“Maybe Ned has asked”: All excerpts from The Secret in the Old Attic in this section come from Carolyn Keene, The Secret in the Old Attic (New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1944).
“I believe we actually”: Edna Squier to Harriet Adams, March 4, 1944, SSR/NYPL, box 46.
“I promised to tell you”: Harriet Adams to Leslie McFarlane, March 31, 1944, SSR/NYPL, box 30.
“At all times”: Authors Guild to Carolyn Keene, February 9, 1942, SSR/NYPL, box 19.
“We very much want”:Calling All Girls to Carolyn Keene, January 23, 1942, SSR/NYPL, box 33.
“A poll of the magazine’s readers”:Calling All Girls, September 1942, SSR/NYPL, box 33.
“I did do”: Marie Hammond to Harriet Adams, n.d. (January 1944), SSR/NYPL, box 19.
“As one girl”: William M. Tuttle Jr., “The Homefront Children’s Popular Culture,” in Small Worlds: Children and Adolescents in America, 1850–1950, ed. Elliott West and Paula Petrik (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1992), p. 242.
“In 1942”: Bard, pp. 102–4.
“Over the course of the war”: Collins, p. 383.
“At one point during the war/the Office of War Information”: Tyler May, p. 476.
“At times it gets”: Tyler May, pp. 477–79.
“‘Once Wrote for Children’”: Beatrice Borman, “Once Wrote for Children, Now Writes for Times,” Inside the Blade, November 1944, p. 11.
“Taking a new position”: Mildred Wirt to Harriet Adams, July 18, 1944, SSR/NYPL, box 44.
“Women made up”: Susan M. Hartmann, The Home Front and Beyond: American Women in the 1940s (Boston: Twayne, 1982), p. 21.
“1000 Women’s Airforce Service Pilots”: Tyler May, p. 486.
“Too bad about”: Edna Squier to Harriet Adams, July 30, 1944, SSR/NYPL, box 46.
“It was during the war”: Mark Zaborney, “Thanks for the 50 Years, Millie,” Toledo Blade, September 17, 1994.
“Alma goes to work”: Tyler May, pp. 489–90.
“The war in general”: Tyler May, pp. 484–85.
“I could always”: Mark Zaborney, “Thanks for the 50 Years, Millie,” Toledo Blade, September 17, 1994.
“Working the night shift”: Vallongo.
“‘City’s Shops’”: Mildred Wirt, “City’s Shops on Verge of Bare Cases,” Toledo Times, April 19, 1945.
“‘Egg Black Market’”: Mildred Wirt, “Egg Black Market Switch Reported,” Toledo Times, April 24, 1945.
“The washing machines”: Mildred Wirt, “Short of Hosiery and Housing, G.I. Brides Learn U.S. Ways,” Toledo Times, March 21, 1946.
“I lived in”: Mildred Wirt, “War-Torn Repatriate Families to ‘Celebrate’ Christmas Here,” Toledo Times, n.d. (December 1946).
“I was a tired writer”: Sally Vallongo, “Thoroughly Marvelous Millie,” Toledo Blade, December 23, 2001.
“The salary is so excellent/I do feel”: Mildred Wirt to Harriet Adams, October 15, 1944, SSR/NYPL, box 44.
“A synopsis”: Harriet Adams to Mildred Wirt, October 13, 1944, SSR/NYPL, box 30.
“Mrs. Wirt certainly is”: Edna Squier to Harriet Adams, October 23, 1944, SSR/NYPL, box 46.
“I think our plan”: Harriet Adams to Mildred Wirt, December 5, 1944, SSR/NYPL box 30.
“A convincing/Before getting off the subject”: Harriet Adams to Edna Squier, March 22, 1945, SSR/NYPL, box 46.
“Two hundred ninety-five thousand”: Bard, p. 362.
“During the past”: Mildred Wirt to Harriet Adams, September 8, 1945, private collection of Geoffrey S. Lapin.
“The MS”: author unknown, memo, n.d. (July 1946), SSR/NYPL, box 46.
“Nancy does not seem”: Harriet Adams to Mildred Wirt, July 18, 1946, SSR/NYPL, box 30.
“Right now we are”: Harriet Adams to Edna Squier, July 18, 1946, SSR/NYPL, box 29.
“Drop her from the S.S.”: Edna Squier to Harriet Adams, July 22, 1946, SSR/NYPL, box 46.
“Recently I have reflected”: Harriet Adams to Gordon Allison, May 15, 1947, SSR/NYPL, box 33.
“I was rather amazed”: Harriet Adams to Edna Squier, January 6, 1947, SSR/NYPL, box 29.
“Actually, the picture”: Harriet Adams to Edna Squier, June 30, 1947, SSR/NYPL, box 46.
“On the day that”: Mildred Wirt to Harriet Adams, June 9, 1947, SSR/NYPL, box 44.
“It was with surprise”: Harriet Adams to Mildred Wirt, June 18, 1947, SSR/NYPL, box 30.
“You will notice”: Harriet Adams to Mildred Wirt, July 30, 1947, SSR/NYPL, box 30.
“All one can do”: Mildred Wirt to Harriet Adams, June 22, 1947, SSR/NYPL, box 44.
CHAPTER ELEVEN: THE KIDS ARE HEP
“We feel here”: Hugh Juergens to Harriet Adams, February 28, 1944, SSR/NYPL, box 39.
“The ultimate symbol”: Tyler May, p. 492.
“In 1946”: Collins, p. 394.
“Writing in theAtlantic Monthly”: Tyler May, pp. 492–93.
“And though 1947”: Tyler May, p. 493.
“By the middle/they were afraid”: Betty Friedan, The Feminine Mystique (1963; repr., New York: W. W. Norton, 2001), p. 16.
“She can be independent”: Sara M. Evans, Born for Liberty: A History of Women in America (New York: Free Press, 1989), p. 261.
“We married what”: Tyler May, pp. 496–97.
“Rosie the Riveter”: Collins, p. 397.
“According to one study”: Tyler May, p. 518.
“The tail is now”: “Children Want Realism in Books, Authors Guild Told,” Publishers Weekly, October 29, 1949, p. 1895.
“With life going along”: Harriet Adams to Edna Squier, October 4, 1946, SSR/NYPL, box 29.
“I have had a feeling”: Harriet Adams to Hugh Juergens, February 12, 1948, SSR/NYPL, box 39.
“Carry on your negotiations”: Hugh Juergens to Harriet Adams, February 3, 1948, SSR/NYPL, box 39.
“No prospective”: Harriet Adams to Edna Squier, November 17, 1948, SSR/NYPL, box 46.
“Interested in the church”: Harriet Adams to Edna Squier, March 31, 1948, SSR/NYPL, box 46.
“Mr. Svenson plans”: Harriet Adams to Edna Squier, April 20, 1948, SSR/NYPL, box 46.
“My long period of good health”: Harriet Adams to Edna Squier, June 5, 1949, SSR/NYPL, box 46.
“I believe he eventually”: Harriet Adams to Edna Squier, April 26, 1949, SSR/NYPL, box 46.
“‘Author of Children’s Books’”: Ira Brock, “Author of Children’s Book Works Out Endings First; Finds System Pays Off,” Toledo Blade, August 8, 1949.
“The only confidential”: Harriet Adams to Edna Squier, April 30, 1948, SSR/NYPL, box 46.
“Generally writers, eager for”: Hannibal Towle, “The League for the Preservation of Prose,” n.d. or newspaper name. George Benson file, Toledo Blade Library.
“He was a gregarious soul”: “George Benson,” Toledo Times, March 1, 1959.
“The new Dana book”: Harriet Adams to Edna Squier, August 10, 1951, SSR/NYPL, box 46.
“Only ten feet”: Melanie Rehak telephone interview with Bill Kennedy, August 4, 2003.
“I feel quite stale”: Tyler May, p. 503.
“They expect us”: Harriet Adams to Edna Squier, February 23, 1950, SSR/NYPL, box 46.
“Last fall”: Harriet Adams to Edna Squier, February 7, 1951, SSR/NYPL, box 46.
“The attitude over at G&D”: Harriet Adams to Edna Squier, February 28, 1951, SSR/NYPL, box 46.
“We have had so much trouble”: Harriet Adams to Edna Squier, September 23, 1952, SSR/NYPL, box 46.
“Apparently you expect”: Edna Squier to Harriet Adams, October 1, 1952, SSR/NYPL, box 46.
“Traveled to New York”: Mildred Benson to Harriet Adams, March 8, 1952, SSR/NYPL, box 33.
“Reference sheets”: n.d. (early 1950s), SSR/NYPL, box 239.
“Whether we do yarns about”: “Tom, Jr.,” New Yorker, March 20, 1954.
“By the end of the decade”: Heiferman/Kismaric, p. 84.
“The publicatio
n that”: Heiferman/Kismaric, p. 109.
“Even the proudest”: “The Grinch & Co.,” Time, December 23, 1957, p. 74.
“Translated and sold overseas”: For the information in this section, I am indebted to Lea Shangraw Fox’s comprehensive Web site about foreign editions of Nancy Drew, www.nancydrewworld.com.
“I am constantly”: Harriet Adams to Edna Squier, October 8, 1957, SSR/NYPL, box 46.
“As I sat there”: Hugh Juergens to Harriet Adams and Andrew Svenson, March 10, 1955, SSR/NYPL, box 46.
“Better watch the office”: Edna Squier to Harriet Adams, March 7, 1951, SSR/NYPL, box 46.
“In your recent letter”: Harriet Adams to Edna Squier, November 28, 1956, SSR/NYPL, box 46.
“Tried to buy her sister out”: Stanley L. Gedney Jr. to Edna Squier, July 29, 1957, SSR/NYPL, box 46.
“Offhand I would say”: John O’Connor to Harriet Adams, August 26, 1958, SSR/NYPL, box 39.
“The ‘here and now’”: “Dorothy the Librarian,” Life, February 16, 1959.
“Very thoroughly, to see”: Harriet Adams to Anne Hagan, April 19, 1948, SSR/NYPL, box 37.
“Thank you for your”: Harriet Adams to Michael Chanalis, March 4, 1948, SSR/NYPL, box 19.
“The Syndicate is a challenge”: Harriet Adams to Edna Squier, April 8, 1957, SSR/NYPL, box 46.
“It had never occurred to me”: Jean Diefenbach to Grosset & Dunlap, February 15, 1961, SSR/NYPL, box 37.
“All of a sudden”: Harriet Adams to Edna Squier, March 30, 1959, SSR/NYPL, box 46.
“The series will be about”: Andrew Svenson to Edna Squier, September 29, 1965, SSR/NYPL, box 49.
“The publisher could find no”: Andrew Svenson to Mary Kay Stark, January 14, 1978, SSR/NYPL box 49.
“The prolonged suspense”: Heiferman/Kismaric, p. 111.
“The blue convertible”: All excerpts from The Secret of the Old Clock in this section come from Carolyn Keene, The Secret of the Old Clock (New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1959).
“I think an editor/You say Nancy”: Harriet Adams to Anne Hagan, February 15, 1961, SSR/NYPL, box 37.
“We are expanding”: Harriet Adams to Jim Lawrence, April 5, 1961, SSR/NYPL, box 41.
“Our company rarely accepts”: Harriet Adams to unknown, August 18, 1969, SSR/NYPL, box 32.
“Harriet had her own”: Deborah Felder, “Nancy Drew: Then and Now,” Publishers Weekly, May 30, 1985.
“My idea is to have”: Harriet Adams to Anne Hagan, August 11, 1966, SSR/NYPL, box 38.
“I wish you would dress”: Harriet Adams to Martha Leder, July 13, 1966, SSR/NYPL, box 38.
“Though it is not”: Harriet Adams to Martha Leder, February 17, 1966, SSR/NYPL, box 36.
“I do not like”: Harriet Adams to Martha Leder, January 24, 1968, SSR/NYPL, box 36.
“I presently am”: Mildred Benson to Frank Paluka, July 7, 1964, MAWB/IWA, box 1.
“Richard and Pat Nixon’s visit”: Mildred Benson, “Pat Worth Waiting for, Station Crowd Indicates,” Toledo Times, n.d., memory book of Mildred Augustine, 1922–1928, MAWB/IWA, box 2.
“Radiation shelters”: Mildred Benson, “Cooking in a Radiation Shelter Found Easy Once You’ve Mastered Tricks,” Toledo Times, September 18, 1961.
“Much of my early work”: Mildred Benson to Frank Paluka, July 7, 1964, MAWB/IWA, box 1.
CHAPTER TWELVE: NANCY IN THE AGE OF AQUARIUS
“In 1960”: Betty Friedan, The Feminine Mystique (1963; repr., New York: W. W. Norton, 2001), pp. 22, 25.
“Though total sales”: Manuel Siwek to Harriet Adams (telegram), March 25, 1963, SSR/NYPL, box 40.
“Sales of series in the United States”: Manuel Siwek to Harriet Adams, March 23, 1965, SSR/NYPL, box 44.
“The pages ofMademoiselle”: “The Lives and Times of Nancy Drew,” Mademoiselle, July 1964, pp. 28–39.
“Again, may I say”: Harriet Adams to Leo Lerman, May 12, 1964, and June 30, 1964, SSR/NYPL, box 42.
“It is my hope”: “Harriet Stratemeyer (Mrs. Russell V. Adams),” Wellesley College Record, 1964.
“That ghostly dancer”: All excerpts from The Clue of the Dancing Puppet in this section come from Carolyn Keene, The Clue of the Dancing Puppet (New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1962).
“Perfectly ordinary looking”: Tyler May, pp. 526–27.
“That same year/first acknowledgment/ardently determined”: William H. Chafe, “The Road to Equality: 1962-Today,” in No Small Courage: A History of Women in the United States, ed. Nancy F. Cott (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000), pp. 526–27, 535–37, 545 (hereafter cited as Chafe).
“In 1963 a poster”: Betty Friedan book tour poster, October 29, 1962, reprinted in No Small Courage: A History of Women in the United States, ed. Nancy F. Cott (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000), p. 539.
“The percentage of married women”: Chafe, p. 534.
“The final ingredient/macho radicalism”: Chafe, pp. 551–52.
“Integration, not separation”: Chafe, p. 555.
“off our backs”: September 30, 1970, cover reprinted in No Small Courage: A History of Women in the United States, ed. Nancy F. Cott (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000), p. 560.
“When you have to top”: Grosset & Dunlap sales flyer, SSR/NYPL, box 39.
“Titian-haired/Remember how”: Nancy Moss, “Nancy Drew: Her Popularity with Young Readers Is No Mystery,” Chicago Tribune, January 23, 1966.
“The dauntless, bewitching”: Arthur Prager, “The Secret of Nancy Drew—Pushing Forty and Still Going Strong,” Saturday Review, January 25, 1969 (hereafter cited as Prager).
“Your inference”: Harriet Adams to Anne Hagan, October 19, 1960, SSR/NYPL, box 37.
“Mr. Karig never was”: Harriet Adams to Bob Moore, January 7, 1965, SSR/NYPL, box 39.
“Needless to say”: Harriet Adams to William Morris, December 8, 1966, SSR/NYPL, box 32.
“I am also enclosing”: Harriet Adams to Frieda and Sam Tannenbaum, October 21, 1966, SSR/NYPL, box 33.
“It will give you an idea”: Harriet Adams to Betty Marks, December 19, 1966, SSR/NYPL, box 39.
“Decided she was going to”: Melanie Rehak interview with Nancy Axelrad, Indianapolis, IN, June 14, 2003.
“‘This granny’”: “This Granny Masterminds the Thrills and Spills,” Star Johannesburg (South Africa), July 6, 1968.
“In a piece”: Judy Klemesrud, “100 Books—and Not a Hippie in Them,” New York Times, April 4, 1968.
“He owned”: partnership agreement, January 1, 1961, SSP/Beinecke, box 1, folder 9.
“One secretary”: Carlette Winslow, “Alias Carolyn Keene,” Suburban Life, February 1968.
“Most of us have learned to read”: Mike McGrady, “The East Orange Gold Mine Mystery,” New York Newsday, June 29, 1968.
“The Bobbsey Twins in Sexville?”: Advertisement for Billy & Betty, a novel by Twiggs Jameson, SSR/NYPL, box 43.
“Apparently there is a rock-ribbed”: Prager.
“A pilot out barnstorming”: Mildred Benson, “First Ride in a Jenny, Led My Way to Flight,” Toledo Blade, December 30, 1970.
“Touch the throttle”: Mildred Benson, “First Solo Flight—It’s a Wonderful Feeling,” Toledo Times, August 29, 1966.
“A three-day dugout canoe”: Mildred Benson, “A Woman Dares the Jungle,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, November 26, 1967.
“The quaint world/Carolyn Keene was alive and well”: Geoffrey S. Lapin, “Carolyn Keene, pseud.,” Yellowback Library, July/August 1983.
“The Artful Ways of Millie”: James A. Treloar, “The Artful Ways of Millie,” Detroit News, August 13, 1971.
“Acrobatic airplane”: Mildred Benson, “Test Flight Reveals New Businessman Thrills,” Toledo Times, June 16, 1969.
“Women these days”: Mildred Benson, “Women Don Coveralls, Work on Planes,” Toledo Times, March 23, 1968.
“Ms., the first national”: Information about the creation and history of Ms. comes from www.msmagazine.com/about
.asp and Chafe.
“By the mid-70s”: Chafe, p. 563.
“I believe in freedom”: Susan Stamberg interview with Mildred Benson, Weekend Edition, All Things Considered, National Public Radio, April 10, 1993.
“‘She’s Studying to Be’”: Mildred Benson, “She’s Studying to Be Aggressive,” Toledo Times, July 26, 1969.
“Women of Toledo”: Mildred Benson, “Are Toledo Gals Militant?” Toledo Times, August 24, 1970.
“For all her nay-saying”: Mildred Benson, “Male Psyches Shaken, Millie Reports as She Lands New Broadside,” Toledo Times, October 28, 1970.
“Are you hurting your daughter”: Ann Aliasberg, “Are You Hurting Your Daughter without Knowing It?” Family Circle, February 1971.
“Psychologists say that”: John T. Cunningham, “Where the Bobbseys Live,” Newark News, March 23, 1973.
“She’s an atypical”: Julia Kagan, “Nancy Drew—18 Going on 50,” McCall’s, July 1973.
“Nancy Drew Circle”: Caroline Drewes, “The Modern Vibes of Nancy Drew,” San Francisco Sunday Examiner and Chronicle, February 11, 1973.
“Is it possible”: Rose DeWolf, “The REAL Mystery Behind Nancy Drew,” Philadelphia Bulletin Sunday Magazine, January 13, 1974.
“A DETECTIVE NEEDS ENERGY”: Carolyn Keene, The Nancy Drew Cookbook: Clues to Good Cooking (New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1977), p. 18.
“There are some books”: Leo McConnell, “Book-Lookin’,” n.d. (June or July 1973), newspaper unknown, SSR/NYPL, box 239.
“People are always asking me”: Georgia Smith, “For Nancy Drew, Cooking Is No Mystery Now,” New York Daily News, August 3, 1973.
“A first-person essay”: Jane Ginsburg, “And Then There Is Good Old Nancy Drew,” Ms., January 1974.
“On cookies”: memo from Andrew Svenson to Harriet Adams, November 18, 1970, SSR/NYPL, box 47.
“I think THE NANCY DREW COOKBOOK”: memo from Eric Svenson to the Stratemeyer Syndicate, April 30, 1973, SSR/NYPL, box 32.
“Every reader”: Carolyn Keene, The Nancy Drew Sleuth Book: Clues to Good Sleuthing (New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1979).
CHAPTER THIRTEEN: BECOMING THE GIRL DETECTIVE
“I feel you overstepped”: Harriet Adams to Anne Hagan, January 27, 1972, SSR/NYPL, box 38.
Girl Sleuth Page 35