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scarlettletters's review against another edition
3.0
So, I think by now it's pretty well-known that the Nancy Drew books were ghostwritten. Rehak here tells the story of the two main ghostwriters as well as giving some information about the man who conceived of Nancy Drew and his vast Syndicate, which also published the Hardy Boys books, among numerous other series. She later goes on to discuss Nancy's legacy, and how she influenced several generations of young readers. It's a pretty interesting read, if you're interested in Nancy Drew or just publishing in general. There is also some info about early 20th century culture, to give the flavor of the environs into which Nancy was born.
aimeedarsreads's review against another edition
4.0
Although I read some Nancy Drew books as a child, I wasn’t an avid fan. One of my friends, though, had more than a full shelf of Nancy Drew mysteries, and I remember how satisfying it was to see those yellow spines orderly arrayed. But I never returned to Nancy Drew; I admit, I thought of her as a little square, and when I picked up Girl Sleuth, I expected a straightforward account of the ghostwriters behind the Carolyn Keene persona. I was very wrong!
I had no idea how the idea behind Nancy Drew was conceived or executed or how much drama there was behind the scenes, nor was I old enough to register the controversy over who “really” wrote the Nancy Drew books when Mildred Benson, the first ghostwriter, testified in a trial in 1980. Until then, Harriet Stratemeyer Adams who took over her father’s company, the Stratemeyer Syndicate in 1930 and wrote many of the later Nancy Drew books, was thought to have been Carolyn Keene.
But these two women weren’t the only to have written Nancy Drew mysteries. What’s more, the manuscripts were based on detailed outlines provided by the Syndiated, and then the manuscripts were heavily edited. In this case, what authorship means becomes a difficult question, and the truth likely is that no single person was Carolyn Keene; she was an amalgam of identities.
Additionally, how Henry Stratemeyer operated the Syndicate and Harriet continued it--as a woman during a time when women didn’t lead companies, starting during the Depression no less made for fascinating reading. Harriet and her sister Edna at first worked together, but conflict divided them until Edna moved to Florida and they were barely talking.
Melanie Rehak’s comprehensive research, though, doesn’t just tell the story of the family, the company, and the Nancy Drew series. It offers a historical context to situate the behavior and decisions of the principle actors. I didn’t know, for example, that the first editions of the Nancy Drew mysteries had a spunky, defiant Nancy, but one who was casually racist. When Grosset & Dunlap, the publisher, insisted on revising the books to remove the racial prejudice, some of Nancy’s spark that made her resonant with feminists in the 1960s and 70s was also edited away.
Although the Nancy Drew books are still published today--and publishers still attempt to create new and trendy tie-ins, Nancy Drew hasn’t ever duplicated the popularity she experienced in her heyday. The most recent entry is a forthcoming movie, Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase (2019).
Since I wasn’t a huge fan of Nancy Drew but only picked up Girl Sleuth out of a passing curiosity, I was surprised how much I enjoyed it and how much I learned, and I think that it would also appeal to so many other readers: fans of Nancy Drew, those interested in publishing, feminism, or women’s history, or people who like reading fascinating sagas.
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cate_with_a_c's review against another edition
3.0
It was fine, but I ended up listening to a podcast episode about the book and that was more enjoyable.
lanikei's review against another edition
3.0
Never read Nancy Drew, but read some of the other older series created by the Syndicate. Loved the Happy Hollisters and the Bobbsey Twins as a kid, all books inherited by my parents.
Enjoyable book, and interesting to hear about ghost-writing and the editing that took place over the years. Made me think more about the series books of MY childhood and wonder about them.
Enjoyable book, and interesting to hear about ghost-writing and the editing that took place over the years. Made me think more about the series books of MY childhood and wonder about them.
lbmaddux's review against another edition
4.0
The book itself was an interesting read, although it was hard at times for me to stay focused during all the history of which “ghost” was writing which series. The most interesting parts for me was when the reasoning behind different updates were discussed (such as allegations of racism in the books). Also, the fact that Harriet took all the credit she could get and would only publicly admit to Mildred’s role during a lawsuit. Both women took credit for creating Nancy, when, in my view, Edward was the real creator. (Of course, by then he was dead. What did he care.) There is also a short look at Nancy Drew as an America feminist.
bibliowrecka's review against another edition
4.0
I was never as obsessed with Nancy Drew as some girls were, especially I think because I was growing up in the 80s and 90s when her popularity was starting to wane a little. I remember browsing the long row of yellow spines in the children's section at the library, though, and discovering the more "grown-up" Nancy Drew Case Files series a few years later on my junior high library's shelves. Whether or not you have fond memories of reading Nancy Drew yourself, there's no doubt that just about every American girl (and a lot of boys) from several generations knows OF her at the very least.
I remember the slight feeling of disillusionment I felt when I learned that Carolyn Keane was a pseudonym under which several people wrote. (I felt almost as betrayed as when I discovered that Ann M. Martin didn't write all the Babysitters Club books herself!) In Girl Sleuth, Melanie Rehak traces the lives of the two women who had the most influence on who Nancy came to be. Harriet Stratemeyer Adams was the daughter of the Stratemeyer Syndicate's founder. The Stratemeyer Syndicate was one of the country's first book packagers (think Alloy Entertainment and its many book and TV series), creating well-known series and characters like the Bobbsey Twins, the Hardy Boys, and Nancy Drew, then passing off the writing of the books themselves to ghostwriters, who worked according to detailed plot outlines. Harriet and her sister Edna took over the Syndicate after their father died in 1930 and shepherded Nancy's early years while another writer, Mildred Wirt Benson, wrote most of the first 30 books in the series.
I came away from this book with admiration for Harriet and absolute awe for Mildred. They both worked hard to carve a place for themselves in a literary world still heavily dominated by men and men's taste, while still being very much women of their time. I got the feeling that Rehak liked Mildred a lot more than Harriet, and frankly, I did too. Harriet comes off as strong-willed, determined, intelligent, and successful, but also very much as a slightly vainglorious daughter of the upper class who fell prey to many of the prejudices common to that class and era. She went to one of the Seven Sisters colleges in a time when most women didn't even think of higher education, worked in the women's suffrage movement, took over her father's company and built it into a juggernaut that ran successfully for over 50 years, and fought hard to maintain the rights to a character she felt belonged to her alone. But she also wanted to use the Nancy Drew stories to push a very upper-class set of values, and failed to understand the seriousness of the racist and sometimes sexist content that led to a major overhaul of most of the early books in the series in the 1950s (the yellow spine hardcovers that most girls remember reading are these revised versions).
Mildred just seems like a badass. She was an accomplished swimmer and diver and excelled in college athletics, became one of the first women to graduate from the University of Iowa's graduate school of journalism, insisted on working after her marriage when middle-class women were expected to quit immediately, took flying lessons in her 50s, traveled the globe visiting archaeological digs well into her seventies, and was still writing a newspaper column up until her death at 97. Like I said, a badass. She sometimes found it hard to keep quiet about her role as "Carolyn Keane", especially in later years when it felt to her like Harriet was trying to claim all the credit. I imagine Mildred as being an incredibly forceful personality that you admired and respected even while she sometimes drove you crazy.
To wrap things up, I found Rehak's account of Nancy Drew's creators and their lives and times fascinating and hard to put down. I only have a few quibbles. I would have liked to see more attention paid to the books themselves, and maybe more from the point of view of girls who grew up with Nancy. I know the book is meant to be a biography focused on the two women, but if you didn't know about Nancy Drew you'd probably wonder why in the world such a big fuss was being taken over the authors of a children's mystery series. In later chapters she does go a bit more into the cultural impact the books had, but I would have liked more for the earlier stories, as well. I think maybe what I'm really wanting is a critical review of the Nancy Drew books, so maybe I'm looking in the wrong place for this and shouldn't fault Rehak. One other issue for me: the end notes are not very clearly labeled and organized, which sometimes makes it hard to track down her sources. Otherwise, I found this to be a fun read, worthwhile to anyone who's loved Nancy or is interested in the history of books for children.
I remember the slight feeling of disillusionment I felt when I learned that Carolyn Keane was a pseudonym under which several people wrote. (I felt almost as betrayed as when I discovered that Ann M. Martin didn't write all the Babysitters Club books herself!) In Girl Sleuth, Melanie Rehak traces the lives of the two women who had the most influence on who Nancy came to be. Harriet Stratemeyer Adams was the daughter of the Stratemeyer Syndicate's founder. The Stratemeyer Syndicate was one of the country's first book packagers (think Alloy Entertainment and its many book and TV series), creating well-known series and characters like the Bobbsey Twins, the Hardy Boys, and Nancy Drew, then passing off the writing of the books themselves to ghostwriters, who worked according to detailed plot outlines. Harriet and her sister Edna took over the Syndicate after their father died in 1930 and shepherded Nancy's early years while another writer, Mildred Wirt Benson, wrote most of the first 30 books in the series.
I came away from this book with admiration for Harriet and absolute awe for Mildred. They both worked hard to carve a place for themselves in a literary world still heavily dominated by men and men's taste, while still being very much women of their time. I got the feeling that Rehak liked Mildred a lot more than Harriet, and frankly, I did too. Harriet comes off as strong-willed, determined, intelligent, and successful, but also very much as a slightly vainglorious daughter of the upper class who fell prey to many of the prejudices common to that class and era. She went to one of the Seven Sisters colleges in a time when most women didn't even think of higher education, worked in the women's suffrage movement, took over her father's company and built it into a juggernaut that ran successfully for over 50 years, and fought hard to maintain the rights to a character she felt belonged to her alone. But she also wanted to use the Nancy Drew stories to push a very upper-class set of values, and failed to understand the seriousness of the racist and sometimes sexist content that led to a major overhaul of most of the early books in the series in the 1950s (the yellow spine hardcovers that most girls remember reading are these revised versions).
Mildred just seems like a badass. She was an accomplished swimmer and diver and excelled in college athletics, became one of the first women to graduate from the University of Iowa's graduate school of journalism, insisted on working after her marriage when middle-class women were expected to quit immediately, took flying lessons in her 50s, traveled the globe visiting archaeological digs well into her seventies, and was still writing a newspaper column up until her death at 97. Like I said, a badass. She sometimes found it hard to keep quiet about her role as "Carolyn Keane", especially in later years when it felt to her like Harriet was trying to claim all the credit. I imagine Mildred as being an incredibly forceful personality that you admired and respected even while she sometimes drove you crazy.
To wrap things up, I found Rehak's account of Nancy Drew's creators and their lives and times fascinating and hard to put down. I only have a few quibbles. I would have liked to see more attention paid to the books themselves, and maybe more from the point of view of girls who grew up with Nancy. I know the book is meant to be a biography focused on the two women, but if you didn't know about Nancy Drew you'd probably wonder why in the world such a big fuss was being taken over the authors of a children's mystery series. In later chapters she does go a bit more into the cultural impact the books had, but I would have liked more for the earlier stories, as well. I think maybe what I'm really wanting is a critical review of the Nancy Drew books, so maybe I'm looking in the wrong place for this and shouldn't fault Rehak. One other issue for me: the end notes are not very clearly labeled and organized, which sometimes makes it hard to track down her sources. Otherwise, I found this to be a fun read, worthwhile to anyone who's loved Nancy or is interested in the history of books for children.
sarahjolyons6's review against another edition
3.0
I loved Nancy Drew when I was growing up. I am sure it shaped my tastes and this is why mysteries are my favorite genre and also why I enjoy a good series where you get to follow the same characters over time. This book was interesting and nostalgic but also a little dry. This is very much for super fans.
chloemakesbooks's review against another edition
2.0
This book was tedious at times, and a little scattered in its focus, but the subject was interesting and chronicled the lives of two remarkable women for their era. I think the book did a good job of addressing the mystery of Nancy Drew, her novelty and her importance in juvenile fiction- but the book was a struggle to finish because of its repetitive and overly straightforward nature.
llynn66's review against another edition
3.0
I enjoyed this book about the real life creators of Nancy Drew. However, it was vague on one little detail that became extremely important to me as I read it. I ended up doing a bit of sleuthing, myself, and I am extremely amped by what I discovered.
Before getting into that, I will quickly summarize by saying that this is a book for Nancy Drew fans or, perhaps, for children's librarians or others who might be interested in the history of juvenile publishing. I found the book quite interesting, as I am a former YA librarian and also once was a little girl who read her way through every Nancy Drew book that could be found in the small town libraries that dotten the still rural county where I spent the majority of my childhood. "Nancy" is probably the character that hooked me into a lifetime of mystery reading (and viewing!) She also tapped into my obsession with the past -- especially the parts of the mid-twentieth century that I missed (to wit: the Twenties through the mid-1960s when I was, quite anxiously, I am told...born.)
I fantasized, as many young girls did, about being wealthy...driving something called a 'roadster' (later a convertible) and having parents who let me do anything I wanted. Nancy was never arsed to go to work or to school. She was in that Sweet Spot -- apparently freshly graduated from high school -- with no pressure to move on to either higher education (that was a goal reserved for her long suffering boyfriend, Ned Nickerson, and his preppie chums at Emerson College) -- or to gainful employment. Carson Drew had deep enough pockets to indulge Nancy's yen for a mystery seemingly forever -- or until a suitable marriage might take place.
Nancy, therefore, had endless time to perfect her zillions of talents, to travel to amazing locales, and to solve mysteries without ever getting herself or her friends killed. -- My own daughter is going through a Nancy Drew phase at the moment. We were having some reading time recently and she started to laugh. When I asked her what was funny she replied: "Nancy sure has a lot of hobbies. In the last book she was playing golf. Now she is arranging flowers." -- We talked for awhile about how upper middle class girls of that era spent most of their time learning how to be executive's wives. So pastimes like golf, decorative arts, tennis, and other 'country club' pursuits took the place of college.
Throwback and potential Stepford Wife that she may be, I do love me some Nancy. Thus it was fun for me to learn more about her original creator and the women who ghost wrote her stories under the storied nom de plume, "Carolyn Keene". -- I was aware, though my background in librarianship, that Nancy Drew (and also the Hardy Boys) were part of the Stratemeyer Syndicate publishing line for juveniles. Edward Stratemeyer was a prolific producer of series for kids, dating back into the late 1800s with lines that are still known today: Horatio Alger, the Oliver Optic books, the Boxcar Children, the Dana Girls, etc.
Nancy Drew was Edward Stratemyer's last brain child. Shortly after he conceived the series and employed a free lance writer from Cleveland to write the first titles, Stratemyer suddenly dropped dead. His two daughters, Edna and Harriet, were left to pick up the pieces, care for their invalid mother, and figure out what to do with Edward's publishing empire. Stratemeyer had exercised rigid control over his ghost writers and his titles. He had produced the germ for every book written in every series...and supplied his writers with the outline for the story he wanted in each case.
Harriet, his eldest Wellesley educated daughter, was intimidated by the thought of picking up the pieces and keeping the business in operation. However, the blue stocking in her was also thrilled at the opportunity to do something with her education. (Like Nancy, Harriet lived the upper middle class life, up to this point - - jobless, and primarily occupied with the running of her household and seemly ladies-who-lunch style volunteer work.)
Harriet took to the business and became more and more interested in/obsessed with the Nancy Drew line. Her relationship with the ghost writer, Mildred Augustine Wirt, was complex. She seemingly admired Augustine's ability to crank out the titles. However she became more and more invested in the content as time went by and often came to loggerheads with Wirt. Both women had definite ideas about the character and, at times, these visions clashed. Harriet was the proper patrician who was mainly concerned with Nancy's 'character' (proper behavior, nobless oblige, etc) Mildred, a former college athlete and more 'rough and tumble' newspaper person, was more invested in Nancy the athletic and bold adventurer.
I could go into much more detail about the relationship between these two women, the various power struggles over Nancy, and also the frosty relationship between the two Stratemeyer sisters...but that is what the book is for. If you enjoyed Nancy Drew as a kid and want to know all about her, then I encourage you to get the book.
My main coup, upon completion of this book, is the exciting knowledge that Nancy Drew was 'born' in my neighborhood!! Yes, although this book rather vaguely informs us that Mildred Wirt (although originally from Iowa) was living in Cleveland in the early 1930s when she began writing Nancy Drew -- I dug in a bit deeper with some research into 1930 census records and learned that Mildred and her husband were actually living right down the street from me in Lakewood! The apartment where she lived when she wrote the very first installment still stands, as do the two homes where she resided before her husband was transferred to Toledo for work.
If I had known, as a hardcore Nancy fan, when I was my daughters age, that Nancy Drew had Cleveland connections, I would have been very excited. This does not appear to be very common knowledge in my city and I am now getting a bit of a bee in my bonnet about trying to establish an Ohio Historic plaque in the neighborhood to commemorate out connection to one of the most famous children's series ever written.
Thus, as a Lakewoodite and a former Nancy Groupie, I am delighted that I had an opportunity to read this title and jump start a new local history research project.
Before getting into that, I will quickly summarize by saying that this is a book for Nancy Drew fans or, perhaps, for children's librarians or others who might be interested in the history of juvenile publishing. I found the book quite interesting, as I am a former YA librarian and also once was a little girl who read her way through every Nancy Drew book that could be found in the small town libraries that dotten the still rural county where I spent the majority of my childhood. "Nancy" is probably the character that hooked me into a lifetime of mystery reading (and viewing!) She also tapped into my obsession with the past -- especially the parts of the mid-twentieth century that I missed (to wit: the Twenties through the mid-1960s when I was, quite anxiously, I am told...born.)
I fantasized, as many young girls did, about being wealthy...driving something called a 'roadster' (later a convertible) and having parents who let me do anything I wanted. Nancy was never arsed to go to work or to school. She was in that Sweet Spot -- apparently freshly graduated from high school -- with no pressure to move on to either higher education (that was a goal reserved for her long suffering boyfriend, Ned Nickerson, and his preppie chums at Emerson College) -- or to gainful employment. Carson Drew had deep enough pockets to indulge Nancy's yen for a mystery seemingly forever -- or until a suitable marriage might take place.
Nancy, therefore, had endless time to perfect her zillions of talents, to travel to amazing locales, and to solve mysteries without ever getting herself or her friends killed. -- My own daughter is going through a Nancy Drew phase at the moment. We were having some reading time recently and she started to laugh. When I asked her what was funny she replied: "Nancy sure has a lot of hobbies. In the last book she was playing golf. Now she is arranging flowers." -- We talked for awhile about how upper middle class girls of that era spent most of their time learning how to be executive's wives. So pastimes like golf, decorative arts, tennis, and other 'country club' pursuits took the place of college.
Throwback and potential Stepford Wife that she may be, I do love me some Nancy. Thus it was fun for me to learn more about her original creator and the women who ghost wrote her stories under the storied nom de plume, "Carolyn Keene". -- I was aware, though my background in librarianship, that Nancy Drew (and also the Hardy Boys) were part of the Stratemeyer Syndicate publishing line for juveniles. Edward Stratemeyer was a prolific producer of series for kids, dating back into the late 1800s with lines that are still known today: Horatio Alger, the Oliver Optic books, the Boxcar Children, the Dana Girls, etc.
Nancy Drew was Edward Stratemyer's last brain child. Shortly after he conceived the series and employed a free lance writer from Cleveland to write the first titles, Stratemyer suddenly dropped dead. His two daughters, Edna and Harriet, were left to pick up the pieces, care for their invalid mother, and figure out what to do with Edward's publishing empire. Stratemeyer had exercised rigid control over his ghost writers and his titles. He had produced the germ for every book written in every series...and supplied his writers with the outline for the story he wanted in each case.
Harriet, his eldest Wellesley educated daughter, was intimidated by the thought of picking up the pieces and keeping the business in operation. However, the blue stocking in her was also thrilled at the opportunity to do something with her education. (Like Nancy, Harriet lived the upper middle class life, up to this point - - jobless, and primarily occupied with the running of her household and seemly ladies-who-lunch style volunteer work.)
Harriet took to the business and became more and more interested in/obsessed with the Nancy Drew line. Her relationship with the ghost writer, Mildred Augustine Wirt, was complex. She seemingly admired Augustine's ability to crank out the titles. However she became more and more invested in the content as time went by and often came to loggerheads with Wirt. Both women had definite ideas about the character and, at times, these visions clashed. Harriet was the proper patrician who was mainly concerned with Nancy's 'character' (proper behavior, nobless oblige, etc) Mildred, a former college athlete and more 'rough and tumble' newspaper person, was more invested in Nancy the athletic and bold adventurer.
I could go into much more detail about the relationship between these two women, the various power struggles over Nancy, and also the frosty relationship between the two Stratemeyer sisters...but that is what the book is for. If you enjoyed Nancy Drew as a kid and want to know all about her, then I encourage you to get the book.
My main coup, upon completion of this book, is the exciting knowledge that Nancy Drew was 'born' in my neighborhood!! Yes, although this book rather vaguely informs us that Mildred Wirt (although originally from Iowa) was living in Cleveland in the early 1930s when she began writing Nancy Drew -- I dug in a bit deeper with some research into 1930 census records and learned that Mildred and her husband were actually living right down the street from me in Lakewood! The apartment where she lived when she wrote the very first installment still stands, as do the two homes where she resided before her husband was transferred to Toledo for work.
If I had known, as a hardcore Nancy fan, when I was my daughters age, that Nancy Drew had Cleveland connections, I would have been very excited. This does not appear to be very common knowledge in my city and I am now getting a bit of a bee in my bonnet about trying to establish an Ohio Historic plaque in the neighborhood to commemorate out connection to one of the most famous children's series ever written.
Thus, as a Lakewoodite and a former Nancy Groupie, I am delighted that I had an opportunity to read this title and jump start a new local history research project.