Cluing in to Nancy Drew
By Casey Gillis on Jun. 21, 2007
Jennifer Fisher doesn’t remember the first “Nancy Drew” book she ever read, but she can name off a few favorites: “The Hidden Staircase,” “The Secret in the Old Attic” and “The Witch Tree Symbol.”
To a civilian, those names just sound like cleverly crafted mystery titles.
But to a true blue Nancy Drew fan, they’re three entries in a beloved series that’s lasted, in one form or another, for more than 70 years.
“(Nancy) was a really plucky character,” says Fisher, president of Nancy Drew Sleuths, a nonprofit organization for fans of the character. “She’s very adventurous and independent and fun, and she can do things that most 18-year-olds couldn’t do.”
Since the first “Nancy Drew” book was released in 1930, there have been hundreds of novels, several spin-off book series and a couple of TV shows and movies — the most recent of which hit theaters last weekend.
The character even got a shout-out in another popular female detective series, “Veronica Mars,” a few months back in an episode where Veronica and her dad, Keith, go undercover.
“My name is Carson Drew, and this is my assistant, Nancy,” Keith said, tongue planted firmly in cheek.
In short, Nancy and her clever sleuthing have staying power.
“Hollywood does this in movies and television for the exact reason we’re talking about it right now: everybody remembers it,” says Mike Robinson, an associate pop culture professor at Lynchburg College. “It’s part of your childhood. … How many people just look up on their shelves and have a long row of blue and yellow spined (“Hardy Boys” and “Nancy Drew” ) children’s books?”
And besides a few personality and appearance tweaks here and there, Nancy has remained the same go-to gal for mystery solvin’ over the years.
In case you’re unfamiliar with Ms. Drew, here are the facts: She’s an 18-year-old girl — 16 in the early books, but she was eventually aged in revisions — living in the small, sleepy town of River Heights with her single dad, Carson Drew, a famous mystery case attorney.
River Heights may be small, but there’s plenty of crime for Nancy, trusty flashlight in hand, to investigate — everything from robberies to kidnappings to organized crime. She often does this with the help of boyfriend Ned Nickerson and friends Bess and George.
Those are the basics. But as Nancy always learns over the course of her investigations, there’s a lot more to the story.
Countless people have penned “Nancy Drew” tales over the years, which is why her characterization hasn’t always been consistent.
An Iowa woman named Mildred Benson Wirt was the first person to author the novels, under the name Carolyn Keene, for a book publishing company called the Stratemeyer Syndicate.
Edward Stratemeyer owned the syndicate and was well known for hiring ghostwriters to pen novels based on his own outlines.
Wirt wrote the first 23 books in the original series and is largely credited with giving the heroine her spunky attitude.
“For her, Nancy Drew was, despite the fact that she was pretty refined, rough around the edges,” says Carolyn Stewart Dyer, a professor of journalism at the University of Iowa.
(In 1993, Dyer organized a conference honoring Wirt, who was the first woman to earn a master’s in journalism at the university. She took testimonials from that conference, as well as essays from other fans, and compiled them in the 1995 book, “Rediscovering Nancy Drew.” )
Wirt’s Nancy didn’t think twice about breaking the law and had little respect for authority.
The character went through a few changes after Stratemeyer died and his daughter, Harriet Adams, took over the syndicate.
A society woman, Adams had a different vision of the character, and she and Wirt often butted heads over it.
“She thought Nancy was a little bit too flippant and impolite,” Dyer says. “It was kind of a struggle between the two women over how Nancy should be represented.”
Wirt eventually left, and Adams took over writing the novels. She also went back and revised the early “Nancy Drew” books to speed up the pacing, modernize the text and take out any racial or ethnic stereotypes.
After Adams’ death in the early 1980s, it’s anybody’s guess who took over writing the novels, which are now being published by Simon & Schuster.
“In the period from about the ’70s and probably the ’80s and early ’90s, they were written by all different people, and not surprisingly, there were some inconsistencies,” Dyer says.
Those included Nancy’s hair color, the kind of car she drove and even her friends, but despite those changes, she has remained a beloved character among readers.
“The kind of things people say — and kids, too, not just old folks — is that they admire her capabilities,” Dyer says. “… You know, Nancy could solve any problem, and a lot of girls continue to grow up regarded as incompetent and not able to take care of themselves. And Nancy could take care of herself.”
For many young women, the “Nancy Drew” tales were the first chapter books they ever read, and for some, it was like their entrance into adulthood.
“Nancy Drew tends to get passed on from person to person, and it also gets passed on from generation to generation,” Dyer says. “People who have read ‘Nancy Drew’ talk rather fondly about the occasion of when they first read (one of the books).”
The new movie version has a distinctly retro vibe.
Nancy, now 16 and played by Emma Roberts, moves to modern day L.A. with her dad, but still keeps her small-town sensibilities and wardrobe.
Robinson says that from what he’s seen of the trailers, he got the idea that Nancy is being portrayed as old-fashioned, a fish out of water among her more contemporary, stylish classmates.
But he’s confident that, as always, Nancy will come out on top.
In the end, Robinson speculates, “she’ll learn to be a little bit more trendy, and they’ll learn that it’s OK to solve mysteries.”
Nancy Drew on screen
Emma Roberts isn’t the first actress to portray the feisty heroine. Here’s a quick round-up of who’s played Nancy on television and in movies over the years:
Bonita Granville was the first actress to bring Nancy to life in four Warner Brothers films from 1938 to 1939: “Nancy Drew: Detective,” “Nancy Drew: Reporter,” “Nancy Drew: Trouble Shooter” and “Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase.” But Granville’s Nancy wasn’t exactly true to the spirit of the books, as she was portrayed as a more ditzy character who always had to be rescued at the end.
“Nancy was afraid of things, which she would never be in the book,” says Carolyn Stewart Dyer, editor of “Rediscovering Nancy Drew.” “Ned rescued her, which he never would do in the book.”
Pamela Sue Martin played her in “The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries” from 1977 to 1978. The two series were separate at first and alternated hour-long episodes of each every week, occasionally teaming up to solve a mystery. This Nancy was back to the brash, daring character readers were used to.
Tracy Ryan starred in a short-lived half-hour TV series, which had Nancy at college, majoring in journalism. The syndicated series only lasted one season, but was recently released on DVD.
Maggie Lawson starred as the sleuth in a two-hour ABC pilot, which also put the character in college, in 2002. Ratings weren’t great, and it was not picked up for a full season.
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