Forensic Corner: N is for Nancy Drew and nine lives
By Katherine Hobbs
 When I was growing up I knew Nancy Drew was a fictional character — but it came as a shock to me as an adult to discover the author Carolyn Keene was too. Well, kind of...
Using the pen name Carolyn Keene, Mildred Wirt Benson wrote 23 of the 30 original Nancy Drew mysteries. She was paid $125—$250 per book and never collected royalties. That amount of money was equivalent to about three months pay as a journalist at the time.
She was bound by an agreement with the publisher not to reveal her identity as the series author, but it became known in 1980 when she testified in a court case involving Nancy Drew's publisher.
When asked in an interview in 1999 how she felt about being Carolyn Keene, she said, "I didn't analyze it. It was just a job to do. Some things I liked and some things I did not like. It was a day's work. I did it just like I did my newspaper work. I wrote from early morning to late night for a good many years. One year I wrote 13 full-length books and held down a job besides. That takes a good deal of work."
Dozens of ghost writers followed Benson, and the Nancy Drew series is still in print. The franchise has sold over 200 million books in 17 languages.
When the first books came out in 1930, forensics were not what they are today, and girls were certainly not what they are today.
The character of Nancy Drew was originally conceived by Edward Stratemeyer. Although he felt a woman's place was in the home, he wanted to capitalize on the success of The Hardy Boys series with girl readers, by creating a series with a strong female heroine. It was Mildred Benson who made her into a feisty, stylishly dressed, golden-haired rich girl who tooled around in her own roadster and solved crimes.
The always-perfect teen detective wore cardigan sweater sets, white gloves and heels while climbing through attics and haunted mansions in search of clues. She always had a flashlight and a magnifying glass in her pocket.
With the help of her River Heights pals, tomboy George and pretty, plump Bess, she caught jewel thieves, kidnappers and other criminals. Nancy's father, handsome attorney Carson Drew, praised everything she did. Luckily Nancy had nine lives and she got out of every scrape.
But she did have to contend with some different issues in the 30's. In the old version of Lilac Inn, Nancy is gagged with a handkerchief and she nearly chokes on it. Hankies were almost twice as large then as they are today (and who even uses them anymore?) so it would be easy to suffocate on one.
In the original books the character of Nancy Drew was spunky. She could even be found talking back to the cops. Benson described her as follows "... She was an individual, from start to finish. She was a person who believed in her own freedom." But the books were revised beginning in 1959 at the insistence of the publishers. They wanted the books to be more modern and to eliminate racist stereo-types. In the original version of The Hidden Window Mystery, Nancy visits friends in the south whose African American servant, "lovable old Beulah, serves squabs, sweet potatoes, corn pudding, piping hot biscuits, and strawberry shortcake."
The mistress of the house waits till Beulah has left the room and then says to Nancy, "I try to make things easier for Beulah but she insists on cooking and serving everything the old-fashioned way. I must confess, though, that I love it." In the revised version, Beulah becomes Anna, a "plump, smiling housekeeper" whose race is not made explicit.
Some critics feel we've been left with a blander, more politically correct Nancy Drew. About the revised versions written by Harriet Stratemeyer Adams, Mildred Benson said, "She made her into a traditional sort of a heroine. More of a house type. And in her day, that is what I had specifically gotten away from."
|
