The Ever-Immortal Detective

Today I've got the day off from school (so that my teachers can meet and talk about teachery stuff, according to my teachers) so what better thing to do than spend my time talking about something utterly random that I know more about than I probably need to?

And, as such a topic varies from the jaguar population to the proper reaction to a unicorn apocalypse, I've decided to talk about one of my favorite literary characters. The thing that makes this literary character so special is not their character, but rather what they did both for literature and the fact that somehow they have managed to never age and thus never die.

That's right, today I plan to educate you all on Nancy Drew!

Via the ever-glorious Goodreads

Now, first of all, the people behind Nancy Drew were pretty amazing. The original Nancy Drew stories were written by a group known as the Stratemeyer Syndicate, headed by the good Mr. Stratemeyer himself. Not only does this make these ghostwriters sound like some kind of classy book mafia, but they were one of the first groups in the world to take children's fictional literature and make it into something profitable.

The classy Mr. Stratemeyer, via Wikipedia

Basically, the idea behind all Syndicate books was to get kids into reading books like the ones they saw their parents reading, and thus make money when said kid became a bookaholic. Originally, it was just Mr. Stratemeyer writing under a bunch of pen names, but once his scheme got rolling he started to hire others to ghostwrite with him. He and his cohorts wrote such series as the Dana Sisters, the Hardy Boys, and, possibly most famous of them all, Nancy Drew.

Now, in order to sell as much as possible, Stratemeyer realized a few things. One: the characters should never age or marry. (I actually have no idea why this would affect sales, but it did, so he made it a rule.) Two: To gauge a series success, the first bunch of books should all be published at once, and then have a regular steady stream of more novels after them. Three: Each story would advertise the stories before and after it, to increase interest. Four: In each book, every chapter would end on a cliffhanger to encourage further reading, but the story itself would be resolved within one book.

As you may have guessed, he and his gang of book-writing buddies managed to do this quite well. After he died, one of his daughters took over, and she rewrote many of the older stories to 'fit the times' and after doing her stint as head of the Stratemeyer Syndicate, she sold some of the series (particularly Nancy Drew) off to book publishers, who have proceeded to do the exact same thing the Syndicate did, except without the awesome Book Mafia feel to it.

Just finished this ND story. Via Goodreads.

Anyway, Nancy Drew herself isn't exactly that out-of-the-ordinary or unique. She's a teenage girl with titian hair, blue eyes, and a knack for solving mysteries. In many of the stories she's an art student, though others peg her as a high school student and others yet just don't say anything about what Nancy does with her non-mystery times. She's dating Ned Nickerson (though that hasn't always been the case!), her dad is a great lawyer, and generally she's very, very generic.

Regardless, somehow she has stuck from the 1920s, into the 50s, then the 80s, and even now they are still printing stories about Nancy's never-ending teenhood of busting bad guys.

Personally, I think that's pretty amazing, and a testament to both the power and need for books.

Of course, Nancy's not just in books anymore! She had her own TV show in the 70s (which is quite good, I assure you), had her own movie in 2007 (which was slightly less good than the 80s TV show), and now is the star of my favorite computer game series, which recently published their 30th game. (These are both difficult and amazing, and also contain absurd amounts of Koko Kringles.)

One of my faves of the video games. Via Wikipedia.

I think in the end, however, that the reason I love Nancy so much is because she always stands for what is good, and she doesn't let anything hinder her from doing what she loves. Even if her stories are somewhat predictable and every chapter ends on a cliffhanger that's somewhat cheesy, her tales have entertained kids like me for nearly 90 years. They've done what they were originally created for, which is getting kids into reading, and I think that's a somewhat noble cause.

Although I am far past the age at which it is 'normal' to read Nancy Drew, I still read them. (I actually get them off the fifty-cent rack at my local Half Price Books.) When/if I ever have kids, I can assure you they'll read them.

In the meantime, however, I will enjoy the fact that even totally normal, unexciting people can have crazy adventures in search of the truth.

Until next time,
Hailey Jenkins

P.S. If you're interested in learning more about Nancy Drew, feel free to peruse her unoffical fan website, and in particular, the history tab. (Link here.)