1960s Nancy DrewNancy Drew was more demure and like a pretty deb in the 1960s as seen on the cover of #38 The Mystery of the Fire Dragon - a lovely cover by Rudy Nappi. She relied more on her chums and Ned by the 1960s and in revisions of some books. She often delegated a lot of her sleuthing tasks to Ned and others--her dad Carson or the police chief McGinnis.
More and more there was a focus on parental permission--with each mystery, having to get permission from Carson or Bess and George having to make that phone call home (which their families probably dreaded due to the danger they were always in) to ask permission to traipse off with Nancy in search of villains. Often, Nancy couldn't go unless Bess or George would accompany her. I'm not sure how much help they were though as in #44, The Clue of the Crossword Cipher, as Nancy was nearly blown out of a plain, bucked off an ox and nearly blown up by a bomb under their watchful eyes. ;-)
The illustrator for Nancy Drew by the 1960s was Rudy Nappi and he would go onto revise many covers and even some of his earlier ones. Covers in the 1960s were still very scene oriented featuring a scene of action like the one above with Madam Alexandra showing Nancy a jeweled box.
Nancy sported a trademark flip hairstyle and red hair or Titian as it was called in some of the books. Most definitely not blond anymore.
Nancy became quite the world traveler in the 1960s, traveling to Hong Kong, Scotland, France, Peru, and Kenya. Really, she was just following in her ghostwriter, Harriet Stratemeyer Adams' footsteps. Harriet loved to travel and often based one of her books on a place she had recently visited.Jenn:)
10 comments:
I enjoy seeing all these covers! The one's my grandma searched out for me were all from the 60's. I loved the Old Clock with Nancy in the green dress, so classy and sharp!
Troi Hackett
To me it seems that when the general population references Nancy Drew, it the Nancy of the late fifties/early sixties they are thinking of.
I do like the travel stories but after a while they start to get old.
Rebecca
This is the Nancy I grew up with--my favorite covers are from this era. I didn't discover The Clue in the Jewel Box cover until recently--I think it's one of the best! Requesting parental permission and having the help of her friends seems more realistic and really didn't limit Nancy or diminish her role in solving the mysteries.
So, so cute! That version of Secret of the Old Clock is the background pic on my cell phone!
It's so funny that you mentioned parental permission - I always wondered how everyone paid for everything, especially since Nancy never took a fee for her sleuthing and none of the three girls had a paying job. I'm pretty sure that even back then, trips to Europe and other places weren't cheap...Ah, reality! :)
From Corrie:
These are the Nancy Drew books that I grew up with. My mother passed on some of her old ND books to me but most of the ones I have collected over the years are from this decade. I can remember as a child enjoying the many exotic places Nancy would visit. Since I certainly couldn'y jump on a plane at 8 years old and fly to China or Kenya I enjoyed living vicariously through Nancy. I have many happy memories spent reading Nancy Drew books together with my mom, whose name is also ironically "Nancy". She even received a 1984 Mercedes convertible just like the one Nancy Drew drove in the TV series with the Hardy boys as an anniversary/birthday present from my father. We even discussed making the license place NCY DREW.
I love the Rudi Nappie covers the best, since they take me back to my girlhood. It's interesting how parental permission became more pronounced in these books.
Nancy
http://chickdickmysteries.com
I love the artwork of the 60s covers!! I grew up reading the revised Nancy's!
These covers are very nice; Fire Dragon is one of my favorites (and one of my favorite stories). I seem to like, very much, the Nancy of the era 1945-1966 or so, in the original texts or the new stories. As a child, I know that I liked the stories from books 1-7 (revised text no. 8 was missing from our library for years) and 30-45 the best. Nancy is somewhat wealthy, but I gather Carson bills clients for her travel at times. The girls DO pay for part of their own trip to Scotland using the prize to go, but yes, they seem to have plenty of money. . . .Kate Cameron is almost worthy of Nancy of this era at times on "Pan Am," but of course she is playing a detective/spy aide role. . . . the clothing and the hairstyle are right out of Moonstone Castle and Dancing Puppet. . .
Junior
I do love these covers by Rudy Nappi, he was the perfect illustrator for ND (along with Tandy, of course!) The Stratemeyer Syndicate was lucky to have such excellent illustrators for such long periods of time, it gives a real consistency to the books. I loved the internal illustrations too until the advent of those simple stick figures!
MK
This is my favorite era because these are the ones that were coming out as I started saving my money to buy them (although I really grew up on the Nancy Drews from the 1930s and 1940s, thanks to my mom). I do love these covers - not my favorites, but really nice ones!
Jan Rader
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