LETTERS From CAMP Rehoboth |
BOOKED Solid |
Reviews by Rebecca James |
Girl Sleuth: Nancy Drew and the Women Who Created Her Melanie Rehak (2005)
At ten years old, my bedtime was 8 p.m. On Friday nights, I was allowed to stay up to watch Dukes of Hazzard or The Cosby Show, but then I was always quickly sent to bed. After the perfunctory good night kiss, the last glass of water, and a check to make sure the closet door was closed tightly, I was finally left alone in the dark, tucked into my pink canopy bed with an army of stuffed animals to guard me. I could hear my parents descend the stairs and turn the television to Hill Street Blues or St. Elmo's Fire. Once they were settled, the night was mine. Out from under my nightstand came the flashlight I swiped from my step-father's workshop (he was always annoyed to find it missing during power outages). And then, from under my pillow, just to the left of the huge stuffed monkey, I would retrieve my well-worn copy of Nancy Drew. Within seconds, I could feel the wind in my hair from her snazzy convertible, and the hair on the back of my neck would tingle from suspense. Nancy Drew has entertained generations of young girls; I was reading copies of the book inherited from my mother and grandmother (a small-town school teacher and librarian). When I encountered Melanie Rehak's exploration of the mystery behind the mystery, I was immediately intrigued. I had often wondered why my copies of the earlier books in the series had different words than later books. I also recalled wondering how one woman had written so many books in a series over such a huge span of time. I knew that Nancy Drew had debuted in the early 1900s. How then, did I come to possess books written in the 1980s? With these childhood questions burning in my mind, I attacked Rehak's book with a vengeance. I got far more than I bargained for; Rehak definitely did her homework. Herself a Nancy Drew fan (we shared the flashlight experiences), Rehak set out to reveal the secrets behind the woman fans know as Carolyn Keene. One of the first mystery solved by Rehak? Keene was actually more than one woman. In fact, to some extent, she and her famous girl detective were birthed by a man. That man was Edward Stratemeyer, an accomplished children's writer. With two daughters of his own, Stratemeyer broached the idea of a new detective series written just for girls, and a legend was born. The writer he selected to create the story was Mildred Augustine Wert Benson, a newspaper reporter; later, in the 1950s, Stratemeyer's own daughter, Harriet Stratemeyer Adams, a Wellesley graduate, took over both the series and her father's company. What Rehak does best is provide a link between the writers and the experience. Countless girls have strived to embody the ideals put forth by Nancy and her "chums"; I, in particular, was more fond of Nancy's tomboy cousin George than the main sleuth herself. Like thousands before me, I threw myself into myriad adventures, never baffled enough by a lack of clues or willing volunteers (or the snazzy convertible) to give up my quest for adventure. Rehak appreciates this inspirational quality of the Nancy Drew series, and she set out to reveal the history behind the series because she was intrigued by the many similarities between the women who created the young detective and the generations of strong-willed women she led. Although the relationship between the writers was somewhat complicated, the two women had much in common. They were both well-educated and headstrong, qualities they passed along to their heroines. Rehak counts among her sources newspaper tributes to the two women, as well as interviews, personal letters, memos, and company memorabilia. She recounts the strange phenomenon that occurred after Harriet Statemeyer Adams (the second "Carolyn Keene") died: "Just as Mildred had once been written out of history [by Harriet and the book company], Harriet was now being sidelined in favor of the spunky newswoman from Iowa [...] Where she had once been heralded for keeping Nancy alive [when she took over her father's company], Harriet, when she was included at all in the story of Nancy Drew, was now there to play the villain." She notes that many reporters seemed to confuse the writers not just with their pseudonym, but with the character of Nancy herself. That's probably because so many of us wanted the girl detective to be real. Whether it was Nancy, George, or Bess (or Ned) that we wanted to be, Rehak finds story after story of womennot just girlsgetting in touch with their "inner Nancys" to draw strength to handle any given situation. Her exploration of the famous series is well worth the bookstore searchno magnifying glass necessary. Rebecca James divides her time between teaching in Allentown, PA and reading in Rehoboth Beach, DE. She may be emailed at jamesr@allentownsd.org. |
LETTERS From CAMP Rehoboth, Vol. 16, No. 13 September 15, 2006 |