Will the Real Carolyn Keene Please Stand Up - the Lives of the Creators of Nancy Drew

When I stumbled across this on Amazon.com, I was not sure if I really wanted to buy it.  After all, there are already a number of books out there about the "creators" of Nancy Drew - ones that focus on the Stratemeyer Syndicate itself, others that focus on Mildred Wirt Benson, and some that focus on the evolution and impact of the character, Nancy Drew.  Did I really need another one?  And I had no knowledge of the author, Christine Keleny, other than the brief information provided on Amazon about her.  So, I debated back and forth, but I finally listened to that insistent voice in the back of my mind that kept saying, "if you want all things Nancy Drew related, then you must have this," and I bought it.  Took me a bit before I finally picked it up and read it, but now, I can honestly say, I am so thoroughly glad I bought it, because this book is not just another analytical study of the individuals who created and wrote Nancy Drew - no, this book is actually a well-written, well-researched prose biography of the three people who had the most influence in the character of Nancy Drew - Edward Stratemeyer, his daughter Harriet, and his young ghostwriter, Mildred Wirt!

 

Will The Real Carolyn Keene Please Stand Up gives fans a fresh new look at the history of Nancy Drew's creation. For a character that has been around for nearly 100 years, with new stories continuously published over the course of those nearly ten decades, Nancy Drew has had plenty of books look at her creators, her longevity, her enduring appeal, her pop icon status, and just about every other aspect you can think of as it relates to the girl detective.  Authors like Melanie Rehak, Michael G. Cornelius, Carolyn Carpan, Bobbie Ann Mason, LuElla D'Amico, Emily Hamilton-Honey, Geoffrey S. Lapin, and many others have offered so much insight over the years with books, essays, and countless hours of research on the subject of Nancy Drew and her creation; yet, surprisingly, in all of that time, not once has there ever been a historical look at those creators told in a prose, biographical fashion.  Until now.  Author Christine Keleny (Christine Keleny Books) is not only a writer, but she is also an editor, book designer, and publisher, whose works cross into historical fiction, mystery, adventure, and memoir.  This particular book, while offering well researched biographies on Stratemeyer, Adams, and Wirt-Benson, is also infused with a certain level of historical fiction - since a lot of the conversations and character-thoughts expressed throughout the book are not necessarily factual - but based on everything we knew about these three, they very well could be!

 

Keleny opens her book in the most obvious place - the now-infamous 1980 trial that resulted from the lawsuit filed by Grosset & Dunlap against the Stratemeyer Syndicate and Simon & Schuster over the rights to Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, and the numerous other series G&D had been publishing for the Syndicate for more than half-a-century.  An aging Harriet Stratemeyer Adams is on the stand, being questioned regarding the creation of Nancy Drew and the books' original author, which sends Adams on a trip down memory lane ... a trip that the reader gets to follow as we turn back the pages of time to 1887, when a young Edward Stratemeyer is striving to become an author, feeling it in is veins, despite his father's and brother's attempts to dissuade him to pick a more steady career.  The book progresses at a fairly fast rate, as we jump ahead one, two, three, or even more years at a time, following Edward as he meets his wife ... as he begins selling his stories ... as he has two daughters ... as his books become so popular he creates a syndicate of writers to help him get his ideas into book form faster.  We read how the twentieth century saw a huge rise in the success of his children's series - The Rover Boys, The Bobbsey Twins, Tom Swift, Ruth Fielding, and many others, eventually leading to 1927 and the publication of The Hardy Boys.  This, as we all know, led to his creation of a companion series for girls, a girl detective that only one person could write - a young ghostwriter who had taken over the Ruth Fielding series for his Syndicate - Mildred Augustine Wirt.

 

Keleny alternates between the various players.  Some chapters focus on Edward, while others look at what Mildred was doing, while others take a look at Harriet and her sister, Edna.  Keleny's story is so well-written, that the reader can visually picture each of the characters as they act and speak on the page, and honestly, this would transition so beautifully into a movie, or even a television mini-series.  Edward, Harriet, and Mildred are all developed far beyond their typical "this is what research tells us about them" found in most books; instead, we get living, breathing characters with emotions, with hopes and dreams, with frustrations and losses, with times of happiness and times of mourning.  Yes, the scenes portrayed throughout the book come from the Stratemeyer Records on file with the New York Public Library ... from the Iowa Women's Archives at the University of Iowa ... from researchers such as Geoffrey S. Lapin (to whom the author credits having done considerable work to uncover Wirt's connection as the original author of the Nancy Drew books) and James Keeline ... and to the descendants of the Stratemeyer family itself ... however, they are expressed through a prose tale that draws the reader in until, just like the children's series that are the subject matter of these individuals, he or she cannot help but turn page after page after page to see what is going to happen next!

 

The one thing I think Keleny does perfectly with this book is acknowledge the fact that there was never just "one" Carolyn Keene.  Sure, Edward Stratemeyer created the idea and the initial outlines for the Nancy Drew series.  Sure, Mildred Wirt (Benson) wrote the original books in the series.  Sure, Harriet Stratemeyer Adams took over the character and molded her into the later image that so many adults today remember her as.  Yet, it was not just one of these three that "created" Nancy Drew; rather, it was the amalgamation of all three - Stratemeyer, Wirt, and Adams - that ultimately defined Nancy Drew and gave her the characteristics and charisma that has helped her endure for nearly 100 years non-stop.  While so many other series fell away, many long forgotten - Nancy Drew is still at the forefront, still recognized as the quintessential girl detective (let's face it - any book, any movie, any television show that features a female detective will always make at least one, if nor more, reference to Nancy Drew).  And this book is the perfect story of how these three individuals, in their own special ways, combined to make (literally!) the world's greatest amateur female detective.

 

Now, for all this praise (and I really did enjoy the book!), that's not to say it's perfect.  It is always a bit off-putting when I come across grammatical errors or misspellings in a published book - and this book had a number of them.  When talking about the gala thrown by Simon & Schuster after they took over publication of the Stratemeyer properties, it states, "[w]asn't Nancy's popularity proven at the gala 15th anniversary party put on by Simon & Schuster for Nancy Drew..." (p. 5).  This was actually referring to the 50th anniversary gala. Later, when we read about Edward acting out a story he is writing, his wife "knew that this roll-playing was important to Edward..." (p. 20).  I believe the author meant "role" playing.  These are only a couple - there are others that could be listed, but it is a reminder that books are no longer edited with precision as they used to be.  While these are small things, and they don't make the book any less readable, they do (for me, at least) present a jarring moment, at which I'm taken out of the story as my mind immediately focuses on the error.

 

As an aside, Keleny does throw in a moment of Hardy Boys history for us, as she gives us a few pages of Leslie McFarlane and his first communications with Stratemeyer (pp. 108 - 114), which ultimately led to his taking on the Hardy Boys books, and later, the first few Dana Girls stories.  There are also moments with members of the Garis family, as well as the addition of Andrew Svenson as a partner of the Syndicate.  Thus, the author gives readers a well-rounded story of everything that was going on in the lives of these three creators, and how it all impacted their work on, and in Harriet's case, her utter devotion to Nancy Drew.

 

Who was the real Carolyn Keene?  Well, once you read this book, I believe you will be in a much stronger position to answer that question, and you will be sparked to delve deeper and do your own research and studies to get a better understanding of everything (and everyone!) that went into creating our favorite teen detective!  Is every word of this book true, and did every thing that is described in this book actually take place the way it is written here?  Probably not.  But that does not in any way lessen this book's value in the annals of Nancy Drew studies, and it certainly should not detract from anyone's enjoyment in reading the story.  

 

RATING:  10 last ditch attempts to sell the Syndicate out of 10 for a well-researched, superbly written story of the lives, loves, hardships, and successes of the three individuals who, in one way or another, created Nancy Drew.

The House of Happy Endings - a Memoir

This book has to have been the most difficult book I've ever read.  And I don't mean because of the writing itself, or because of the fact that it is a biography of sorts.  I'm not a fan of non-fiction, and I don't normally read biographies - but since this book is directly related to children's mystery series, and it was gifted to me by a loving friend, I opened it up and delved into the story of Howard Garis, his wife Lilian Garis, and their son, Roger Garis (who wrote countless children's mysteries in the first half of the last century).  My good friend, Geoffrey S. Lapin, knows the author of this book (the daughter of Roger and granddaughter of Howard and Lilian), and he has told me over the years that life in the Garis household was not as idealistic as those homes we read about in The Bobbsey Twins, Tom Swift, Baseball Joe, and so many other children's series written by these prolific authors.  So, I went into this knowing that it was not going to be a story of roses and sunshine.  I just did not realize the extent of the difficulties faced by the Garis family in their Massachusetts home...

House of Happy Endings is a memoir about a family of writers. This story of Roger Garis and his wife, Mabel, along with their three children - Leslie (the only daughter and the author of this book), Brooks, and Buddy (later to go by the name Dalton) - starts as the family moves to Amherst, Massachusetts in the late 1940s, into a magnificent new home known as "The Dell."  From all appearances, this was to be a house of new beginnings for the family. After an attempt at publishing a magazine, and then attempts at writing television scripts, the family welcomes Roger's parents, Howard and Lilian, into the house.  And, from a narrative sense, this is where things begin to change in the book - not just in the story itself, but in the whole tone of the book.  Of course, those first chapters were written in the perspective of what a young girl of five years old saw and felt - everything was new and exciting, and Leslie Garis was caught up in the thrill of being a part of her father's world of writing.  But with the arrival of Howard and Lilian Garis, that world changes.

This book is not an easy read.  It is not the story of a "happy-go-lucky" family where everything is just wonderful and everyone is always happy.  This book tells the story of a family with serious struggles ... of a writer who battled an undiagnosed illness that affected not only his own life, but the lives of all around him. It's the story of a young girl growing up in a home where she has to navigate the confusing and conflicting relationships between her grandmother and grandfather ... between her grandmother and father ... between her grandfather and father ... between her mother and father ... and between her father and herself.  The innocence of her childhood gets slowly stripped away as she gets older, until she reaches the point where she has to distance herself from all of the drama, and she faces her own guilt and her own struggles in order to make her own way in the world.

Don't get me wrong - there are some touching stories in the book.  The memories of Howard Garis being surrounded by children, always taking time to share Uncle Wiggly stories and bring joy into these youngsters lives.  The memories of the author and her father sharing some wonderful times, and her joy at being asked to help her grandfather develop endings for his stories (something her grandmother always did for him, but after she passed, he needed someone to fill that void). The memories of hiding in the dumbwaiter, spying on the family, playing "detective" in her own private place.  Despite all of the dysfunctional drama, the author still has some good memories of growing up.  I even enjoyed reading the numerous references the various children's series books authored by Howard, Lilian, and Roger.  There is also some very frank revelations about what it was like to work with and for the Stratemeyers back then.  But it's heartbreaking to read just how much those memories are overshadowed by the addictions and illnesses that seemed to take control of her father over the years.

And don't get me started on that grandmother.  The more the author describes her, the more I could see my own grandmother reflected in this woman.  Perhaps it was simply the way women of that era were brought up, or maybe it was simply bitterness developed over the years (as suggested by the author, her own grandmother may have been jealous of the fact her husband's writers were far more successful than her own), or maybe it was just a pure coincidence that both the author's grandmother and my own were so very critical of their own children, basically taking away any self-confidence they might have had and destroying any ambitions or successes they had.  I know the torture my own mother went through with the way her mother treated her, so it really hit home when I read how Lilian Garis treated her own son.  This made the ending of this book so much more harder for me to read and, quite honestly, caused me to break down in tears thinking of my own mother and her passing (thankfully, though, she had family at her side, unlike poor Roger Garis...).

I would definitely say this book is worth reading, but be warned - it's not for the faint of heart!

RATING:  9 unfinished plays out of 10 for revealing the not-so-happy side of a family of children's series authors and opening up about what it was like growing up in the Garis family.

Missing Millie Benson - The Secret Case of the Ghostwriter and Journalist

Since I just finished the most recent Nancy Drew book, figured it was only appropriate that I go ahead and read the biography for young readers that was written on the earliest ghostwriter for the Nancy Drew series - Mildred Augustine Wirt Benson.

For those who don't know (and in today's modern age of instant information at our fingertips, I can't imagine anyone not knowing), the author of the Nancy Drew series is not, nor has it ever been, Carolyn Keene.  There is no such person as Carolyn Keene.  Well, there probably are some girls and women with that name, but they never authored a Nancy Drew book.  The "Carolyn Keene" whose name appears on the Nancy Drew (and Dana Girls) mystery stories was simply a pseudonym, created by Edward Stratemeyer so that this children's mystery series could be written by numerous ghostwriters, yet appear to the world at large as being written by one woman.  And the first ghostwriter hired by Stratemeyer for the Nancy Drew series was none other than Millie Benson (although at the time she first wrote the series, she was Mildred Wirt).  As the author of this biography points out, Millie wrote 23 of the first 30 Nancy Drew books that were published (before they were later revised).

Julie K. Rubini presents the story of Millie's life as it centers around her writing and her involvement in the Nancy Drew series.  She provides a number of interesting photos that depict Millie in the various stages of her life, with her parents, her first husband Asa Wirt, her second husband George Benson, and in her career as a journalist.  It was a treat for me to see these photos, some of which I had never seen before, and to get a glimpse of this author's life outside of Nancy Drew.

Rubini mentions a number of high points in Millie's life - from her first published story, to her college life, to her response to Stratemeyer's ad for writers, to her two marriages (and her husbands' deaths), to her career as a journalist, and to her testimony given at the now-famous trial between the publishers of Nancy Drew books.  Rubini interviewed a number of experts, as well as spoke with surviving family members, in her attempt to flesh out Millie's life.  Unfortunately, without all the details, Rubini was left to speculate as to a lot of things that Millie did, the choices she made, the places she visited, and her reasoning for doing the things she did.  These speculations can be easily identified, as Rubini starts them off with phrases such as "Millie had to have been..." or "Millie might have found..." or "Millie must have been..."  So, while the book offers a number of facts about Millie (some well know, some not-so-well known), it also strays into a bit of supposition about the prolific author and journalist.

While the book is about Millie, it does offer some other insightful information.  There is a bit of history on the Stratemeyer Syndicate, its founder Edward, and his daughters, Harriet and Edna, who took over the business when he died just shortly after the Nancy Drew series debuted in 1930.  There is information about the first female flyers and the Powderpuff Derby, as well as the Nancy Drew Conference held in 1993 at the University of Iowa, where Millie was honored for her work.

Rubini clearly put some effort in the book; however, there were a couple of glaring errors that were more than noticeable.  When discussing Edward Stratemeyer and the beginnings of his Syndicate, she references his creation of the Bobbsey Twins in 1904, describing them as "Bert and Nan were twelve years old, Freddie and Flossie were six" (p. 35).  While the twins were these ages in the later, revised editions of the series, when the books were originally written after the turn of the century, they were actually eight years old (Bert and Nan) and four years old (Freddie and Flossie).  Later, when discussing the plot of the first Nancy Drew book, she wrote that it "involved the missing will of a character, Josiah Crowley, that had been stashed secretly by members of the wealthy and cruel Topham family" (p. 50).  This is inaccurate, as it was Josiah himself who hid the will in the clock.  And although this biography is aimed at young readers, I would still have to say that factual inaccuracies such as this should have been caught and corrected before the book saw print - otherwise, misrepresentations may be fostered and furthered by those who look to use this book as any sort of reference material for future writings.

That being said, overall, it was a good, simple read and provided a basic overview of Mildred Benson's life and career.  Now that we've read about this ghostwriter, I wonder when we will see some tales about the other authors who wrote Nancy Drew (such as Harriet Stratemyer Adams herself!)?

RATING:  7 typewriter keys out of 10 for sharing information about an amazing woman whose literary works and career have touched so many.