there are a couple of obscenities, because they are part of quotations.) (Disclaimer: I think most of my readers view feminism as I do, but if you do not, it is not my intention to open up a discussion about it. Thanks!)

goodreads

Girl Sleuth makes me so glad I still have all my 56 revised Nancy Drew’s because I plan to reread them after this. I also have a facsimile edition of the very first, The Secret of the Old Clock, as it was in 1930, that I plan to reread first. I’m also reminded that I need to insert a reference to Nancy Drew somewhere in my 1930s novel…she was all the rage then, so why not capitalize on the opportunity to give a nod to one of my most beloved fictional heroines?

Have you read and liked the Nancy Drew mystery stories? I think part of their appeal is how many generations loved them. My mom never read them; surprisingly, as a child she did not like to read (boy, has that changed!). But I need to ask my grandmother, who grew up during the twenties and thirties, if she read any!