I don’t remember ever reading a Nancy Drew book when I was growing up, but I did read some of the Hardy Boys series, also published by Stratemeyer Syndicate. In fact the Hardy Boys series began first and was so popular — among boys and girls — that Edward Stratemeyer started a series featuring a spunky female heroine. In 1930 the first three Nancy Drew volumes were published, ghostwritten by Mildred Wirt under the pseudonym Carolyn Keene. By the end of the 1950s the series had 34 books.
When I read Voracious: A Hungry Reader Cooks Her Way Through Great Books a few years ago I learned that the original Nancy Drew books had been revised beginning in 1959. The three main reasons for the revisions were:
- To make them more up-to-date
- To remove racist stereotypes
- To shorten the books to 180 pages
What was the result of these extensive revisions? Rather than improving the depiction of African-Americans and Jews in the series, they were simply removed from the books and replaced by white people. Nancy’s character became less independent as she got more help from other characters (such as her boyfriend Ned) and her language became less feisty/snarky/opinionated. Her looks are emphasized and she is older (18 rather than 16), but no longer carries a gun. (!)
In Voracious Cara Nicoletti notes that the way food is depicted in the series also changed. In the revised books Nancy is an excellent cook but cares little about eating, her sidekick George barely remembers to eat, and “slightly plump” Bess is mocked for enjoying food (like her favourite chocolate walnut sundaes). In contrast, if you go back to the originals you’ll find they are not “fraught with food anxieties and shame binges,” as Nicoletti puts it.
It’s too bad that in going back to the original books to remove the racism the publisher erased people of colour from the series and made Nancy less spunky, while also injecting an unfortunate attitude toward food and eating.
Are you a Nancy Drew fan? Did you know the original series had been rewritten?
Sources
- “The Not-So-Hidden Racism of Nancy Drew” by Andrea Ruggirello via Electric Lit
- “The Story Of Nancy Drew, Once Far More Ballsy Than The Girl Sleuth You Know” by Sara Boboltz via Huffington Post
- Voracious by Cara Nicoletti (Little, Brown, and Company. 2015)
This is a really interesting cultural study. I do remember the Nancy Drews from the 1960s, but didn’t know they had been revised. I wasn’t a fan but some girls I knew were. I think at the time I was reading Jean Little and Madeleine L’Engle.
So interesting! We only had one Nancy Drew book, but I remember it really catching my fancy. That book, combined with the Hardy Boys had me assuming that the use of chloroform was fairly common place. 😂
Haha!