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This article is about the fictional character . For the film , see Nancy Drew (2007 film) . For the 1977 television series , see The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries .
Nancy Drew is a fictional character in a mystery fiction series created by publisher Edward Stratemeyer . The character first appeared in the year 1930; the books have been ghostwritten by a number of authors and are published under the collective pseudonym Carolyn Keene . [1] Over the decades the character has evolved in response to changes in US culture and tastes. The books were extensively revised and shortened , beginning in 1959, in part to lower printing costs and to eliminate racist stereotypes , [2] with arguable success . [3] [4] Many scholars [ vague ] agree that in the revision process , the heroine 's original character was changed to a less assertive and more feminine character. [5] In the 1980s an older and more professional Nancy emerged in a new series , The Nancy Drew Files , that included romantic plots for the sleuth . [6] In 2004 the original Nancy Drew Mystery Stories series , begun in 1930, was ended and a new series , Girl Detective , was launched , in which the title character drives a hybrid electric vehicle and uses a cell phone . Illustrations of the character have also evolved over time to reflect the Nancy Drew type in contemporary terms. [7] The character has proved continuously popular worldwide : at least 80million copies of the books have been sold, [8] and the books have been translated into over 45 languages . Nancy Drew has featured in five films , two television shows, and a number of popular computer games; she also appears in a variety of merchandise sold over the world.
A cultural icon , Nancy Drew has been cited as a formative influence by a number of women, from Supreme Court Justices Sandra Day O'Connor [9] and Sonia Sotomayor to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton [10] and former First Lady Laura Bush . [11] Feminist literary critics have analyzed the character's enduring appeal , arguing variously that Nancy Drew is a mythic hero , an expression of wish fulfillment, [12] or an embodiment of contradictory ideas about femininity . [13]
Character [ edit ]
Nancy Drew is a fictional amateur sleuth . In the original versions of the series she was a 16-year-old high school graduate , and in later versions was rewritten and aged to be an 18-year-old high school graduate and detective . In the series , she lives in the fictional town of River Heights [14] with her father, attorney Carson Drew , and their housekeeper , Hannah Gruen . [15] As a child she lost her mother (at age 10 in the original versions ; at age 3 in the later versions ); this would reflect in her early independence (running a household since the age of ten with a clear-cut servant, to later, deferring to the servant as a surrogate parent ). As a teenager she spends her time solving mysteries , some of which she stumbles upon and some of which begin as cases of her father's. Nancy is often assisted in solving mysteries by her two closest friends , Bess Marvin (who is delicate and feminine ) and George Fayne (who is a tomboy ), and also occasionally by her boyfriend , Ned Nickerson , who is a college student at Emerson College .
Nancy has often been described as a supergirl : in the words of Bobbie Ann Mason , she is "as immaculate and self-possessed as a Miss America on tour . She is as cool as a Mata Hari and as sweet as Betty Crocker ." [16] Nancy is wealthy, attractive , and amazingly talented:
At sixteen she had studied psychology in school and was familiar with the power of suggestion and association.' Nancy was a fine painter , spoke French , and had frequently run motor boats . She was a skilled driver who at sixteen 'flashed into the garage with a skill born of long practice.' The prodigy was a sure shot, an excellent swimmer , skillful oarsman , expert seamstress , gourmet cook, and a fine bridge player. Nancy brilliantly played tennis and golf , and rode like a cowboy . Nancy danced like Ginger Rogers and could administer first aid like the Mayo brothers . [17]
Nancy never lacks money and in later volumes of the series often travels to far-away locations , such as Nairobi in The Spider Sapphire Mystery (1968), Austria in Captive Witness (1981), Japan in The Runaway Bride (1994), and Costa Rica in Scarlet Macaw Scandal (2004). Nancy is also able to travel freely about the United States , thanks to her car , which in most books is a blue convertible . [18] Despite the trouble and presumed expense to which she goes to solve mysteries , Nancy never accepts monetary compensation ; however, by implication , her expenses are often being paid by a client of her father's, as part of the costs of solving one of his cases . [19]
Creation of character[ edit ]
Edward Stratemeyer conceived the character and wrote plot outlines but hired Mildred Wirt Benson to ghostwrite the first volumes in the series under the pseudonym Carolyn Keene .
The character was conceived by Edward Stratemeyer , founder of the Stratemeyer Syndicate . Stratemeyer had created the Hardy Boys series in 1926 (although the first volumes were not published until 1927), which had been such a success that he decided on a similar series for girls , featuring an amateur girl detective as the heroine . While Stratemeyer believed that a woman 's place was in the home, [20] he was aware that the Hardy Boys books were popular with girl readers and wished to capitalize on girls ' interest in mysteries by offering a strong female heroine . [21]
Stratemeyer initially pitched the new series to Hardy Boys publishers Grosset & Dunlap as the "Stella Strong Stories ", adding that "they might also be called 'Diana Drew Stories ', 'Diana Dare Stories ', 'Nan Nelson Stories ', 'Nan Drew Stories ', or 'Helen Hale Stories '." [22] Editors at Grosset & Dunlap preferred "Nan Drew " of these options , but decided to lengthen "Nan " to "Nancy ". [23] Stratemeyer accordingly began writing plot outlines and hired Mildred Wirt , later Mildred Wirt Benson , to ghostwrite the first volumes in the series under the pseudonym Carolyn Keene . [24] Subsequent titles have been written by a number of different ghostwriters , all under the pseudonym Carolyn Keene .
The first four titles were published in 1930 and were an immediate success . Exact sales figures are not available for the years prior to 1979, but an indication of the books' popularity can be seen in a letter that Laura Harris , a Grosset and Dunlap editor, wrote to the Syndicate in 1931: "can you let us have the manuscript as soon as possible, and no later than July 10? There will only be three or four titles brought out then and the Nancy Drew is one of the most important." [25] The 6,000 copies that Macy 's ordered for the 1933 Christmas season sold out within days . [26] In 1934 Fortune magazine featured the Syndicate in a cover story and singled Nancy Drew out for particular attention : "Nancy is the greatest phenomenon among all the fifty-cen