Nancy Drew is a fictional character appearing in several mystery book series, movies, video games, and TV shows as a teenage amateur sleuth. The books are ghostwritten by a number of authors and published under the collective pseudonym Carolyn Keene. [1] Created by Edward Stratemeyer, the founder of the book-packaging firm Stratemeyer Syndicate, as the female counterpart to his Hardy Boys.
The Nancy Drew series has been popular for many years. Mildred Wirt Benson, aka Carolyn Keene, was the original author. Nancy Drew, fictional teenage amateur detective in an extended series of mystery books written by Carolyn Keene (a collective pseudonym, used by Edward Stratemeyer and, among many others, by his daughter Harriet S.
Adams). Nancy Drew's intelligence, courage, and independence made her a popular role model. Benson eventually did marry, twice, and had a daughter.
But her career always drove her. Between 1926 and 1959, she wrote 135 books, including 23 of the first 30 Nancy Drew books. Who was the real Nancy Drew author? We're taking a look at the publishing backstory of the girl detective, including the Carolyn Keene pen name.
She would go on to write 23 of the first 30 Nancy Drew books (volumes 1-7, 11-25 and 30). Nancy Drew became a hit and by 1934 was outselling boys' series like the Hardy Boys and Tom Swift. IST 605: Nancy Drew Mysteries History of Nancy Drew Edward Stratemeyer created Nancy Drew, the infamous teenage sleuth, as a counterpart to the Hardy Boys series.
The books were ghostwritten under the pseudonym Carolyn Keene, with Mildred Wirt Benson being one of the most notable contributors. The question of who wrote the Nancy Drew books was a mystery for many years. Although Edward Stratemeyer created the characters and synopsis for the first few Nancy Drew books, he did not write them himself, and the actual writers agreed not to reveal their names.
We now know that Mildred A. Wirt was the ghostwriter "Carolyn Keene" for 23 of the first 30 Nancy Drew books. (Mildred was born.
Mildred Benson was the first author to use Carolyn Keene as a pseudonym but didn't come forward to reveal her identity until almost 50 years later from the publication of the first Nancy Drew book. Carolyn Keene is the pseudonym of the authors of the Nancy Drew mystery stories and The Dana Girls mystery stories, both produced by the Stratemeyer Syndicate. In addition, the Keene pen name is credited with the Nancy Drew spin-off, River Heights, and the Nancy Drew Notebooks.