Ah, libraries. I have always had pleasant associations when it comes to libraries; the books and even the smell bring back enjoyable memories. However, I did not have as much fun in the reference stacks. After all there were no tales of suspense, or stories that kept me on the edge of my seat to be found in reference books. Reference books were there to be used for those dry, boring school papers that everyone is required to write at some point. I would have never dreamed that I could write a paper on Nancy Drew, but today that would be possible.

Today, one of my jobs is in a small community college branch library. The head librarian, who knows my interests, one day pointed out a new reference set called The Greenwood Guide to American Popular Culture. She said in the one volume there was a brief mention of Nancy Drew. It piqued my interest, so in some down time I looked it up. The guide is set up in essay form on various topics that relate to popular culture. In the Historical Outline section of the essay on Young Adult Fiction, I found Nancy Drew. On page 1872, half of the page is taken up with the image of the flashlight cover of The Haunted Bridge. Edward Stratemeyer’s Literary Syndicate is mentioned and the fact that “his greatest successes came with three series – Tom Swift, the Hardy Boys, and Nancy Drew, the latter two likely to go on forever” (Greenwood, V4, p1873).

While discussing adolescent literature in the 1940s, the authors go on to say, “The popularity of series books, save the ubiquitous Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys, declined because of the increasing education and sophistication of adolescents” Greenwood, V4, p1874). I am not sure I agree with that statement, but at least Nancy and the Hardys have made their presence known. A few of the reference works that the authors of the essay used were Stratemeyer Pseudonyms and Series Books: An Annotated Checklist of Stratemeyer and Stratemeyer Literary Syndicate Publications by Deidre Johnson, The Girl Sleuth : A Feminist Guide by Bobbie Ann Mason, and Leslie McFarlane’s Ghost of the Hardy Boys: An Autobiography of Leslie McFarlane.

Now my interest has really been piqued; if Nancy was mentioned in one reference book, surely she would be mentioned in others. I began to investigate. The first book I picked up was The Oxford Companion to Children’s Literature. This volume is organized like a dictionary with names and subjects pertaining to children’s literature in alphabetical order. On page 370 I read:

NANCY DREW: A blonde teenage DETECTIVE in novels by CAROLYN KEENE (USA, published in the 1970s).

As probably all of you are thinking right now: What the...? Nancy only published in the seventies? Where did these authors get their information? Well since the all caps in the definition meant that other entries existed, I continued to follow the trail. On page 288 I found:

KEENE, CAROLYN: author of the NANCY DREW series of mystery novels.

Well it would not be the first time Carolyn Keene was mistaken for a real person, but I am a little surprised that a respected reference work would continue that myth. There was also an entry that named Franklin W. Dixon as the author of the Hardy Boys. Similar to the Nancy Drew entry, the Hardy Boys entry on page 239 read:

HARDY BOYS, The: Frank and Joe Hardy, teenage brothers, heroes of a series of MYSTERY novels by FRANKLIN W. DIXON, published in the USA during the 1970s.

Another remarkable entry was under DETECTIVE STORIES on page 147,

…The first girl sleuth to be featured in magazines in Britain seems to have been Sylvia Silence, who appeared in the Harmsworth Schoolgirls’ Weekly in 1922. The Valerie Drew stories and other magazine were popular during the 1930s, and similar characters continued to be created after the Second World War.

Isn’t it interesting that another girl sleuth with the name of Drew was popular during the 1930s? Further into the DETECTIVE STORIES entry, we find mention of Nancy Drew. “… During the 1960s and 1970s America has produced the LINDA CRAIG, HARDY BOYS, and NANCY DREW series of books; …” The authors must have liked the Linda Craig series as that series is not the typical series that one would think of along with Nancy and the Hardys’. The Linda Craig entry was found on page 312.

LINDA CRAIG: heroine of a series of American MYSTERY novels by Ann Sheldon, beginning with The Palomino Mystery (1962), which takes its title from the heroine’s permanent companion, her palomino horse.

To be continued in the April 2005 issue of The Sleuth...

Works Cited For Part I and II

Concise Dictionary of American Biography, 5th ed., vol. 2, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, p1247.

The Continuum Encyclopedia of Children’s Literature, Cullinan, Bernice E. and Diane G. Person, editors, Continuum International Publishing Group, Ltd., New York, 2001.

Encyclopedia of American Literature, vol. 2, Paddock, Lisa, Facts on File, Inc., New York, 2002, p191.

The Greenwood Guide to American Popular Culture, vol. 4, Inge, M Thomas and Dennis Hall, editors, Greenwood Press, Westport, CT, 2002, p1869-1893.

Merriam-Webster’s Biographical Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, Inc., Springfield, MA, 1995, p990.

The Oxford Companion to American Literature, 6th ed., Hart, James D., Oxford University Press, New York, 1995, p643-644.

The Oxford Companion to Children’s Literature, Carpenter, Humphrey and Mari Prichard, Oxford University Press, New York, 1984.

Webster’s Dictionary of American Authors, Smithmark Publishers, New York, 1995, p360.

World Book Millennium 2000, vol. 18 Sp-Sz, World book, Inc., Chicago, 2000, p920.

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