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More than 300 titles are on display at a new exhibit, “Nancy Drew and Friends: Girls' Series Books Rediscovered," which is running through Dec. 24 in the Hornbake Library at the University of Maryland. (Newsline photo by April Chan)

By April Chan
Maryland Newsline
Wednesday, Sept. 7, 2005

COLLEGE PARK, Md. - Unlike Harry Potter, Nancy Drew never grows up.

Since she first appeared in the literary world in “The Secret of the Old Clock” in 1930, she has forever remained 18. Sort of.

“In the very beginning (the introductory book), she was actually 16,” said Ann Hudak, assistant curator in the Marylandia and Rare Books Department for the University of Maryland Libraries.

But because her beloved blue roadster featured prominently in her adventures, she became 18 in subsequent books so she would be of legal driving age. “She’s been 18 for 75 years,” Hudak said.

This and numerous little-known tidbits about the Nancy Drew series, celebrating 75 years in print, are featured in a new exhibit in the Hornbake Library at the University of Maryland in College Park.  Entitled “Nancy Drew and Friends: Girls' Series Books Rediscovered,” the exhibit looks not only at the Nancy Drew series but at many “girls' series” books that came before and after.

“We trace the history of these girls' series books that came out of dime novels from between the 1920s to the 1960s,” Hudak said.

Library technician Dun-Yee Wong said series books were initially scorned; many considered them less than good literature and therefore unsuitable for children. “It's interesting how that attitude has changed,” she said.

The exhibit features other sleuths such as Judy Bolton and the Dana Girls, as well as career girls like nurse Sue Barton, stewardess Vickie Barr and reporter Beverly Gray.

Rare books and memorabilia of a number of girls' series books are open to public viewing. (Newsline photo by April Chan)

But the centerpiece is Nancy Drew, whose origins are vividly explained through artwork, photographs, memorabilia and books and book jackets that are encased behind glass because of their rare condition.

Edward Stratemeyer, whose Stratemeyer Syndicate created series including The Bobbsey Twins and The Hardy Boys, is credited with creating Nancy. But the exhibit further explains that a number of female ghostwriters – including author Mildred Wirt Benson, who wrote 23 of the first 30 stories – breathed life into Nancy Drew.

“Without the woman who ghostwrote the first three titles under his guidance ... it seems likely that the books would not have been the great instant hit [sic] they were,” said Melanie Rehak, author of “Girl Sleuth: Nancy Drew and the Women Who Created Her.”

Rehak said that Benson and two Stratemeyer daughters, Harriet and Edna, are the real heroines behind the Nancy Drew stories’ longevity and success because they kept the Stratemeyer Syndicate going after his death. “In 1930, right after he died, it was a determined, ambitious combination of Mildred, Harriet and Edna that kept Nancy out in the world looking for crimes to solve,” she said in an e-mail interview.

“So even though a man first thought of Nancy, she would never have continued on without the women behind her.”

Ultimately, Harriet Stratemeyer continued the ghostwriting under the name Carolyn Keene, Rehak said.

Accordingly, Nancy's characteristics, preferences and side stories have evolved with the string of writers that succeeded Benson.

“She now drives a hybrid car,” Hudak said.

But some character changes weren’t embraced. “There was a period in the 1980s, after Harriet (Stratemeyer) Adams died, when Nancy became much more of a 'normal' girl, concerned with boys and clothes, but readers didn't like her very much that way, and now she's reverted back to her original self,” Rehak said.

For book collectors, the exhibit features “Farah's Guide.” Written by David Farah, the guide leads collectors through intricate details about how to determine the edition and value of a particular Nancy Drew hardcover book.

Wong, who admits only mild interest in Nancy Drew, was nonetheless impressed with elements the guide suggests a collector should examine, including a book's spine, end papers and dust jacket.

Over the course of 75 years, Nancy Drew has undergone numerous incarnations. There were 56 stories written in the original series; the last series encompassing 175 shorter stories was just completed in 2003, Hudak said.

Her latest stories are now being told in the first-person through a series called “Nancy Drew: Girl Detective,” as well as in graphic novels, which are a type of long-form comic book.

The exhibit at the Hornbake Library features more than 300 books from 33 series, of Nancy Drew and others. A University of Maryland alum, Elissa Pagnani, who graduated from the College of Library and Information Services in 1995, donated the books in honor of her parents, Rose and Joseph Pagnani. The books belonged to Rose Pagnani, Hudak said.

The celebration of Nancy Drew continues with a symposium, “Reading Nancy Drew,” on Oct. 7. Featured experts will include the University of Maryland's Anne MacLeod, a professor emerita in library and information studies, and Elizabeth Marshall, an assistant professor in education. They'll discuss how Nancy Drew books have affected readers over the years.

Rehak will also be on hand to talk about her book, “Girl Sleuth.”

The free exhibit at the Hornbake Library will continue through Dec. 24. The library is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays; on Wednesdays from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.; and Saturdays from noon to 5 p.m. The library is closed Sundays and for university holidays.

Copyright © 2005 University of Maryland Philip Merrill College of Journalism