Why am I blogging about Nancy Drew? I am beginning a new series set in the late 1920s and into the thirties. Like most girls, and certainly almost all women mystery writers, I started my career by reading the Nancy Drew mysteries. Nancy, and her friends George and Bess, are so much a part of the culture, I, at least, can’t imagine the world without them. I thought I should reread a few.
What I didn’t know was that the first Nancy Drew was published in 1929, only nine years after women won the right to vote. The Secret of Shadow Ranch was published in 1931.
There are few descriptions of clothing or anything else that might be too era specific so the books can stretch across decades without sounding dated. And Nancy is brave, smart and independent, a new role model for girls who wanted something else besides the domestic sphere. Later revisions have, of course, adapted some of her traits and history.
Her spunky personality is usually ascribed to Mildred Wirt who wrote many of the early mysteries.
These books are targeted to girls 3rd to 6th grade. I read them mostly in the fourth and fifth grades and had a number of favorites. (I am now rereading The Sign of the Twisted Candles which I loved.)
To an adult, the mysteries are lightweight, the writing pedestrian at best, but I can see the appeal to a girl. The mysteries have some danger, but Nancy always escapes it. I loved stories with secret rooms and here we are. Plus, Nancy does everything well, money is never a problem, and no one tells her what to do. Not even her father, Carson.
I imagine the young women in my new series will know of Nancy Drew even if they have not read her books.
