List of Nancy Drew books The character of Nancy Drew - ghostwritten and credited to the pseudonymous Carolyn Keene - has appeared in a number of series over the years. 620 Nancy Drew books have been published as of August 2025 over thirteen series, as follows. The Nancy Drew series has been popular for many years.
Mildred Wirt Benson, aka Carolyn Keene, was the original author. Complete order of Nancy Drew books in Publication Order and Chronological Order. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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.
Here is the complete list of Nancy Drew books in order written by several authors published collectively under the pseudonym Carolyn Keene.