Toronto Star, [05/30/2002]
The $125-per-book-writer remained anonymous until 1980
She gave the world a plucky, adventurous and sharp-witted heroine whose exploits inspired young girls in dozens of countries long before the Spice Girls could say “girl power.”
Mildred Augustine Wirt Benson, who only late in her life was acknowledged as the original author of the popular mystery series Nancy Drew, died Tuesday. She was 96.
Born in 1905, Benson published her first story at the age of 12. She wrote more than 100 stories for children’s magazines and published 137 books, including the Penny Parker series.
Benson was also a journalist who started reporting in the 1940s and never retired. She became ill at work Tuesday afternoon, while working on her column for the Toledo Blade newspaper in Ohio.
“I would say she liked to think of herself as a journalist first and an author second,” said Blade editor Thomas Walton. “She was a tenacious reporter with an incredible work ethic. Even at 96, she still came down to the office. I saw her coming in on her walker to work on what was to become her final column.
“I am fairly certain that she would be the oldest working journalist of either gender. She didn’t like retirement. She’d done it all – city hall, the police beat, and later yet she was working on her column for older folks called On the Go.”
But Benson is best known for captivating generations of young girls. She wrote 23 of the original 25 Nancy Drew mysteries in the 1930s, under the pseudonym Carolyn Keene.
The series, continued by other authors, is still in print and has sold more than 200 million copies in 17 languages. Spinoffs include interactive games, television series and a cookbook.
While pursuing a master’s in journalism at the University of Iowa, Benson sent a manuscript for the Ruth Fielding series to the Stratemeyer Syndicate. Impressed, owner Edward Stratemeyer proposed a new series about girl detective Nancy Drew.
Benson was paid $125 per title, with no royalties. She also had to sign away nearly all of the rights, including use of the name Carolyn Keene.
“Edward Stratemeyer wasn’t too pleased with this character, who he thought was too aggressive,” said Leslie McGrath, who directs the Osbourne collection of children’s books at the Toronto Public Library. “But he died soon after, and his daughters, especially Harriet Stratemeyer, thought (Nancy) was an appealing character who would appeal to the modern audiences of the 1930s.”
Sherrie A. Inness, author of Nancy Drew and Company: Culture, Gender and Girls’ Series, said Nancy Drew was Stratemeyer’s most successful series, bettering even the Hardy Boys books originally written by Canadian journalist Leslie McFarlane. “The spunkier, independent Nancy was a big hit from the beginning.”
Carolyn Dyer, professor of journalism at the University of Iowa, said Benson was pleased with the recognition she got in later years.
She was revealed as the writer in 1980, when she testified in a court case involving the publisher. Benson later won legal permission to identify herself as the original series author.
“She was more of a tough news person, the sort who would wear her press pass on her fedora,” Dyer said with a laugh. “And she brought that feistiness in her characters.
“For the women who are now in their 40s and 50s, Nancy Drew represented a character who was unlike most characters then. She was from the upper middle class. She had a housekeeper. She had her own car, which was unheard of then. She could do whatever she wanted.
“She also went to teas and formal things. She was a proper girl except for her adventures. She represented a goal that many girls aspired to reach.”
Benson stopped writing the series after 1948’s The Ghost of Blackwood Hall. “She felt she had to move on,” Dyer said. “She didn’t know kids anymore. She couldn’t write them believably anymore.
“She actually preferred her other character Penny Parker more. Penny Parker was a girl reporter. (Benson) called her a better Nancy Drew. And she wrote those under her own name.
