When I got into Nancy Drew collecting back in the late 1990s, my main motivation was to read the books of my childhood again. That meant, I needed to fill in gaps! I'd discovered a 1930s Nancy Drew book - The Hidden Staircase - in an antique mall and I had no idea Nancy Drew had gone back that far in time. When I was reading them, they were the yellow spine picture cover editions and more modern paperbacks and spinoffs. My books were the revised texts for the first 34 books. I had no idea there was an original text version. I also read a lot of my books from the school library and so had gaps in what friends had given me as gifts or the many books my Mom got for me at Waldenbooks and other bookstores.
So, my mission was to fill in gaps and read them all again. I got all my childhood books from home and I went to area used bookstores and antique malls in search of missing ones. Then in 1997, I joined eBay and the world of Nancy Drew books and collectibles was open wide for me. I spent over 20 years amassing a collection of books, paper ephemera and collectibles when I donated a few thousand items to the Toledo Public Library in 2019. Books of all types, formats and styles.
One thing early on that piqued my interest was collecting first printings of each of the books. When I first got my books from my childhood home and brought them to Texas where I was living around 1997, I went through them trying to figure out what printings they might be. I put these post-its inside with "circa x year" printing on them. I thought to check lists on back or inside to see what the last book listed was and when it was first printed and that gave me a ballpark date. I could also see how many of mine were not even close to being any kind of first. My yellow spines had mostly double oval endpapers and were early to mid-80s printings. My paperbacks, however, I was buying as they came out so mostly those were first printings of those from #57 onward and spinoff Files books, etc.
I met other collectors who showed me the ropes on firsts and some sellers would list and describe them as firsts on eBay and I became interested in getting firsts of each classic book 1-56, so began over 20 years to add those to my collection. I was on a budget for most of my collecting over the over 20 years, so always looked for a bargain or a good buy it now book. I resigned myself to the fact that I would most likely never afford a first printing of the first seven books in their original 1930-1932 format - at least not for the foreseeable future. I found a first of The Secret of the Old Clock early on in the late 1990s without a dust jacket as is often the case with these early books and bought that at eBay. I took that book to Toledo, OH in the spring of 2001 when I met the original ghostwriter, Mildred Wirt Benson, who was still alive in her mid-90s and working at the Toledo Blade newspaper. She signed that book for me, and it was and continues to be a treasure. Soon after, someone e-mailed me to offer me a first of Hidden Staircase and I jumped at the chance as the price was very low, the book arrived in good shape and was a verified first. It would be another 20 years nearly before I would be able to purchase another, The Secret at Shadow Ranch. At that point I managed several years ago to find a 2nd printing of The Secret of Red Gate Farm - the dust jacket matches that of a first but the book was a 2nd printing. Last year I managed to acquire the book in a first to match to the dust jacket and that was a thrill. But that left The Bungalow Mystery, The Mystery at Lilac Inn, and The Clue in the Diary to find someday.
Even in recent years I had resigned myself that I might not find the rest in a first with dust jacket or at least afford them. A collector began to downsize her collection and she had firsts of books 2-7 - not only that, but they were also signed by Mildred Wirt Benson! An opportunity presented itself to purchase these and so over the last year I did just that. It really is a collecting mission accomplished but with a wild ending - I had no idea I'd ever be able to get signed first printings by Millie, so to be able to bring these home into my collection, was rather surreal. I'm enjoying them so much as they sit on a shelf by my writing desk as I research and write The Real Nancy Drew - my Mildred Wirt Benson Biography.
I do have first printings of Hidden Staircase, Shadow Ranch and Red Gate Farm for sale at our Nancy Drew Fans Shop - ones I upgraded with the signed copies if anyone's interested in acquiring first printings in DJ!
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