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The ’80s, ’90s and 2000s saw several attempts to make over Nancy, in books and onscreen. He described this new heroine, in a memo to his publishers, as “an up-to-date American girl at her best, bright, clever, resourceful and full of energy.” Her name, he suggested, might be Stella Strong. Having already created “The Hardy Boys,” Stratemeyer wanted a detective who could capture the hearts and pocket money of girls. ‘An Up-To-Date American Girl’Įdward Stratemeyer, the head of a children’s literature syndicate, first imagined Nancy Drew in 1929.

How and why has Nancy evolved from her tweed-suited origins to her new role as a thoroughly modern snoop? Grab your magnifying glass. “At the core is the idea of a young woman who believes in righting wrongs and finding the truth,” said Stephanie Savage, a creator of the series. He goes by Nick now, and he has a record. Brittle, adrift, this Nancy is grieving her mother, sparring with her father and having casual sex with Ned Nickerson. 9, she returns again, in “Nancy Drew,” an hourlong drama on CW with a contemporary spin and a supernatural kick. “It’s very hard to disconnect her from the decades and decades of cultural presence that she has had,” she said. She has been reinvented, in ways that fans have not always embraced, for seemingly every era.Įach new adaptation has to reckon, Rehak explained, with the Nancy readers think they know.

Never out of print, she has appeared in more than 250 books and counting, in movies, on television shows, in CD-ROM games. Over the years, Nancy has aged up and down her hair has morphed from blond to red to strawberry she has acquired best friends, Bess Marvin and George Fayne, and a loyal boyfriend, Ned Nickerson. “She’s a force for good, unafraid to speak up, unafraid to challenge authority,” said Melanie Rehak, the author of “Girl Sleuth: Nancy Drew and the Women Who Created Her.” Warshawski, Veronica Mars and Betty Cooper of “Riverdale” owe her a tip of the cloche hat. No matter how many bowling balls and candelabras bludgeon her, she keeps sleuthing.

Introduced as “a pretty girl of 16” on the first page of “The Secret of the Old Clock” in 1930, Nancy has inspired generations of readers ( Sonia Sotomayor, Oprah Winfrey and Hillary Clinton among them) with her style and pluck. Nancy Drew, the girl detective who could pick a lock, play the bagpipes, tap Morse Code in high heels and drive her blue roadster like a Daytona champ, turns 90 next year.

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