Thursday, May 13, 2010

Mystery . . .

Nancy Drew, of course. Who doesn't remember (well, you would if you'd been a girl, anyway) Nancy with her titian hair and her friends, boyish George and plump Bess. And her roadster. Didn't you want to hop in and zoom (perhaps not zoom) off? Carson Drew was her father, and Hannah Gruen the housekeeper. Yes, Nancy had lost her mother at 3 or at 10, depending on which book you read.

Carolyn Keene, the author, was apparently many people, but Nancy herself was the original creation of a book packager named Edward Stratemeyer, who also created the Hardy Boys.

There is quite a bit under this Wiki link . . .

11 comments:

Betty Carlson said...

Oh I read tons of those! And here I was just going to write in my "mystery" post that I didn't really like reading mysteries...but I did back then!

moondustwriter said...

I read them and read them again with my daughters. Love Nancy Drew now and then...

mine is somewhere at moondustwriter.com where is a mystery

Ronda Laveen said...

Wow! I didn't know that Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys were connected. But it makes sense because after I read all the Nancy tales, I devoured the Hardy Boys because the were so similar. Now I know why!

Mystery solved.

Brian Miller said...

i read quite a few hardy boys in my day...esp for book reports. intersting tidbits...happy tt!

Betty said...

Really interesting link. I didn't know there was more than one writer (tho' I suppose looking at the dates of the books would have given me a clue!)

Kurt said...

I had the hots for Pamela Sue Martin, star of The Nancy Drew Mysteries when I was coming up.

Gladys said...

I loved Nancy Drew. I always thought I could have been her or she me.

padraig said...

Don't forget Tom Swift and The Bobbsey Twins.

Unknown said...

Ah fond memories. And being an 80s music fan the "boyish George" description made me grin.

Shammickite said...

Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys were not in my reading repertoire as a child because I grew up in the UK and I read books about the Famous Five and the Secret Seven and of course all the "Adventure" books..... the Circus of Adventure, the Valley of Adventure, the Mountain of Adventure etc etc, all by Enid Blyton of course.

Megan said...

Oh, Nancy. I have a box full in my closet, waiting to be passed on to my niece when she is old enough.

Except for The Clue in the Crumbling Wall. That's my favorite, and I'm keeping it!

(Serendipity that my brother's post was on the Hardy Boys!)