Book Trivia Tuesday Week 15
Welcome to another week of Book Trivia Tuesday. Last week we discussed Beatrix Potter's first name - Helen.
This week we are back with another fun piece of trivia: What were some of the original names pitched for the Nancy Drew Mystery Series?
While Edward Stratemayer was pitching the concept of a new mystery series to his publishers, names like Diana Dare, Nan Drew, Helen Hale and Stella Strong were all suggested. Publishers settled on Nan Drew but decided to lengthen it to Nancy because they felt it rolled off the tongue more easily.
And while we are at it, let's talk about a few other little-known facts about Nancy Drew:
- Carolyn Keene was not a real person, but a pseudonym used by a group of writers throughout the lifetime of the series.
- Edward Stratemayer wrote the outlines for each book but hired writers to write the actual stories. Mildred Wirt penned 23 of the first 25 books in the series.
- When people refer to Carolyn Keene's birthday, they are using Mildred Wirt's birthday as the date.
- The Nancy Drew books have inspired so many women over the years with its strong female main character, but did you know Stratemayer thought women belonged in the home? He only created the series after the success of The Hardy Boys Mysteries & wanted to duplicate that same success with a female lead.
- No illustrator is named in any of the Nancy Drew books; however, Russell Tandy created the dust jacket illustrations along with the content illustrations for the first 25 books of the series.
- Did you know the books were modernized throughout the years to stay relevant to each generation of readers? The original Nancy Drew books were written in the 1930's, long before the Mustang was ever produced by Ford. Yet in the books of the 1970's, Nancy owns & drives a Mustang. In the original books, her car is referred to as a blue roadster.
There is so much fascinating information out there on the history of the Nancy Drew books. What little tidbit of information do you have about the Nancy Drew series?
Find a selection of Nancy Drew Books for sale here.
**Some information from this post was taken from 10 Surprising Facts About Nancy Drew written by Stacy Conradt on March 11, 2019, for the website Mental Floss.
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