The author of Nancy Drew books, Carolyn Keene, is actually a group of 29 writers who brought this wildly popular series to life beginning in 1930.
Publisher Edward Stratemeyer thought a female detective would complement his already successful Hardy Boys series, launched in 1927. Not looking to write the books himself, Stratemeyer came up with the character Nancy Drew and her creator Carolyn Keene, then hired his first writer Mildred Wirt Benson.
Benson, who in 1927 became the first person to earn a master’s degree in Journalism from the University of Iowa, was writing for the society pages at a local paper when she was hired to become the first of 29 people to write Nancy Drew Books. Her contract paid her $125 per book in exchange for waiving all rights to her work and on the condition she remain anonymous. It would be decades before the real identities behind Carolyn Keene would be revealed.
Based on a brief outline that described Nancy Drew as “an up-to-date American girl at her best – bright, clever, resourceful and full of energy” Benson breathed life into the character, writing the first four books in the series, released simultaneously. She would go on to write 23 of the first 30 books and eventually become the most well-known of the writers behind the Carolyn Keene name.
Because she was the person who shaped Nancy Drew’s personality and the world in which she lived, Benson is credited with being the driving force behind the successful series. However, the honor of authoring the most books goes to Stratemeyer’s daughter Harriet Adams who, with her sister Edna, took over the company when their father died in 1930. Adams wrote all but two of the 29 books that were released between 1953 and 1979 and claimed throughout her lifetime that she alone was the person behind the Carolyn Keene name. It was under her watch that racial stereotypes were removed from all the company’s series and plots and characters were streamlined. She helmed the company until her death in 1982.
Of the 24 women and five men who created works in the series, Adams and Benson are the most celebrated thanks to a lawsuit in the 1980’s that revealed the secrets behind Carolyn Keene. Benson went on to become the face of the Nancy Drew writers, receiving a special Edgar Award in 2001 for her contributions to the series.
She also led a very Nancy Drew kind of life, embodying the independent spirit of her character. Marrying twice, she worked as a journalist for more than 50 years while writing 135 books, including mysteries under her own name. She trained to become a pilot, travelled alone throughout the jungles of Central America and was once locked in a room in Guatemala by locals who thought she knew too much about crime in their town. A University of Iowa Nancy Drew Conference in 1993 brought her the national attention she deserved, and her Underwood typewriter is in the Smithsonian Museum of American History. Benson continued writing for newspapers until her death in 2002 and the age of 96.