WEBVTT - The Case of the Two Nancy Drews 0:00:09.162 --> 0:00:10.202 Art originals. 0:00:10.362 --> 0:00:13.042 This is an iHeart original. 0:00:13.922 --> 0:00:17.002 So as the woman here at very special episodes, I 0:00:17.002 --> 0:00:20.362 feel like it's incumbent upon me to note that, as 0:00:20.402 --> 0:00:24.522 we all know, Friday, March eighth is International Women's Day, 0:00:24.722 --> 0:00:26.682 So it feels important at least to take a few 0:00:26.722 --> 0:00:29.042 minutes at the top of the episode to honor some 0:00:29.082 --> 0:00:31.642 of the incredible women in our lives, especially because this 0:00:31.762 --> 0:00:34.442 is such a female centric episode. 0:00:34.642 --> 0:00:36.202 So Dana, I'm going to queue you up. 0:00:36.642 --> 0:00:39.282 I don't think we need my perspective as a father 0:00:39.402 --> 0:00:41.802 of daughters, nephew of aunts. 0:00:41.882 --> 0:00:42.722 Why don't you tell us. 0:00:42.682 --> 0:00:45.762 About a professional person in your life who's been an 0:00:45.802 --> 0:00:48.042 idol or a mentor, Oh. 0:00:47.882 --> 0:00:50.402 My god, an idle. I have a lot of idols. 0:00:51.442 --> 0:00:55.802 Alyssa Mastromonico, who is just an incredible woman in person. 0:00:56.242 --> 0:00:59.122 She worked in the Obama administration and now I've worked 0:00:59.122 --> 0:01:02.802 with her on this podcast called Hysteria. She's just so 0:01:03.042 --> 0:01:06.442 smart and grounded and cool and down to earth. She's 0:01:06.482 --> 0:01:08.722 just sort of like the model that I try to 0:01:08.762 --> 0:01:11.442 base everything I do on in terms of just like 0:01:11.522 --> 0:01:14.602 other idols. Sometimes when I feel too good about myself, 0:01:14.602 --> 0:01:16.802 I'll read a Joan Didion book and be like Oh, 0:01:17.402 --> 0:01:20.162 we're both writers, but we're not doing the same thing. 0:01:20.482 --> 0:01:21.642 Oh, man, I know exactly what. 0:01:21.642 --> 0:01:23.122 You mean by that. Saren. 0:01:23.282 --> 0:01:27.122 Any any women mentors you want to shout out for 0:01:27.242 --> 0:01:28.482 International Women's Day? 0:01:28.762 --> 0:01:30.202 Oh well, I mean, I wouldn't even be on this 0:01:30.242 --> 0:01:32.762 show with y'all if it wasn't for my two English teachers, 0:01:32.802 --> 0:01:35.482 Vicki Serati and Pamela Mauri. Thank you both. But like 0:01:35.682 --> 0:01:37.762 I have, and I think as a guy, it's incumbent 0:01:37.842 --> 0:01:41.762 upon me to point out how many female role models, 0:01:41.802 --> 0:01:44.722 women who inspire me, Like I have a list here 0:01:44.722 --> 0:01:47.242 before me, Jason, I just kind of jotted down a couple. 0:01:47.642 --> 0:01:52.042 Agatha Christi right, mystery writer, Lucy Parson's political organizer, stage coach, 0:01:52.162 --> 0:01:55.642 Mary Black woman on the front here alone, Erica Jong, writer, 0:01:55.842 --> 0:02:00.242 Bessie Coleman pilot, Thelma Shuna maker editor, Catherine Bigelow filmmaker, 0:02:00.282 --> 0:02:05.122 Agnes Varda filmmaker, Anita Franco Folk sanger, Vera Rubin astronomer, 0:02:05.162 --> 0:02:08.882 Poncho Barnes, pilot friend of the early astronauts, Emily Noather, 0:02:09.122 --> 0:02:12.202 mathematician who developed the theory of least action, and of 0:02:12.242 --> 0:02:14.762 course Amelia Earhart, my first role model. 0:02:15.242 --> 0:02:17.042 So there you go, that's pretty impressed. 0:02:17.042 --> 0:02:19.682 I think we got five or six future episodes out 0:02:19.682 --> 0:02:22.882 of that list right there. Just taking notes, but I 0:02:22.882 --> 0:02:24.842 feel like we should probably start to get to the 0:02:24.882 --> 0:02:29.562 episode here, Dana, in honor of International Women's Day. Yes, 0:02:29.642 --> 0:02:31.802 we're have Zaren tell you the story this week. 0:02:31.922 --> 0:02:34.482 This is great. I get a week off. This is 0:02:34.522 --> 0:02:37.442 exactly how I want to spend International Women's Day. 0:02:38.042 --> 0:02:39.962 Saren, you want to just set this one up for 0:02:40.042 --> 0:02:41.442 us before we get in. 0:02:41.522 --> 0:02:42.722 We'll talk about it at the end. 0:02:43.002 --> 0:02:46.122 Okay, Well, this one is. I loved this story. It 0:02:46.162 --> 0:02:48.242 was told to me, and the question of the story 0:02:48.282 --> 0:02:50.522 I think is so central to the story. I'll just 0:02:50.602 --> 0:02:52.762 hit you with the question, which is, do you know 0:02:52.802 --> 0:02:54.202 who wrote Nancy Drew? 0:02:54.882 --> 0:02:58.522 No, but here's an really embarrassing confession. So I don't 0:02:58.522 --> 0:03:00.282 know who wrote Nancy Drew, just like off the top 0:03:00.322 --> 0:03:02.362 of my head, which I feel like I should. I 0:03:02.482 --> 0:03:04.722 was never a big Nancy Drew kid, but I did 0:03:04.802 --> 0:03:05.922 like the computer games. 0:03:06.042 --> 0:03:07.762 Okay, I feel ja hunky. 0:03:07.842 --> 0:03:10.482 That's my Nancy Drew connection. If anyone shout out to 0:03:10.482 --> 0:03:13.522 the Nancy Drew computer games, hit me up in my DMS. 0:03:13.562 --> 0:03:15.322 If you also loved those games. 0:03:15.082 --> 0:03:17.322 Rereader's gammers. You're all welcome to this story, because this 0:03:17.482 --> 0:03:24.722 is Nancy Drew. In the late nineteen seventies, an eleven 0:03:24.802 --> 0:03:28.162 year old girl was kidnapped from the town of Richfield, Minnesota. 0:03:28.602 --> 0:03:30.842 The eighty pound girl was trapped in the trunk of 0:03:30.882 --> 0:03:35.122 her kidnappers car for fourteen hours. The young girl never 0:03:35.162 --> 0:03:38.322 gave up. She eventually figured out how to escape from 0:03:38.322 --> 0:03:41.602 the trunk of the nineteen seventy Ford. She unscrewed the 0:03:41.642 --> 0:03:44.282 bolts from the car's tail light. Then she kicked out 0:03:44.322 --> 0:03:47.842 the light and squeezed her way out. The girl was 0:03:47.842 --> 0:03:51.882 able to flag down a passing car. How did an 0:03:51.882 --> 0:03:56.002 eleven year old manage to do this simple? She asked herself, 0:03:56.362 --> 0:04:00.002 what would Nancy Drew do? Then she did exactly that. 0:04:00.682 --> 0:04:03.282 The astounded police told the local press that the girl 0:04:03.322 --> 0:04:06.762 had read around forty five Nancy Drew books, and the 0:04:07.002 --> 0:04:10.722 mystery stories prepared her mind to deal with the situation 0:04:11.162 --> 0:04:15.402 and to escape. The story was often repeated in nineteen eighty, 0:04:15.522 --> 0:04:18.842 the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of the first Nancy 0:04:18.922 --> 0:04:21.762 Drew books. Nineteen eighty was also the year that the 0:04:21.802 --> 0:04:26.122 mysterious publishing syndicate behind Nancy Drew was dragged into court 0:04:26.162 --> 0:04:29.202 to settle a dispute over who owned the rights to 0:04:29.242 --> 0:04:33.522 the mystery series. Millions of dollars of profits and royalties 0:04:33.522 --> 0:04:37.562 were on the line. Two women, both accomplished and successful 0:04:37.562 --> 0:04:41.562 in their respective careers, sat in that New York courtroom. 0:04:42.322 --> 0:04:45.442 One was seventy four years old, dressed in a powder 0:04:45.522 --> 0:04:49.082 blue pantsuit and not exactly eager to take the stand. 0:04:49.802 --> 0:04:52.282 The other was an eighty seven year old woman, and 0:04:52.362 --> 0:04:55.642 she owned the publishing house. It had been decades since 0:04:55.682 --> 0:04:58.202 the two women had seen each other. Both would be 0:04:58.242 --> 0:05:01.282 called to testify, and both would swear to the judge 0:05:01.322 --> 0:05:05.562 and jury that she was the real writer behind Nancy Drew. 0:05:09.162 --> 0:05:13.922 Welcome to very special episodes an iHeart original podcast. I'm 0:05:13.962 --> 0:05:17.562 your host, Zaren Burnett, and this is the case of 0:05:17.602 --> 0:05:29.962 the two Nancy Drews. It should be no surprise that 0:05:30.082 --> 0:05:33.122 Nancy Drew has enjoyed an enduring relevance in the culture, 0:05:33.682 --> 0:05:37.282 nor should it surprise anyone that she remains such a 0:05:37.282 --> 0:05:41.322 beloved fictional character. Nancy Drew was and is the plucky 0:05:41.362 --> 0:05:44.082 teen girl detective with a wicked, sharp mind who's just 0:05:44.122 --> 0:05:47.602 as fearless as she is smart, It's a rather irresistible 0:05:47.642 --> 0:05:50.762 combination for a detective. The most interesting mystery of this 0:05:50.842 --> 0:05:54.882 teen girl detective isn't her popularity, and it also isn't 0:05:55.002 --> 0:05:58.642 hidden in the plots of the books. The greatest mystery 0:05:58.762 --> 0:06:01.402 is right there on the cover of the books. It's 0:06:01.442 --> 0:06:04.002 the name of the author. Most folks have no idea 0:06:04.122 --> 0:06:08.682 the author, Carolyn Keene, never really existed, which begs the question, well, then, 0:06:08.802 --> 0:06:13.082 who was Carolyn Keene? That was not the mystery that 0:06:13.162 --> 0:06:16.522 author Melanie Rayjak set out to solve. Melanie originally was 0:06:16.562 --> 0:06:18.842 just looking for a good story to tell. She'd wanted 0:06:18.882 --> 0:06:21.682 to write a biography of the Ohio based journalist in 0:06:21.722 --> 0:06:24.962 general all around badass, Mildred Wirt Benson. 0:06:25.162 --> 0:06:27.002 And there were all these tidbits in the obituary that 0:06:27.042 --> 0:06:28.922 were really fascinating to me, like that she had a 0:06:28.922 --> 0:06:32.362 pilot's license and that she had been a journalist for decades. 0:06:32.802 --> 0:06:35.562 Mildred was the first woman to graduate with a master's 0:06:35.562 --> 0:06:38.762 degree from the University of Iowa's School of Journalism, and 0:06:38.882 --> 0:06:41.202 she went on to be one of America's great mid 0:06:41.242 --> 0:06:45.002 century journalists, one who happened to be a woman. Mildred's 0:06:45.002 --> 0:06:48.242 other claim to fame. She was the main writer behind 0:06:48.242 --> 0:06:50.922 the Nancy Drew books. There was another big reason that 0:06:50.962 --> 0:06:52.682 Melanie was interested in that fact. 0:06:53.122 --> 0:06:55.522 I was a crazy Nancy Drew reader. 0:06:55.642 --> 0:06:58.722 These books were sort of always floating around in our house, 0:06:59.162 --> 0:07:01.962 and I read all of them millions of times. 0:07:02.322 --> 0:07:05.442 But as she started looking through Mildred's archives, she kept 0:07:05.482 --> 0:07:08.162 running across something else, another. 0:07:07.842 --> 0:07:11.402 Name I kept coming across. Threaded in with all of 0:07:11.442 --> 0:07:14.522 her stuff about you know, her upbringing and her schoolwork 0:07:14.562 --> 0:07:16.762 and all the things she'd done in Iowa and her 0:07:16.762 --> 0:07:21.442 career afterwards, these stories about Harriet Straatemeyer. And although clearly 0:07:21.522 --> 0:07:25.122 was connected to Nancy Drew, that seems odd to me 0:07:25.242 --> 0:07:28.522 that she would preserve the story of this other person 0:07:28.642 --> 0:07:30.762 in her personal documents. 0:07:31.162 --> 0:07:34.482 It grabbed Melanie's full attention, intrigued her, and as she 0:07:34.562 --> 0:07:37.162 looked further into it, she hit upon a realization. 0:07:37.962 --> 0:07:40.282 It kind of emerged, you know, as if sort of 0:07:40.322 --> 0:07:43.682 out of the ether. I was like, oh, she's preserved 0:07:43.722 --> 0:07:48.442 this story because there are these competing narratives about how 0:07:48.522 --> 0:07:49.722 Nancy Drew came to be. 0:07:50.522 --> 0:07:53.682 Melanie stepped into her own real life Nancy Drew mystery. 0:07:53.802 --> 0:07:55.882 It was up to her to solve the mystery of 0:07:56.122 --> 0:08:01.682 who is the real Carolyn Keene. The next thing Melanie 0:08:01.722 --> 0:08:04.922 Rayjak discovered was that she was not alone. Others had 0:08:04.922 --> 0:08:08.682 also attempted to solve this mystery before her, most importantly 0:08:08.842 --> 0:08:12.122 one other teen detective Jeffrey s. Laban. 0:08:12.402 --> 0:08:16.242 He didn't do it for anything. He did it for Mildred. 0:08:16.602 --> 0:08:19.282 I think that to be a fan is to be 0:08:19.322 --> 0:08:25.162 a volunteer champion, and is only ever motivated by love 0:08:25.242 --> 0:08:28.162 and passion. And those are great things in the world. 0:08:28.482 --> 0:08:32.042 Motivated by love and passion. This quite accurately describes our 0:08:32.082 --> 0:08:34.522 other amateur detective, Jeffrey s Laban. 0:08:34.762 --> 0:08:36.162 Jeff is fine, saves time. 0:08:36.642 --> 0:08:39.722 Jeff is a retired cellist. He played for four decades 0:08:39.762 --> 0:08:43.362 with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. He is a man powered 0:08:43.442 --> 0:08:46.042 by love and passion. Back when he was a boy 0:08:46.122 --> 0:08:48.602 in the nineteen fifties, he was a young reader of 0:08:48.722 --> 0:08:52.722 series mystery books. Later, those same forces would fuel his 0:08:52.842 --> 0:08:56.282 desire to solve the mystery of who is the real 0:08:56.442 --> 0:08:57.562 Carolyn Keene. 0:08:57.802 --> 0:09:00.682 One of the department stores downtown would have once a 0:09:00.762 --> 0:09:04.642 year a sale on children's series books, and so it 0:09:04.682 --> 0:09:07.682 would generally be the first two or the three volumes 0:09:07.682 --> 0:09:08.522 of each series. 0:09:09.202 --> 0:09:11.482 His mother would order a box of these books for 0:09:11.522 --> 0:09:14.362 her young, voracious reader, and one of those boxes of 0:09:14.402 --> 0:09:16.842 books would change the shape and the course of her 0:09:16.882 --> 0:09:17.962 young son's life. 0:09:18.162 --> 0:09:21.842 I remember that the first one that I opened to 0:09:21.882 --> 0:09:25.242 read was The Hidden Staircase. And here she sneaks into 0:09:25.282 --> 0:09:28.642 the house during a rainstorm, and while she is hiding 0:09:28.682 --> 0:09:32.082 in the closet in this room, she feels something poking 0:09:32.202 --> 0:09:34.602 in her back, and she turns around and pushes it, 0:09:34.922 --> 0:09:38.562 and its door slides open, and she falls down this 0:09:39.202 --> 0:09:40.642 long stone staircase. 0:09:42.042 --> 0:09:45.402 Jeff poured through all of the available Nancy Drew books. 0:09:45.642 --> 0:09:48.442 Along the way, he grew more and more enamored with 0:09:48.482 --> 0:09:51.802 the voice of this author. What so clearly resonated with 0:09:51.842 --> 0:09:54.762 young Jeff was not just the dark and moody vibe, 0:09:55.042 --> 0:09:57.722 but also the mysterious presence on the other side of 0:09:57.762 --> 0:10:00.642 the page. He'd read a lot of series books, but 0:10:00.682 --> 0:10:03.082 the writing of the Nancy Drew books was a cut above. 0:10:03.562 --> 0:10:06.602 Over time, Jeff also noticed that in some Nancy Drew 0:10:06.602 --> 0:10:10.282 books the writing was noticeably better than in others. He 0:10:10.322 --> 0:10:12.842 didn't yet know it then, but even as a young reader, 0:10:13.202 --> 0:10:17.362 Jeff could intuitively tell one writer hadn't written all of 0:10:17.402 --> 0:10:21.122 the books in the Nancy Drew series. Indeed, there was 0:10:21.322 --> 0:10:25.202 more than one Carolyn Keene. What that meant was a 0:10:25.202 --> 0:10:27.882 mystery yet for him to solve. But soon enough he 0:10:27.922 --> 0:10:30.842 would discover that truth, which would lead to the most 0:10:30.842 --> 0:10:34.602 important question, who is the heroine of this tale? And 0:10:34.722 --> 0:10:38.442 could that same woman also be the villain? Our two 0:10:38.482 --> 0:10:42.842 amateur detectives, Jeff and Melanie, were both undaunted. They'd cracked 0:10:42.842 --> 0:10:55.762 this case, just like their girl, Nancy Drew. The long 0:10:55.842 --> 0:10:58.642 hot days of summer finally gave way to the embrace 0:10:58.722 --> 0:11:02.322 of the cool and brisk of autumn. It was nineteen 0:11:02.362 --> 0:11:05.802 twenty nine September, to be exact. Looking to the future, 0:11:05.842 --> 0:11:08.322 a businessman put his thoughts to paper as he typed 0:11:08.402 --> 0:11:11.842 up a memo. Edward Stratamier had first started his company 0:11:11.882 --> 0:11:15.642 Stratamire Syndicate back in nineteen oh five. Back then, he 0:11:15.722 --> 0:11:18.642 wrote and published dime novels, most notably books that were 0:11:18.682 --> 0:11:22.722 aimed at children. This was his main business series books, 0:11:23.002 --> 0:11:27.122 adventure books, mystery books. He was quite good a natural storyteller. 0:11:27.722 --> 0:11:30.522 Edward eventually began to use pen names so he could 0:11:30.522 --> 0:11:34.122 write more and more books in different genres. Soon enough, 0:11:34.282 --> 0:11:36.402 he couldn't keep up with all of the contracts for 0:11:36.522 --> 0:11:39.882 books he had signed, so he hired ghostwriters. He'd come 0:11:39.962 --> 0:11:41.802 up with the story and they'd write it out. 0:11:42.202 --> 0:11:43.122 To keep things. 0:11:42.842 --> 0:11:45.882 Simple and to make sure that there were plenty of books, 0:11:46.202 --> 0:11:49.282 Edward attached a pen name to each series. That way, 0:11:49.322 --> 0:11:52.522 if the author behind it changed, the public would never 0:11:52.562 --> 0:11:56.162 be the wiser. This marked the true beginning of the 0:11:56.282 --> 0:12:00.602 Stratamier syndicate, and then for decades his firm cranked out 0:12:00.722 --> 0:12:03.962 series novels meant to be devoured by young readers. His 0:12:04.082 --> 0:12:08.442 business plan proved steadily profitable. In nineteen twenty nine, Edward 0:12:08.442 --> 0:12:11.282 Stratemier had an idea for a new series. He put 0:12:11.282 --> 0:12:14.162 his thinking down in a memo. It was straightforward, matter 0:12:14.242 --> 0:12:16.122 of fact, as was his style. 0:12:17.362 --> 0:12:20.642 These suggestions are for a new series for girls verging 0:12:20.682 --> 0:12:24.162 on novels. I've called this line the Stella Strong Stories. 0:12:24.442 --> 0:12:27.562 Stella Strong, a girl of sixteen, is the daughter of 0:12:27.602 --> 0:12:30.202 a district attorney. He is a widower and often talks 0:12:30.242 --> 0:12:34.722 over his affairs with Stella. Then, quite unexpectedly, Stella plunged 0:12:34.762 --> 0:12:37.442 into some mysteries of her own and found herself wound 0:12:37.522 --> 0:12:40.522 up in a series of exciting situations and up to 0:12:40.602 --> 0:12:45.082 date American girl at her best, Bright, clever, resourceful, and 0:12:45.162 --> 0:12:45.922 full of energy. 0:12:49.002 --> 0:12:51.842 Edward found a partner in a small publishing house called 0:12:51.962 --> 0:12:55.122 Grosset and Dunlap. They agreed to a contract for three 0:12:55.202 --> 0:12:58.522 books of the new series. After Edward Stratemire got the 0:12:58.562 --> 0:13:01.042 green light, one of the first things he did was 0:13:01.082 --> 0:13:04.202 to rework the name of the girl. Detective Stella Strong 0:13:04.322 --> 0:13:07.482 lacked a certain realism. She sounded like a comic Carowin. 0:13:07.722 --> 0:13:10.442 Edward wanted something that made her seem more relatable to 0:13:10.482 --> 0:13:14.722 the everyday girl. He and the publisher traded ideas until boom, 0:13:14.882 --> 0:13:18.482 they landed on it. The name we all know Nancy Drew. 0:13:19.482 --> 0:13:22.122 Now with the right name and a contract in place 0:13:22.162 --> 0:13:25.682 for a three book series, Edward took his next important step. 0:13:26.002 --> 0:13:28.082 He reached out to a young writer he'd worked with 0:13:28.162 --> 0:13:30.882 a few times before on a series for girls, in 0:13:30.922 --> 0:13:33.122 particular his Ruth Fielding series. 0:13:33.762 --> 0:13:36.322 I have just succeeded in signing up one of our 0:13:36.322 --> 0:13:39.362 publishers for a new series of books for girls. These 0:13:39.402 --> 0:13:42.722 will be bright, vigorous stories for older girls, having to 0:13:42.722 --> 0:13:44.922 do with the solving of several mysteries. 0:13:45.842 --> 0:13:49.482 Edward laid out his expectations for their working relationship. The 0:13:49.522 --> 0:13:52.162 writer would pen all three books for the Nancy Drew 0:13:52.242 --> 0:13:55.882 mystery stories. The novels would be based on outlines supplied 0:13:55.962 --> 0:13:58.722 by him. The writer would have four weeks to turn 0:13:58.762 --> 0:14:02.082 in a manuscript, and in turn, the writer would receive 0:14:02.242 --> 0:14:05.682 one hundred and twenty five dollars for their work. That's 0:14:05.802 --> 0:14:10.242 one hundred and twenty five per book, no royalties, nothing else. 0:14:10.802 --> 0:14:13.602 Most importantly, the ghostwriters would sign away their rights to 0:14:13.682 --> 0:14:16.842 their work and would receive no credit for their writing. Instead, 0:14:16.842 --> 0:14:20.442 the author of the series would be the fictitious Carolyn Keene. 0:14:21.642 --> 0:14:24.162 The young writer considered the offer, and then in October 0:14:24.282 --> 0:14:27.922 nineteen twenty nine, she agreed to the deal. The writer's 0:14:28.002 --> 0:14:32.282 name was Mildred Augustine. Later Mildred worked by marriage, and 0:14:32.362 --> 0:14:36.402 even later Mildred worked Benson by a second marriage. As contracted, 0:14:36.482 --> 0:14:39.522 Mildred wrote the first three books in the Nancy Drew series, 0:14:39.882 --> 0:14:43.082 The Secret of the Old Clock, The Hidden Staircase, and 0:14:43.322 --> 0:14:46.602 The Bungalow Mystery. Those first three books would become an 0:14:46.642 --> 0:14:49.722 instant success for the publisher. They marked the beginning of 0:14:49.762 --> 0:14:54.322 a new American icon. While Edward Stratemeyer created the bones 0:14:54.362 --> 0:14:57.002 of Nancy Drew, and he drew the sketches of the 0:14:57.002 --> 0:15:00.442 outlines of the first three stories. It was Mildred who 0:15:00.482 --> 0:15:02.962 would go on to flesh out the character and give 0:15:03.282 --> 0:15:07.042 Nancy Drew life. She transformed the outlines into a compelling, 0:15:07.082 --> 0:15:10.562 in vivid world of mystery and spooky portent, culminating in 0:15:10.602 --> 0:15:14.162 the payoff of well earned justice at the end. According 0:15:14.202 --> 0:15:18.402 to Mildred's diaries, Edward Stratamier never really gave her much 0:15:18.442 --> 0:15:20.442 to work with In those original outlines. 0:15:20.682 --> 0:15:23.002 The basic plot was simply that there was an old 0:15:23.042 --> 0:15:25.482 clock in which there was a booklet hidden, and the 0:15:25.522 --> 0:15:27.962 booklet gave the clue to the fact that the will 0:15:28.242 --> 0:15:31.482 was in a safe deposit box. Then there was detail 0:15:31.522 --> 0:15:34.002 on that and the conflict of people wanting to get 0:15:34.002 --> 0:15:36.882 the old man's money. But that was the basic plot, 0:15:36.922 --> 0:15:39.522 which was a very old, hackneyed thing. 0:15:39.882 --> 0:15:43.202 That's all there was, which left much for Mildred to do. 0:15:43.842 --> 0:15:46.362 What was particularly fresh about Nancy Drew was that she 0:15:46.522 --> 0:15:49.522 was made specifically four girls, and not only that she 0:15:49.642 --> 0:15:53.202 was a new type of American girl, as Edward Stratamier put. 0:15:53.042 --> 0:15:57.682 It, an up to date American girl at her best right, clever, 0:15:57.962 --> 0:15:59.722 resourceful and full of energy. 0:16:00.282 --> 0:16:03.122 This same attitude was reflected in his own home and 0:16:03.322 --> 0:16:06.282 in how Edward raised his daughters. 0:16:06.322 --> 0:16:11.442 Stratamar were a very sort of upstanding, fairly upper class family, 0:16:11.602 --> 0:16:15.042 and I think he cared a lot about patriotism of 0:16:15.082 --> 0:16:19.882 the day, and he educated his daughters, which was not 0:16:19.962 --> 0:16:21.962 always the case in that era. 0:16:22.882 --> 0:16:26.122 More than a mere capitalist, Edward Stratmeier was the sort 0:16:26.122 --> 0:16:28.202 of American we don't see much of these days. 0:16:28.362 --> 0:16:29.882 I would have loved to sit down and talk to him. 0:16:29.882 --> 0:16:33.682 I mean, I think that he really was a wonderful 0:16:34.002 --> 0:16:38.082 person who was very smart and cared a lot about 0:16:38.642 --> 0:16:40.842 how people take up their place in the world. 0:16:42.242 --> 0:16:44.842 Yet Edward was still a man of his time, and 0:16:44.882 --> 0:16:48.082 thus he never actually expected his daughters to follow him 0:16:48.082 --> 0:16:51.802 into business and take over his publishing empire. But cruel 0:16:51.882 --> 0:16:55.322 reality stepped in. The first Nancy Drew mystery story was 0:16:55.362 --> 0:16:59.042 published on April twenty eighth, nineteen thirty. The thing about 0:16:59.202 --> 0:17:02.282 any beginning is that it also marks the end of something. 0:17:02.802 --> 0:17:06.002 In this case, that was the literal truth, because just 0:17:06.042 --> 0:17:09.762 as this new American icon first came into being, Edward 0:17:09.922 --> 0:17:13.002 stepped out of the frame. On May tenth, nineteen thirty, 0:17:13.042 --> 0:17:15.602 a mere twelve days after the first Nancy Drew book 0:17:15.682 --> 0:17:19.962 was published, Edward Stratemeyer dropped dead. He passed away at 0:17:19.962 --> 0:17:23.122 home after a bout of pneumonia. He was sixty seven. 0:17:23.802 --> 0:17:26.882 Left behind in his impressive wake of success and brought 0:17:26.922 --> 0:17:31.322 low by loss and bereavement were Edward's two daughters, Harriet 0:17:31.362 --> 0:17:34.962 and Edna. After his sudden passing, his daughters inherited their 0:17:34.962 --> 0:17:38.482 father's publishing empire, built on the backs of ghostwriters in 0:17:38.562 --> 0:17:42.362 series books. Their father never taught them about business affairs, 0:17:42.842 --> 0:17:45.562 so most folks assumed his daughters would sell the company 0:17:45.562 --> 0:17:48.122 and live off the profits. But the trouble for that 0:17:48.202 --> 0:17:51.162 plan there was this thing called a Great Depression. In 0:17:51.202 --> 0:17:54.602 October nineteen twenty nine, the same month Mildred first started 0:17:54.642 --> 0:17:58.402 work on the new series, the stock market cratered, plunging 0:17:58.442 --> 0:18:03.562 America into a financial catastrophe. America entered the Great Depression. 0:18:03.922 --> 0:18:08.602 The heiresses tried the reasonable response first, they actively courted buyers, 0:18:09.002 --> 0:18:12.282 but the collapse of America's economy six months prior to 0:18:12.322 --> 0:18:15.802 their father's death made it exceedingly difficult for the two 0:18:15.842 --> 0:18:19.842 heiresses to sell their father's publishing company. There were no 0:18:19.962 --> 0:18:22.042 buyers to be found anywhere. 0:18:22.402 --> 0:18:24.882 They are unable to do that because it's the depression 0:18:24.922 --> 0:18:26.642 and no one is buying this company, no one has 0:18:26.642 --> 0:18:29.682 any money. And so this is the moment at which 0:18:30.002 --> 0:18:33.322 my feelings about Harriet's Roudemyer Adams and the story kind 0:18:33.362 --> 0:18:34.682 of changed. 0:18:35.082 --> 0:18:38.562 It's a real and raw moment. What would or could 0:18:38.722 --> 0:18:42.242 the Stratomeyer daughters do. The one asset the daughters had 0:18:42.282 --> 0:18:45.762 on their side was their father's personal secretary. She'd worked 0:18:45.802 --> 0:18:49.282 with Edward for fifteen years and was familiar with the 0:18:49.282 --> 0:18:50.722 inner workings of the business. 0:18:51.602 --> 0:18:53.762 They decide they're going to have to keep the company, 0:18:53.802 --> 0:18:56.402 and they're going to have to run the company. To me, 0:18:56.682 --> 0:19:01.802 Harriet sort of emerges in this moment as someone who 0:19:01.922 --> 0:19:06.562 has suddenly been given an opportunity to really do something 0:19:06.602 --> 0:19:08.082 in the world, which she. 0:19:08.882 --> 0:19:10.922 Hadn't had and probably wouldn't have had any other. 0:19:10.802 --> 0:19:13.202 Way, because she was sort of well to do, housewife 0:19:13.202 --> 0:19:16.842 and mother for and I think she was really into it. 0:19:16.922 --> 0:19:19.922 I think she was like, I'm going to actually have 0:19:19.962 --> 0:19:23.282 a chance to use my education and to run this 0:19:23.362 --> 0:19:25.922 company that I love, which was started by my father 0:19:26.002 --> 0:19:29.082 who I adored. And so they take it up and 0:19:29.802 --> 0:19:32.082 they really made a go of it. 0:19:33.282 --> 0:19:36.362 In the beginning, the sisters shared the daily workload of 0:19:36.402 --> 0:19:39.762 they're new to them publishing empire. But rather quickly it 0:19:39.802 --> 0:19:42.642 became self evident that Harriet had a head for business. 0:19:43.002 --> 0:19:45.442 Edna did not, so she took a step back. 0:19:45.722 --> 0:19:45.882 Well. 0:19:45.962 --> 0:19:49.762 Harriet, whose married name was Adams, plunged herself into the 0:19:49.762 --> 0:19:53.042 business world, which was not at all ready for someone 0:19:53.162 --> 0:19:53.562 like her. 0:19:53.922 --> 0:19:57.762 There's a lot of correspondence in the files where people 0:19:58.482 --> 0:20:02.282 just address her as mister Adams, like they can't even 0:20:02.322 --> 0:20:05.202 conceive of the idea that a woman is running this 0:20:05.282 --> 0:20:07.042 company and she just sort of. 0:20:07.122 --> 0:20:09.122 To deal with it. And so I really sort of 0:20:09.122 --> 0:20:10.522 came to admire her this way. 0:20:10.682 --> 0:20:12.562 It really gave me a different perspective on her, to 0:20:12.602 --> 0:20:14.442 think about what it must have been like in nineteen 0:20:14.482 --> 0:20:18.282 thirty to take that over, and how in some ways 0:20:18.282 --> 0:20:21.882 it must have fulfilled some dream she had. 0:20:22.162 --> 0:20:25.002 To aid the fulfillment of her dream. Harriet had a 0:20:25.042 --> 0:20:28.762 few key assets on her side. One her father's publishing 0:20:28.762 --> 0:20:33.442 empire's track record of success, two his profit minded business model, 0:20:34.202 --> 0:20:38.842 three the guidance of her father's personal secretary. And above 0:20:38.882 --> 0:20:43.762 all else, Harriet had one all important asset Nancy drew 0:20:44.362 --> 0:20:50.042 that said, Harriet also had one other key asset, her ghostwriter, Mildred. 0:20:50.442 --> 0:20:52.682 The sisters reached out to their ghostwriter and asked her 0:20:52.682 --> 0:20:55.842 about writing another Nancy Drew book, a fourth in the series. 0:20:56.082 --> 0:20:58.922 It would be followed by many, many more. The resulting 0:20:58.962 --> 0:21:03.402 contracts made official their long and lucrative partnership. When our 0:21:03.442 --> 0:21:06.442 other amateur sleuth, Jeff, first encountered the mystery of who 0:21:06.522 --> 0:21:09.682 is the real Carolyn Keen, he didn't yet know it 0:21:09.722 --> 0:21:12.082 at the time, but he'd stepped into a role he'd 0:21:12.122 --> 0:21:16.802 only ever imagined, a real life teen detective. For both 0:21:16.842 --> 0:21:20.322 real and fictional detectives, to solve a mystery often requires 0:21:20.682 --> 0:21:23.762 a great deal of shoe leather. For Jeff, just like 0:21:23.802 --> 0:21:26.482 for Melanie RayJack, it meant a great deal of time 0:21:26.522 --> 0:21:29.922 spent in the library. Before the Internet, the library was 0:21:29.962 --> 0:21:33.002 a great place to solve a stubborn mystery. There the 0:21:33.082 --> 0:21:36.362 library in the nineteen sixties, That's where Jeff came across 0:21:36.402 --> 0:21:40.402 his first big clue that Carolyn Keene wasn't who he 0:21:40.442 --> 0:21:43.442 thought she was. The clue was discovered in the library's 0:21:43.482 --> 0:21:47.122 card catalog index. Jeff recalls well that moment when he 0:21:47.202 --> 0:21:52.642 first read those three magic words Carolyn Keene pseudonym. 0:21:53.042 --> 0:21:55.482 Well, first of all, I didn't one with pseudonym meant, 0:21:55.722 --> 0:21:59.762 and so I asked the librarian and she said, well, 0:21:59.802 --> 0:22:02.162 that means. It is what they also call a pen name. 0:22:02.482 --> 0:22:05.282 They have made up a name to write under to 0:22:05.442 --> 0:22:07.922