Customer Reviews

The Mysterious Case of Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

"The Mysterious Case of Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys" takes the reader back to the origin of the Hardy Boys Mystery Series and the Nancy Drew books. While the two series have Franklin W Dixon and Carolyn Keene listed as the authors, neither author actually exists are a person. They are both creations of the Stratemeyer Syndicate. The Stratemeyer Syndicate was the "writing factory" started by Edward Stratemeyer as a means to churn out book after book in a series that he conceived of. He would contract an author to write a book with the requirement the author sign away all rights to the book and to remain anonymous. This led to the birth of Franklin W Dixon and Carolyn Keene (as well as the Tom Swift series, among others).

This book is the history and evolution of these two iconic series for children. The reader is shown how society has influenced the content of the novels, both in the language used as well as the plots. When the Hardy Boys first began in the late 1920's and into the 30's, there early volumes contained numerous racial stereotypes, both among the bad guys as well as the Hardys' friends. Later editions would edit these stereotypes out. This book follows the series through their various authors as well as the change in the focus of the Syndicate after the death of Edward Stratemeyer.

One thing that the authors of this book try to do is tie both series into the society of the time (whether it is the 1930's of the early series, the 1950's or the 1980's). This attempt is what I found less successful or interesting about the book. There are numerous sidebars and pictures and captions about the America's youth during each era and how the books impacted the youth and I felt that this information was extraneous and unnecessary.

What is most interesting about this book is the evolution of the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew. The characters changed over the 75 years and the books continue to sell. This coverage was the best part of the book and is what I would recommend for the reader. Nothing would be lost by just skipping the sidebars. I do feel that the authors have overstated the influence of these characters, but I cannot question the popularity of the Hardys or Nancy Drew.(...)

GREAT info for the Nancy Drew lover. This would get 5 stars for the inclusion of photos from the books alone. The writing could have been more detailed and written a bit better. I DID like that the authors included information from the period during which the NDs were written -- the '30s through today -- and how teens were changing over the years. Nancy Drew changed and grew along with today's teens, although die-hard fans wish the syndicate hadn't changed a WORD.

I was a little disappointed with the reading of the book, but had just finished "The Nancy Drew Scrapbook" which is AWESOME, so that might be why I was expecting more from this book. I LOVED all the photos, tho, lots of nostalgia!

This book is fun to look at. Dozens of photos, large and small, pay tribute to the most popular series characters in English-language fiction. As a child I used to stand in front of rows of these books in bookstores, poring over the covers, for hours at a time. The covers have a talismanic quality this book neatly captures. Interior line drawings (including the "frontispiece" illustrations in each book) also appear throughout this large-format book. Unfortunately none of the Drew/Hardy pictures are labelled, so unless you know the originals you can't pair them to the book. The potted history of the Stratemeyer syndicate is clearly if breezily presented, with excerpts from letters indicating the tensions behind the scenes between publishers and Harriet Stratemeyer Adams, who assumed control of the empire after her father died in 1930, just as the Drew series was about to start (three years after the Hardy series had taken off). The authors document almost nothing, though, so you can't easily use the book for research purposes. Still, these authors condescend to the series characters far less than most academic writers have -- it's nice to read complimentary things about the power of the books on kids who have literally read them to pieces over the decades. The main problem with this book is that it goes far afield to encompass a general social history of the last century. We get inset mini-essays on adolescence, "model dads" (from FDR to MLK), juvenile delinquents, "Seventeen" magazine, the influence of TV, etc. The inset coverage is superficial, reading like canned newsmagazine features. Anyone who picks up the book to read about Drew/Hardy is unlikely to care about this material. Fortunately, there is still plenty about Drew/Hardy, with generous quotes from both the original books and updated rewrites of the Grosset and Dunlap series. The authors treat each series as one long book, looking for trends in plots and characterizations -- Nancy is "locked in closets, attics, gymnasiums, cisterns, caves, and submarines," they note. They're also good on the media and pop culture variations of the characters, from Disney TV adaptations to board games. The paperback watering-down of the characters in the 1980s gets softer treatment than it deserves, since this book's publisher (Simon and Schuster) owns the Stratemeyer Syndicate now and published them. The book is worth seeing, as long as readers knowit lacks full focus on Drew/Hardy, and often doesn't reveal its sources.

Occasionally, when I desire a change of pace in my reading, I will go through some of the Hardy Boys or Nancy Drew books from the early years, the fifties, sixties and then nineties. In my opinion, there are few better ways to track the social changes in the role and perception of people in their early teens. Along with most of the boys I knew, I devoured Hardy Boys books and the girl that sat next to me in fifth grade always had a Nancy Drew volume in her hands.
This book is an examination of those two series of books; one of the most interesting points is one that I have also noted. In the early years of the Nancy Drew series, approximately the thirties, Nancy was very much ahead of her time. She was willing to step into danger and this was a time when women were considered the weaker sex and legally and socially disallowed from being headstrong and independent. Unfortunately, this changed in the fifties; quite frankly the Nancy Drew of the fifties is boring, rarely generating significant interest. Fortunately, she is now very much a modern girl with energy and independence worthy of a teenage girl at the beginning of the twenty-first century.
On the other hand, the Hardy Boys remained independent thinkers and doers, always being warned and worried over by their mother and Aunt Gertrude, yet stepping forcefully into danger without a second thought. Given the changes in crime and technology, they too have been reorganized into the modern world.
Profusely illustrated and with many parallels to the associated social changes emphasized, this is a book that rekindled many fond memories as I recalled my frustration as a child that the local library only had approximately 30 of the books in the Hardy Boys series. They were read, re-read and passed around like the valuable jewels that they were to us.

This beautifully packaged, colourful, but thin paperback unearths the long history of the Stratemeyer Syndicate's greatest heroes, the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew. Blown-up covers from both series liven up the book, triggering memories of adrenaline surging through the veins of teenagers everywhere.

The material on how the books changed over the years -- especially the evolution of racial stereotypes of "Negroes," Jews, and Italians -- is truly fascinating. I never realized that the books I read in the seventies had been homogenized by a factory of authors. I now want to read the original books, if I can find them (eBay here I come!).

I could do without most of the overlong and annoying sidebars. Again and again they fill us in on how teens have changed over the last century, but seldom are the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew even mentioned in them!

I give this book an "A" for the terrific images and accurate and enlightening history, but overall, marred by some poor editorial decisions, the book deserves a "B." Still, this is required reading for those interested in pop culture and the literature of our youth. Now I'm off to solve the Secret of the Caves . . .

This descriptive book shows great book photos from the '30s and later and describes what life was like back then! It describes TV shows of the time, and how Nancy Drew sparked interest in female sleuths like Jessica Fletcher of Murder She Wrote! Teens of the time are described, and how Nancy Drew became an important positive role model for all young women. Hat off to the authors!

This book was such a treat for me I finished it in just two days. A wonderful "behind-the-scenes" look at each series and how they started and evolved. Sure, I suppose it serves as a commentary on changing teenage social values etc. etc., but, like the series books themselves (which I secretly still enjoy reading), I just found it to be a lot of fun to read. Thanks, Carole and Marvin!!!

A fascinating mix of facts about the great teen detectives--Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys-- and how they came into being as well as fun nostalgia that takes boomers back to their childhood when having adventures with the sleuths was a joy we all looked forward to. Learn about everything from the detective genre in America to the origins of the concept of "teenager" to how teens got real power and propeled America into becoming a youth culture. Great illustrations from the books and photographs bring to life what it's meant to be a teenager from the late 1920s through the 1970s. A must read and a great gift!!!

This book, both a smart cultural history of Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys and a fine picture book, is truly amazing. The text and sidebars read as truly serious history writing; but they are also well-written, fun, clever, and thought-provoking. This is the fifth book I've read by the team of Kismaric and Heiferman (e.g., GROWING UP WITH DICK AND JANE) and I must say I'm impressed with their utterly new and perceptive approach to popular culture in America.

What impressed me most about the book is its discussion of how gender (and gender biases) played a crucial role in the creation of these time-honored characters. I am also impressed with the authors' discussion of how the social realities of adolescence--from the horror of war and protest to the evolution of new technologies--shaped the spirit and sensibility of these characters. It will be difficult for me to EVER think of them in the same way. As a real fan of Nancy Drew (I worshipped her as a teenager growing up in rural Ohio), I was transported back to my adolescence. The pictures are perfect--moving, informative, nostalgic without being sentimental.

I would recommend this book to anyone interested in the Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, teenage life, or American culture and politics of the past 75 years. It's a great and beautiful book.

Although this book was a great idea and fun to read, it should have included more illustrations of the various book covers and just how valuable some of the originals are and focused a bit less on teen culture. The book does an excellent job of giving the history of the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew and how the books came to be written and just how popular they still are. I believe the Hardy Boys should have been on the front cover and not the back cover. After reading this book it makes one wonder why so many of the books are out of print! They are excellent reading for kids of all ages and teach some valuable lessons that one won't get from video games!