NANCY DREW is the blue-eyed, blonde-haired American ideal personified in a series of children's books. NANCY was formed in 1929 as a marketing plot: a 'girls version ' of Edward Stratemeyer's popular Hardy Boys series. Stratemeyer commissioned Mildred Wirt, (Mildred Augustine Wirt Benson's pen name was Carolyn Keene) to write the first three volumes of his new series.

NANCY DREW arrived ten years after American women won the right to vote and quickly became a positive role model for impressionable adolescent girls in the 1930's and 1940's. 1 She was also the first heroine to appeal to girls who would have new freedom, including the right to vote, the option of having a career, and the ability to pursue dreams without benefit (or limitation) of an ever-present male protector. 2

All of the volumes follow a basic formula though there were many ghostwriters throughout the series. NANCY, an 18-year-old girl, lives in a comfortable suburb called River Heights. Having lost her mother at an early age, she lives with her doting father, famous attorney Carson Drew, and her housekeeper Hannah Gruen. She is financially secure and has no visible obligations as she does not work or attend school. This freedom allows her to travel widely, solving mysteries for the sheer joy of helping people.

NANCY DREW enjoys an adult status without her mother present. Though she has a mother figure in Hannah Gruen, her housekeeper does not hold the authority of that role. It is extremely common in girls' series books to have an orphaned or half-orphaned heroine. Collector Nancy Roberts points out that

Her father, frequently away working on his own cases, gives her free rein to investigate her own mysteries.

Many girls of my generation who grew up on NANCY DREW, envied her freedom, courage and independance. While searching for birthfamily, my mind often wandered to those memories as I did feel the sleuth, investigating the past and looking for clues to a secret identity.

A lost identity is the focus of Carolyn Keene’s The Ringmaster’s Secret [1953]. The storyline is as follows: Lola Flanders, an ex-trapeze artist, is a victim of amnesia. She believes her only child, Lolita, died when she was very young. Lolita has also been led to believe that both her parents are dead. She is raised by foster parents, the ringmaster Kroon — an abusive stepfather — and his wife. Through much circus drama, Nancy helps Lolita find her ‘real‘ mother.

The foster parents are caricatures, thinly fleshed out characters, and the messy situation is nicely resolved by the last page as mother and daughter are reunited. NANCY does not have to deal with loose ends, nor the grey matter that muddles her EITHER/OR [good parent/bad parent] template.

 

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