Nancy Drew Mystery Stories
The Nancy Drew Mystery Stories is the long-running "main" series of the Nancy Drew franchise, which was published under the pseudonym Carolyn Keene. There are 175 novels — plus 34 revised stories — that were published between 1930 and 2003 under the banner; Grosset & Dunlap published the first 56, and 34 revised stories, while Simon & Schuster published the series beginning with volume 57.
Nancy Drew books on shelf at a public library
Nancy Drew is a fictional character appearing in several mystery book series, movies, video games, and a TV show as a teenage amateur sleuth. The books are ghostwritten by a number of authors and published under the collective pseudonym Carolyn Keene. Created by the publisher Edward Stratemeyer as the female counterpart to his Hardy Boys series, the character first appeared in 1930 in the Nancy Drew Mystery Stories series, which lasted until 2003 and consisted of 175 novels.
Cover of the 1953 version of The Secret of the Old Clock, the first Nancy Drew mystery
Edward Stratemeyer conceived the character and wrote plot outlines but hired Mildred Wirt Benson to ghostwrite the first volumes in the series under the pseudonym Carolyn Keene.
The Nancy Drew Files showcased a more mature character version and romance elements, as seen on the cover of Hit and Run Holiday (1986). Here, Nancy is in swimwear, in proximity to an attractive young man rather than a clue.
Nancy is shown in danger on the cover of The Case of the Vanishing Veil (1988) and other covers from the 1980s. Unlike in earlier covers from the series, she is not completely in control of the situation.
