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Distinguished Achievement Awards Winner 1975 "
KDPKlll
By BETTY DEBNAM
The Mysterious Book Case!
The Nancy Drew Mystery
1%
Did your grandparents
or parents read Nancy
Drew and Hardy Boys
mysteries when they
were growing up?
? Yes ? No
THE HIDDEN
ST AIKCVSE
The jacket of the second
Nancy Drew book.
Nancy has changed some
during her 47 years. She
is now 18 instead of ltt,
so she can drive in most
states.
rilEHAKDY BOYS
THE MISSING
^ CHUMS
The jacket of the fourth
Hardy Hoys book. Many
of the Nancy Drew and
Hardy Boys hooks have
been rewritten to keep
up with the times.
^ather? Edward Stratemeyer started ixaney
)rew, the Hardy Boys, the Bohsy Twins, the Rover
4oys and some 140 other series.
Who "done" it?
Who writes the Nancy Drew mystery
books?
We had to investigate.
The trail led to Maplewood, New Jersey.
It led to the offices of Harriet Adams.
" 1 Tr .. x _
But we thought Carolyn iveene wroie
the Nancy Drew books.
But Carolyn Keene IS Harriet Adams.
She has been writing under that name
ever since she took over the Nancy Drew
series in 1930. She has been writing at
least one Nancy Drew book a year ever
since.
Mrs. Adams' father, Edward
Stratemeyer, really invented Nancy. He
wrote the first three books.
Mr. Stratemeyer has been called a
"book machine."
He didn't want it to get around that one
A few of the 56 titles in the Hardy Hoys series
Daughter? Harriet S. Adams carries on the family
business. She is now in her 80s and still writing. She
is the mother of four. She has 1 1 grandchildren and
one great-grandchild.
person was doing so much writing. That
was why he thought up some 60 names of
authors for his 1,200 hooks.
Both Mrs. Adams and her father used
ghostwriters. Ghostwriters help an author
with a hook, hut their name is never given
out. It's a trade secret.
r* li
What Mrs. Adams does is caretuny
outline some books, chapter by chapter.
Then a ghostwriter comes along and fills
in the details.
It's the same with the Hardy Boys
books, too. Mr. Stratemeyer thought up
the name Frances M. Dixon. When he
died, other authors took over and wrote
under that name.
Mrs. Adams now has several business
partners. They run a company called the
Stratemeyer Syndicate. They have turned
out over 1,200 books themselves.
The Nancy Drew series has 54 titles