![]() The Secret of the Old Clock (1930) is, then, the first ever Nancy Drew mystery, written by Mildred Wirt Benson who - much like Robert Arthur with the Three Investigators - was responsible for the first slew of Drews. ![]() So before we even get to the book itself there’s already a lot to unpack. Much like Young Robin Brand, Detective (1947) by Freeman Wills Crofts, this bespeaks of a growing sense of what was to be achieved in the writing of novels for readers in the age group now generally categorised as either YA or MG depending on which side of the Atlantic you hail from (editor’s note: other countries are available). Additionally, I did not know that the first 34 Nancy Drew books, published between 19, were revised by other ghostwriters from 1959 in order to amend the characters and adjust their attitudes perhaps a little more sympathetically. For instance, I did not know that Carolyn Keene, author of the Nancy Drew mysteries, wasn’t an actual person but instead a syndicate a la the Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators authors (the key difference being that they never put any author name on the cover). ![]() Well, well, well, even at my time in life there’s still much to be learned.
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