“As Oil had it’s
Rockefeller, Literature had it’s Stratemeyer…” proclaimed Fortune magazine
in it’s October 1934 issue in an article by Ayers Brinser in which Brinser reveled
in the fact that Nancy Drew was going gangbusters and outselling the boys’
series. 1934 was a pivotal year for Nancy Drew, one that could have gone in a
completely different direction…
Nancy Drew
endured the Great Depression while other series faltered or were cancelled, and
she owes a lot of that success to Edward Stratemeyer and her original
ghostwriter, Mildred Wirt Benson. It wasn’t without intrigue though behind the
scenes – and the very course of Nancy Drew’s history could have been changed had
things played out differently. But fate had something more in store for Nancy
Drew even though insurmountable actions threatened her longevity.
To clue you in,
let’s hop in Nancy’s trusty roadster and go back to the late 1920s. Stratemeyer
had been itching to create and release a new girls’ series and for several
years he began tossing around ideas and reaching out to publishers. At the
time, he’d hired a young Mildred Augustine who soon became Wirt and then much
later Benson, to write for his faltering Ruth Fielding series after she
answered an ad in the Editor that he ran looking for writers.
Before reaching
out to Stratemeyer for work, Benson’s writing career had begun much earlier.
Growing up in rural Iowa and being a voracious reader, a young girl’s next
adventure in real life and in books often depended on her community. Benson
borrowed every book she could in her small town and she even sampled her
father’s medical books. Trips to bigger cities yielded books at libraries. She
yearned for adventure and began writing her own stories. She greatly enjoyed issues
of St. Nicholas and found herself inspired by that style of writing. She
began submitting stories to St. Nicholas and other magazines. Benson wrote
in her autobiographical essay, The Ghost of Ladora, in the November 1973
issue of Books at Iowa - “Even as a child, a determination to write
possessed me.” And she proclaimed as a child to anyone who would listen, “When
I grow up I'm going to be a GREAT writer.”
Her first piece, The
Courtesy, was published in 1919 in St. Nicholas when she was 13 and
for that she won a Silver Badge. She got paid for her writing and she was
hooked. Throughout her teen and college years, she wrote dozens of short
stories, often of college girls, many involving swimming or diving, her
favorite sports. Quite a few of her stories were published in St. Nicholas
and she frequently noted years later that her style of writing was based in
part on the old dramatic style in St. Nicholas and inspired by writers
like Augusta Huiell Seaman whose early mystery writing appeared in there. At
the University of Iowa, Benson worked on the yearbook and also the Daily
Iowan newspaper. Some of her work was published in various Iowa papers too.
Benson would soon become well versed in the old Stratemeyer style of writing as
she began writing for Edward Stratemeyer’s Stratemeyer Syndicate – beginning
with Ruth Fielding and then most famously with the Nancy Drew series. That
formulaic Stratemeyer style, with melodrama and suspenseful cliffhangers would
serve her well during her juvenile series writing career of over 30 years.
After graduating from
the University of Iowa and taking a tour of Europe, she settled on New York
City and met up with Stratemeyer, though he didn’t have work for her at the
time. Back in Iowa in the mid-1920s, she decided to get her Masters in
Journalism and would go on to be the first person to get that degree as the
program was brand new for students. Juggling her studies with writing became a
challenge she met head on, when Stratemeyer asked her to pick up the pen as
Alice Emerson and continue the Ruth Fielding series with Great Scenario.
Though she struggled and fought Ruth Fielding as the pages flew through her old
Underwood Typewriter, she soon began to find her stride and Stratemeyer coached
her through it. Stratemeyer hired Benson because he found she wrote well of
young girls and their adventures – as his ad in the Editor had
requested. He had been looking for younger writers like Benson and Leslie
McFarlane who also answered the same ad and soon became the ghostwriter for The
Hardy Boys series among others he wrote for the Syndicate. The ad in the April 10,
1926 issue was geared toward youthful writers, “We are particularly anxious to
get hold of the younger writers with fresh ideas in the treatment of stories
for boys and girls.” After reading her second Ruth Fielding manuscript, Cameron
Hall, Stratemeyer wrote in a July 26, 1927 letter to Benson that it was
good and “I congratulate you on the improvement and trust that you will
continue to get a grip on this sort of fiction.”
Benson would
continue volumes in Stratemeyer’s Ruth Fielding series and even submitted a
plot idea at Stratemeyer’s insistence. Benson’s 25-chapter proposal was about
the adventures of a heroine named Jean and her chum Marian, though it was
ultimately rejected – he thought it a bit “wild.” In the letters back and forth
between Benson and Stratemeyer that exist in the Stratemeyer Syndicate archives
at the New York Public Library, you can get a good sense of how Stratemeyer
guided Benson through her writing on the several Ruth Fielding manuscripts he
oversaw. He always got to the point, but had a way of finessing his
ghostwriters in how he critiqued them and admonished them and also how he
praised them and appreciated their good writing. He wasn’t a man to waste time
on poor writers, he hired them because he saw something good in their writing
that connected to his ideas and the stories and characters he created. He
needed them to flesh out his outlines and relied on their skill to do so to his
specifications and without too much tutoring overall. His relationship with
Benson I would compare to a professor guiding a student or a mentor guiding his
mentee. And Benson, very respectfully appreciated his effort in considering her
work and giving her a chance to write for him. Things, however, would soon be
different by 1930.
Now that you’ve
been clued to what transpired in the latter half of the 1920s and how Benson
came to write for Stratemeyer, it’s time to follow the clues to Drew – Nancy Drew – for whom Benson and Stratemeyer are still so famously associated with 94
years later. And for that series, let’s take a look at 1929. At this time,
Stratemeyer had been working to get a new girls’ series off and running. He’d made
suggestions to various publishers and received no traction thus far. There’s a
letter in the NYPL from Stratemeyer to Barse & Hopkins from June of 1927 –
going back to when Benson was first writing for Stratemeyer on Ruth Fielding. Stratemeyer
spoke highly of Benson to Barse when he stated, “She writes particularly well
of college girls and their doings, both in college and out, and I feel that she
could make a real success of this new line.” By 1929, he hit pay dirt in
getting publisher Grosset & Dunlap on board for the new series. He wrote to
Grosset & Dunlap in July of 1929 and referred to Benson’s work on Ruth
Fielding as having made “the series more popular than ever.” Stratemeyer noted
that the line at the Syndicate was weak on single heroines – “not a single line
in which a single character dominates the page.” He insisted that “this author
could do this line under my directions and do it well.” And he was so right.
Not only did Benson end up doing it well, but her characterization of Nancy Drew also transformed Stratemeyer’s conception into a trailblazing heroine of
Sleuth-tacular proportions that the masses had been waiting for and Nancy Drew
is still being published and reprinted all these years later.
That summer of
1929, Benson wrote a July 22 letter to Stratemeyer after receiving her check
for Ruth Fielding in Talking Pictures and revealed that “For the next
two weeks I plan to shake the Cleveland dust from my shoes and try to land a
few snappy bass up in Canada.” Stratemeyer followed up with Benson September 27
and let her know he succeeded in signing up the new girls’ series and that it
will be in the style of Ruth Fielding. He stated, “These will be bright,
vigorous stories for older girls having to do with the solving of several
mysteries. He also hoped she “got the bass you were after.”
Things moved
along very quickly for Nancy Drew and Benson. In an October 9 letter,
Stratemeyer responded to Benson’s agreement to write the Nancy Drew series and his
response accompanied the outline for the first book. His instructions included
how he wanted the tone of the books to be - “We would like these stories
written very much in the manner of your ‘Ruth Fielding’ books, but with perhaps
a little more of the girlish tone. But we do not want these stories to contain
too much of purely social affairs, but rather quick action and with a strong
holding point at the end of every chapter…With best regards and trusting that
you will be able to give us a first story that will make all girls want to read
more about Nancy Drew, I remain, Yours Truly.”
First rate, Nancy
Drew and her marvelous adventures were indeed, however by the end of the month the
country was plunged into the Great Depression when the stock market crashed. This disaster would begin to affect Nancy Drew and the Syndicate in ways that could
have proven disastrous…more on that in a moment. For now, let’s focus on
Benson, who was just 24 years old when she took on the task of assuming the
role of one of the most infamous pen names in series book literature, Carolyn
Keene. For several months from fall of 1929 through spring of 1930, letters
flew back and forth between Stratemeyer and Benson as she began writing what
would be the three-volume breeder set of The Secret of the Old Clock, The
Hidden Staircase, and The Bungalow Mystery. She would spend around
four months working on the first three books that would launch a series a
century nearly now in the making. Working on outlines provided by Stratemeyer
of several pages each, she fleshed out Nancy Drew into the bright up-to-date
American teenager that he’d imagined and gave her a healthy dose of pluck and
boldness. Nancy Drew’s adventures were not at all “namby-pamby” as Benson would
refer to other girls’ series at the time. No, for Nancy Drew, her adventures
involved thrilling high speed chases, tangling with robbers, sleuthing through
secret passageways and hidden staircases, dealing with the dastardliest of villains
and their evil doings, being locked up and left to starve, imprisoned while
being bound, and even having to save her kidnapped father, Carson Drew. She
drove at breathtaking speed, talked back to authority figures, and had no
qualms about packing heat. She even took evidence and kept it from the police
in order to solve a mystery. Like Benson, she was a little rough and tumble, yet
she was wrapped up in a pretty package thanks to illustrator Russell H. Tandy
whose depiction of Nancy’s sleuthing and shenanigans always found her dressed
to the nines in the latest frocks and in delectable heels, even while climbing
ladders and clambering through dark musty passageways.
Stratemeyer’s
direction of her work on the breeder set can be evidenced by the letters in the
NYPL which show a thoughtfulness in his editing and critique of her work. He
gave her directions and guided her to redo things that needed a little more
tidying up and at the same time he praised her for what he felt was good work.
When it came time to work on a fourth volume The Mystery at Lilac Inn
and a fifth, The Secret at Shadow Ranch, he even asked her opinions on
the setting for Shadow Ranch and was interested in her input. Benson
suggested the far west, rather than the Midwest, and so it became the far west
for the mystery. The relationship of mentor and mentee was most respectful, and
Benson appreciated the direction and advice. The difference in many ways in
Stratemeyer’s handling of his ghostwriters and the way things would become soon
after, was rather stark at times. Stratemeyer commanded respect from his
writers and they were loyal to him. The situation wasn’t always the same where
his daughters were concerned.
The Nancy Drew
series debuted on April 28, 1930 and nearly two weeks later, Stratemeyer passed
away due to pneumonia. This was a pivotal time during the Depression.
Publishing had been taking a hit and some series had faltered and gone out of
print. With Stratemeyer’s death, came the daunting task of picking up the
pieces, not only for the family but also for the Stratemeyer Syndicate. The
Stratemeyer family owes a huge debt to Stratemeyer’s capable assistant, Harriet
Otis Smith, who dealt with publishers lobbying their concerns on the backlog of
books and existing series still being published. She handled the correspondence
with the ghostwriters, asking them to continue on at the request of the
publishers and she got to work on outlines and manuscripts. The outline for the
fifth Nancy Drew, The Secret at Shadow Ranch, had to be completed and
she filled that out and likely created the popular characters of Nancy Drew’s
chums, Bess Marvin and George Fayne. The business of creating series books
continued on, not without its hiccups, but as smoothly as it could thanks to
Smith.
At the same time,
Stratemeyer’s daughters Harriet Stratemeyer Adams and Edna Camilla Stratemeyer Squier
were left to handle the business and its hopeful sale. That didn’t come to
pass, however, as the possibility of finding a buyer during the Depression was
rather slim. They did not take Stratemeyer fan Wallace Palmer’s offer to
purchase their father’s company seriously. So, they turned to themselves and
carried on. This was rather incredible at the time, for two women to go into
business like this, running a company in the more male-dominated publishing
industry. They had some big shoes to fill, and they made a success of it for
over 50 years after Stratemeyer passed. However, they were not their father and
some of their difficulties that were to come soon after he died, caused issues
with several prolific ghostwriters including Benson. The sisters were helped by
Smith for a few months until they relocated the Syndicate offices to New Jersey
and then they were left to their own devices without Smith’s guidance. Smith
did a good job of preparing them, but the sisters were wading into territory
they were not that familiar with overall. After all, their father had not
included them very much in his business because he really didn’t entertain a
future for them working or having careers – he was rather Victorian-minded.
They certainly blossomed in the face of adversity; however, they were not
trained writers nor editors. Thankfully Harriet had a little experience editing
some manuscripts for her father from time to time. There were things that
Stratemeyer did which kept his ghostwriters happy. He had a way with words and was
sure to praise them even when having to critique them. He also gave them yearly
bonuses which helped the writers out. Even though the flat fees they were paid
were equivalent at the time to several months of pay, times were getting tough
during the Depression. I think the sisters expected the same acquiesces and
respect given to their father, without the thought of earning it themselves. In
spite of the Depression, though, Nancy Drew kept ginning along, doing very well
by the mid-1930s. Regardless of sales, there was some internal trouble brewing
behind the scenes of Mysteryville that could have nearly caused Nancy Drew’s
demise—or at least could have changed the course of this series in a drastic
way.
But first, let’s
reflect on Benson’s writing career up to this point which included dozens of
short stories and articles, newspaper articles, the Ruth Fielding series, and
Nancy Drew’s debut. There was also Benson’s own book series, Ruth Darrow, an
aviation series that consisted of four volumes published in 1930 and 1931 at
first by Barse & Company and then later reprinted by Grosset & Dunlap. The
Stratemeyer sisters even took notice, seeing a blurb in a 1930 issue of Editors
Weekly, and wished her much success with it. Just like Stratemeyer, the
Ruth Darrow series showed Benson’s ability to capitalize on the popular culture
and events of the day including women’s aviation. Ruth Darrow was inspired by
Ruth Elder, the aviatrix and actress, born just three years before Benson in
1902. Elder’s daring exploits as a pilot and her plan to be the first woman to
attempt a transatlantic flight made her the “Miss America of Aviation.” In 1929,
Elder took part in the Women’s Air Derby which began in California and ended in
Cleveland, OH – right where Benson was living at the time. There was much fanfare
in Cleveland celebrating the derby and the inspiration hit home for Benson, who
would go on to be a pilot herself several decades later. With her own
successful series – and well paid at $200 a book – Benson was beginning to come
into her own. Previously, she had been paid $125 a volume for the Ruth Fielding
and the Nancy Drew series.
There’s a
clipping that Benson kept from an old Cleveland Plain Dealer newspaper. The
aged copy has Benson’s writing on it in blue ink noting the paper and date. The
picture of a very short-bobbed Benson showcased the style for women like her
at the time. The article by Ida M. Gurwell references all her short story work
and the books she’d been writing – noting the three Stratemeyer Series – Ruth
Fielding, Nancy Drew, and Doris Force, the latter which she’d begun writing in
1931. The article referred to them as series under “nom de plumes.” The article
also highlights the Ruth Darrow series. Benson is quoted about her writing as
saying, “My start as a writer of ‘thrillers’ dates back only five years, when I
became associated with the Stratemeyer Syndicate…” Benson mentions she has just
completed a single volume in a mystery series for girls called The Gimmel
Ring and for boys, Pirate Brig. It also mentions her working on an
aviation series for Penn Publishing Co. Gimmel Ring was finally
published as The Twin Ring Mystery in 1935 and Pirate Brig in
1950. The aviation series for Penn likely was the volume, Sky Racers or
perhaps Courageous Wings, both published in 1935 and 1937 respectively.
Benson was asked
about her writing method for juveniles. She gave praise to Stratemeyer for his
talent for “startling sales in juvenile publications; he also had a way of
getting punch into the very first paragraphs and carrying it through. There was
action every minute.” Gurwell ends the piece with high praise for Benson when
she states, “Mrs. Wirt tactfully combines what children want with what they
need. There is artistry here. Perhaps this is why, even in 1931, publishers are
taking her books as fast as she can write them.”
As you can see,
Benson was hard at work in 1931 and she wasn’t letting the Depression interfere
– yet – with her writing. By the spring of 1931, Benson was ghosting volume six
in the Nancy Drew series, The Secret of Red Gate Farm, Edna
Stratemeyer’s first attempt at a Nancy Drew outline. July saw the plot for The
Clue in the Diary arrive and Benson got to work on what would be her last
Nancy Drew book for several years. In this story, Nancy Drew tangles with villain
Foxy Felix, a man who swindles patents out of inventors.
September 1931 would
become Nancy Drew’s “stock market crash.” Quietly, the Stratemeyer sisters had
already been writing to other ghostwriters for a couple of months with bad
news. Now it was Benson’s turn to receive such a letter. A September 10 letter
from Harriet Stratemeyer Adams to Benson referenced Benson writing two more
Doris Force titles and mentions the next Nancy Drew book. Harriet notes that “Of
course the Doris Force series is still so new that one cannot tell as yet how
the books will be received by the buying public, but because of this
uncertainty, and because of the great drop in sales as shown by our July
statements from publishers, we are going to ask you to take a reduction on
these manuscripts of twenty-five dollars each---in other words, we will pay one
hundred dollars for each story.”
The Stratemeyer
sisters were hopeful that business would eventually take an upward turn and they
would all be able to return to the former “standard of payment.” They hoped
that Benson would be willing to “carry on with us” during this time, noting “We
enjoy working with you.” In other words, they didn’t want to make changes on
the series and have to hire new writers who might require a lot of training.
Quickly replying,
Benson’s September 14 letter notes that she is sorry to hear that business has
not been as good as before. “I have always tried to cooperate in every way
possible, but I feel that I cannot take less than one hundred and twenty-five
dollars for each manuscript—an average of about one-fourth cent a word. At the
time I started to work for the Syndicate, about five years ago, I believe, I
accepted this rate, for at that time I had not had a great deal of experience
in book writing.” She noted she’d never requested a raise although her work had
improved over time. She also pointed out the bonuses that Stratemeyer had sent
his writers, which had stopped under the sisters, and she mentioned this
because those bonuses had helped writers like her. “As the rate now stands I am
receiving less than I did when I first became associated with the Syndicate.”
She further went on to add that she had for some time been writing Syndicate manuscripts
for less than half paid to her by other publishers for her own work. She also
handily let slip that she was currently negotiating two new series at an
increased price. “My association with the Stratemeyer Syndicate has always been
very pleasant and I hope that we may continue our relations. I shall be glad to
attempt the new volumes if the old price stands, but in fairness to myself
cannot accept a lower rate.”
Benson after
dealing with the transitional period from Stratemeyer to his daughters who were
not as well versed in handling the ghostwriters, and who had come into her own
as a writer thanks to Stratemeyer’s tutelage and her own merit and talent, was
taking a stand against what she perceived was an injustice to her. This caused
some stress for the Stratemeyer sisters who didn’t want any delays or
interruptions with the flow of work. Harriet replied on September 16 and tried
to clear up some things by telling Benson that they didn’t intend the fee to be
permanent – just temporary – “Owing to the depression, which is showing up in
the decreased sales of the juvenile books, we felt justified in asking this
reduction.” She hopes that in the future sales will pick up and therefore
bonuses again. “Our proposal in no way meant to infer that any writing has been
inferior----as a matter of fact, we have noticed a distinct improvement, and
for this reason we should dislike making any shifts in the series which you
have been working on. We have felt that by supplying you with longer and more
complete outlines, your time in finishing a story could be less, and that this
could compensate you for the reduced price offered.” She noted that they have
met with cooperation on the part of their other authors “and hope that you will
be willing to reconsider our offer and continue to work along with us without
interruption.”
And yet, what
Harriet said was not entirely true. Harriet, banking on the fact that Benson
and other ghostwriters, who by nature of their arrangements with the Syndicate
didn’t know each other and couldn’t confer amongst themselves, would have no
idea how other ghostwriters had been responding to the pay cuts. While some
like Hardy Boys ghostwriter Leslie McFarlane stayed on board enduring the pay cuts,
as they needed the money to support their families, there were other ghostwriters
who refused the pay cuts and who also noted the lack of bonuses being paid by
the Stratemeyer sisters in contrast to their father’s pattern of regular
supportive bonuses. These prolific ghostwriters including Elizabeth M. Duffield
Ward (Ruth Fielding, Billie Bradley, Outdoor Girls, Blythe Girls, Kay Tracey,
etc.) and John W. Duffield (Ted Scott, Radio Boys, Don Sturdy, etc.) who refused
and declined further work. Pretty soon after and certainly by 1933, they even
lost their most prolific ghostwriter Howard Garis (Infamous as Uncle Wiggily, Tom
Swift Sr, Bobbsey Twins, Baseball Joe, etc.). After having had other ghostwriters
decline the pay cuts, the sisters failed to make their case to Benson, who was
very stubborn when it came to her work and what she felt like she was worth.
Benson’s quick
reply to Harriet on September 21 gave not an inch when she emphasized, “I am
indeed sorry that I am unable to alter my decision in regard to accepting
$100.00 per volume for the work I have been doing for you. I have enjoyed my
association with the syndicate and view with regret the prospect of its
interruption. I realize what difficult times we are passing through and would
have been willing to accept some reduction were not the amount paid already as
low as I feel I could accept with justice to myself.”
Benson further
notes, that since her last reply to Harriet that she’s “signed for a new girls’
series and have other work in prospect.” Benson adds that she had worked in
time for Syndicate work “but unless I hear from you soon I must fill up this
vacancy.” She doesn’t close the door completely on working again for the
Syndicate when she adds, “I trust that the future will produce happier circumstances
which will permit a resumption of our relations” and she wishes continued
success to the Stratemeyer Syndicate.
This series that
Benson alludes to having signed, is the Madge Sterling Series and we’ll dive
into that series momentarily. First, we need to clue you into how things transpired
after Benson’s refusal to take a pay cut. Harriet, forced to carry on without Benson,
replied on September 28 to express disappointment. “Of course, we were
disappointed that you felt you were unable to accede to our request in regard
to the writing of certain books, but we are really delighted to hear that you
are making out so well with your own stories.” They don’t want to hold up her own
work as Harriet adds, “we thought it best to write you that we have been able
to place the writing of the Doris Force books with someone else. As the Nancy
Drew story would not have to be decided upon immediately we are reserving our
decision in this matter. If we should decide that we would like you to do it we
will communicate with you at a later date.” Harriet wished her success on her
new series. Also stubborn, Harriet wasn’t budging either.
Benson, with the
Syndicate’s best wishes on her new series, replied on October 3 and noted, “If
you decide that you want me to do the new Nancy Drew book and notify me early
in November, I shall be glad to write it for you. The plot looks extremely
interesting.” Benson was clearly hoping they would change their mind on the
price.
Edna, who left
the dealing with Benson on the pay cuts to her sister Harriet, found Benson to
be difficult. Edna wasn’t a trained writer or editor and had to come into her
own on the job as time went on. Harriet communicated with Edna about Benson’s
refusal to take a pay cut and Edna replied back in September 1931, “Dear Hat:
Received letter from you enclosing Mrs. Wirt’s tale of woe. Of course she is
getting a swell head and doesn’t choose to take less. Well, I think if your
letter to her doesn’t make her change her mind we better consider Mr. Karig.”
It was clear and has been so in statements by Benson over the years, that at
the time Benson thought the sisters were out of their league and much preferred
working for their father. Edna worked most closely with Benson throughout the 1930s
on most of the Nancy Drew Books Benson wrote. It’s important to note that the
Stratemeyer sisters lived and worked in different social classes from writers
like Benson. After all, Harriet was a Wellesley girl. For Stratemeyer’s
daughters, the Depression hardly changed their lives in the sense that it
devastated others for the sisters had money and even though they owned and ran
their own company, they didn’t have to work to make a living. For writers like Benson,
work was necessary to survive the Depression years. Expecting everyone to just
fall in line with the pay cuts, having discontinued bonuses their father had
given his loyal ghostwriters for years and Edna’s flippancy regarding Benson’s
“tale of woe” and comments about her “swell head” showed how out of touch the
sisters were with their ghostwriters. This is not the way that their father
would have handled or treated his ghostwriters, who were handpicked like Benson
for Stratemeyer knew their talents and knew they could bring his creations to
life.
Luckily for the
sisters, however, there was Walter Karig. Karig served in World War I and was a
journalist – often the typical MO of some Syndicate ghostwriter hires. Syndicate
savior of the moment, he had been writing the Perry Pierce books for the
Syndicate and so he was asked to write the next two Doris Force books. Then, he
got a nice windfall in landing the Nancy Drew series, after Benson’s pay cut
stand. Unlike Benson, Karig was willing to be paid what they offered. Karig
though, would prove to be a loose cannon that the Syndicate would end up having
problems with. For one thing, I don’t think his sense of humor always
translated well to the sisters and boy did he have a wry sense of humor. His
letters in the NYPL are pretty entertaining. More so, it was his flapping of
the gums regarding being Carolyn Keene to various publishers and the press and
most noticeably to the Library of Congress and the copyright office that caused
a lot of drama over the next several years. By 1950 when a press release noted
he was Carolyne Keene, Harriet rued the day they’d ever hired Karig and she
also took every opportunity when asked about him by anyone who discovered he
was Carolyn Keene over the years to relegate him to some kind of jokester
pretending to be Carolyn Keene. In January 1965, Harriet wrote a reply letter to
Robert Moore regarding a newspaper clipping that mentioned Karig as Carolyn
Keene. Here’s what she infamously had to say about Karig whose first work for
the Syndicate was a Bobbsey Twins playlet, he wrote the final two volumes in
the Doris Force series, Nancy Drew volumes 8-10, volumes 2-4 in the Perry
Pierce series, an X Bar X Boys book, Branding the Wild Herd, and the last
Roy Stover book, Circle of Fire - "Mr. Karig never was
Carolyn Keene. He once did a little work for the Syndicate. Because he had been
a pilot in the war I asked him to help write an airplane scene in an early
Nancy Drew book and after that he was always kidding me about his being Carolyn
Keene. But when he began to make this claim in public, I took him to task, only
to receive very supercilious answers. As for proof of my authorship of the
books, Mr. Karig has been dead for many years!" Karig kidded her about
being Carolyn Keene? That’s rather inventive. Harriet’s comment about Karig
being dead for many years is reminiscent of her statement to Benson at the 1980
trial between the Nancy Drew publishers and the Syndicate in district court in
New York City when she blurted out to Benson, “I thought you were dead.”
Perhaps she was taking the “ghost” part of “ghostwriter” too literally.
With the Nancy
Drew series saved at a pivotal moment with Karig stepping in and his writing
being good enough to carry on with Nancy Drew’s continuity mostly intact, Nancy
survived without Benson, but not for long. Karig’s writing required more editing
and work than had Benson’s apparently. The Depression had made quick work of
series like Doris Force and longer running series like The Blythe Girls and
they among others ceased being published. The Depression also took its toll on
writers like Benson who agreed to write another Ruth Fielding for the
Stratemeyer sisters, Greatest Triumph, and she was offered $100 which
was more than they’d been paying other ghostwriters during this time, in order
to entice her back into the fold. She was a good writer and they needed her as
much as she needed them. Benson wrote to Edna in August of 1932 after thinking
over the offer to write another Ruth Fielding and stated, “I have been taking
this under consideration, and, providing arrangements can be made with you so
that this does not interfere with my regular work, I am willing to do the book
at your price.” Still proud and stubborn, she references her regular work, but acquiesces
on the price and doing another Ruth Fielding.
Even though Karig
was carrying on as Carolyn Keene during this time period, it wasn’t the same as
having Benson do the work and Harriet couldn’t help but point out in a
September 1st, 1932 letter upon receipt of the finished Ruth Fielding
manuscript, “We trust that you are doing well with your own books. It was
unfortunate, wasn’t it, that Barse and Company had to close up? We hope that
the books you had with them will do well with another publisher.”
By November of
1933, Edna writes to Benson about the last Ruth Fielding which they persuaded
the publisher to agree to, Crowning Victory. “We are asking you to take
a reduction, as we have asked our other authors, and do this manuscript for the
sum of $75.00. We should like you to undertake this book very much, and regret
we must ask you to finish the series at this figure, but the way things stand
we cannot afford to pay more.” By 1933, even Benson was agreeable. The
Depression had worn everyone down and work, was work.
It's time to back
track to 1931, so grab your magnifying glass! Benson had just refused to take a
pay cut over Nancy Drew and made a stand in fairness to herself and her writing
ability. Enter Madge Sterling, Benson’s answer to Nancy Drew, her own series
which Goldsmith agreed to publish at $100 a volume which was good pay for the
size of these stories, much shorter at 15 chapters and thinner than the average
25-chapter Nancy Drew book.
Benson, writing
as “Ann Wirt,” had an opportunity to create a new series of her own, The Madge Sterling Series. She referenced writing this series in those 1931 refusal
letters to the Stratemeyer sisters where she noted she was in the process of
selling the series. You probably never realized that Madge Sterling was either
born out of conflict between Benson and the sisters or became a badge of honor
of sorts in Benson’s attempt to further come into her own as an author in her
own right, not just a ghostwriter for the Stratemeyer Syndicate and for pay she
felt was a justice to herself and her talents. It doesn’t take much to read
between the lines from all the 1931 refusal letters back and forth between
Benson and the Stratemeyer sisters to see that Benson had been using Madge
Sterling as a bargaining chip of sorts, hoping that at hearing of her work on
other series which were getting picked up by publishers, that the sisters would
be more willing to negotiate with her rather than let her refusal stand and at
the very least, would not want to lose a valuable talented writer such as
Benson.
If you’ve never
heard of Madge Sterling or have never read the books, I wrote a very in-depth
article about the series in the July/August 2011 and the September/October 2011
issues of The Sleuth. The series, published in 1932, was a three-volume
breeder consisting of The Missing Formula, The Deserted Yacht, and The
Secret of the Sundial. Madge was a teenage sleuth from Claymore, Michigan
who spends her summers at her aunt and uncle Brady’s lodge at Loon Lake in
Canada. Recall, that trip to Canada mentioned earlier in which Benson wrote to
Stratemeyer hoping to catch a snappy bass? I think that trip and other similar
ones inspired the setting of Loon Lake in Canada in this series. There’s an old
photo of Benson with her first husband, Asa Wirt, during the heyday of their
relationship before his health took a downturn, possibly from this trip or a
similar one with lots of fish and a very happy Benson! My friend and colleague
Geoffrey S. Lapin who discovered and helped to out Benson to the collecting
community and beyond, corresponded with me last summer about Madge Sterling and
wondered about her connections to Canada and our conversation got me to
thinking about Madge Sterling and the timing of that series during Benson’s
hiatus as Carolyn Keene. Also, I pondered the similarities between Nancy Drew
and Madge Sterling at that time period during 1932.
At the time she
was working on the Madge Sterling books, Benson had 17 books under her belt. The
Madge Sterling series was most similar to the Nancy Drew series in style. Madge
does not give the impression of a girl easily daunted. She’s a skillful boater
and an expert with a canoe, loves the outdoors, swims like a fish, and has a
talent for making friends. Her mother died when she was a baby and a short time
later, her dad, Graham Sterling, went out west on a prospecting expedition and
was never heard from again. Her uncle George and aunt Maude are like parents to
her. Where Madge departs from Nancy Drew is that she reminds me a lot of Nancy’s
chum George Fayne from the original text Nancy Drew books. Like George, Madge
can be blunt and tactless when she wants to be and speak her mind. A minor
parallel is involved between the first Madge Sterling book, The Missing
Formula, and the Nancy Drew book, The Clue in the Diary. Both books
involve storylines surrounding inventors. In Missing Formula, the
inventor is deceased when the story begins, and it is his missing formula that
Madge searches for. In Diary, Nancy searches for the inventor who holds
the key to a diary found at the scene of a mansion fire and the reason for the
fire. Both of these books were published in 1932 and despite the parallels are
very different stories which stand well on their own. Both the Madge Sterling
series and the Nancy Drew series were quickly paced and were full of the typical cliffhangers and that old Stratemeyer
and St. Nicholas melodrama style that so inspired Benson.
Lapin writes in The
Ghost of Nancy Drew for Books at Iowa in the April 1989 issue about
Madge Sterling and notes, “The hiatus from the work for Adams had permitted
Wirt's visiting various publishing houses to sell her independent work.” Benson
would later in life reveal that she couldn’t sell her own work to Grosset &
Dunlap for they were aware of her association with the Stratemeyer Syndicate
and out of deference to the Syndicate didn’t pick up her writing which was
unfortunately because they were one of the bigger publishers with a lot of
clout and great distribution and who hired wonderful artists like Russell H.
Tandy to illustrate their series so beautifully. Benson was relegated to
publishers like Barse & Company (though her Ruth Darrow books did end up
getting acquired by Grosset & Dunlap), who went bankrupt during the Depression
and smaller publishers like Goldsmith and Cupples & Leon whose management
and distribution were no comparison to Grosset & Dunlap. As good as the
Madge Sterling books were, however, the series went no further than the breeder
set and probably was a casualty of the Depression and poor distribution and
advertising. This turn of events had to have been a blow to Benson considering
the timing and her stand on taking a pay cut with the Syndicate and the wear
and tear of the Depression on everyone involved. I’m sure that Benson was
banking on this series leading to more volumes and other opportunities, after
all, Benson likely wondered at that time, what did she need Nancy Drew and the
Syndicate for? Fate, had other ideas, however and even pride and stubbornness
gave way by 1934.
A pivotal return
by Nancy Drew’s original Carolyn Keene was clearly fated as both the
Stratemeyer sisters and Benson needed each other to carry on. A March 24, 1934
letter from Edna to Benson asked her if she could do the next Nancy Drew book, The Clue of the Broken Locket. “We are wondering whether you have
any time in which you might write the next volume in the NANCY DREW series.” The
letter was not short on praise for Benson’s last Ruth Fielding and they trusted
that Benson could arrange her own writings so she could do the new Nancy Drew
conveniently “and that we will not lose contact with you.” However, pay was
even less than before when Benson took her stand. Edna noted, “We will pay
$85.00 for this story. Trusting to hear favorably from you at once…”
A March 26 reply
from Benson surely brought relief to the Stratemeyer sisters after a 3 year
long stand on Nancy Drew. Benson agreed to write the new Nancy Drew but asked to
be sent only the last two Karig volumes – The Sign of the Twisted Candles
and The Password to Larkspur Lane, because she already had Nancy’s Mysterious
Letter. It’s interesting that Benson had the first of Karig’s Nancy Drews –
no doubt she was rather curious at how Nancy Drew continued on and purchased
this one to check out her “rival” ghostwriter whom by 1950 she would discover
was that rascally “jokester” Walter Karig. Benson rounded out her favorable
reply by revealing that “I have always been rather partial to ‘Nancy’ and it
will seem quite like old times to be writing about her again.” By April, Benson
was sent the outline for Broken Locket with instructions and
admonishments on the line filling and page counts. Plus, the missing Karig
volumes arrived to clue Benson in on what Nancy Drew had been up to while
Benson and Madge Sterling had been snappy-bass-fishing in Canada. Speaking of
Canada, Leslie McFarlane scored a new series during Benson’s hiatus in the form
of the Dana Girls, under the pen name Carolyn Keene – a series the Stratemeyer
sisters invented and that most likely would have gone to Benson, had she not
taken a stand on the Nancy Drew pay cuts. Written to be similar to the Nancy
Drew series, Benson would go on to write for that series when McFarlane had had
enough of the Dana sisters as he did not enjoy writing that series.
But had Benson
not come back to writing Nancy Drew and gone on to write volumes 11-25 and then
30, then what? With Karig not working out too well and without Benson, how
might Nancy Drew have fared from 1934 onward? It’s been said many times, the
writing of those 1930s and early 1940s Nancy Drew books were by far the best
and they certainly set the foundation for all of Nancy Drew’s future successes.
Ghostwriters to come, though good, didn’t hold the same candle to Benson’s
work. The course of Nancy Drew’s history could have been drastically changed so
early on and during such a pivotal time during the Depression without a real-life
Nancy Drew writing it. The independence, boldness, spunk, zest for adventure,
smart mouth and brashness of the 1930s Nancy Drew were all Benson. And thus, as
you reflect on Nancy Drew’s 94th this year and her upcoming 95th
next year, think about the history behind the mystery and about those who
created Nancy Drew and made such a wonderful success of her and appreciate that
even in hard times, even with pride and stubbornness on all sides, that some
successes and associations are just meant to be and that fate has a wonderful
way of working itself out.
Benson would go
on to write for another twenty years sum total for the Stratemeyer Syndicate
and write and publish many of her own books and series – 135 published books in total by the end of the 1950s. She was for many years during the 1930s one
of the most prolific ghostwriters for the Syndicate for its ongoing girls’
series as well as writing most of the girls’ series and lists for other
publishers like Cupples & Leon under her own name and various pseudonyms
she used. She became a journalist in the 1940s full time and worked for decades
as a reporter and columnist in Toledo, Ohio. She took up adventures she had
only written and dreamed about in the 1960s and beyond when she became a pilot
and archaeological adventurer. In the end, when it was all said and done, even the
Madge Sterling vs. Nancy Drew episode in her long writing career is just one of
the many mysteries behind the scenes of Nancy Drew’s world that is so relevant
to Nancy Drew fans today. The resounding lessons of this time period still resonate
with us now - don’t give up on your dreams, stand up for yourselves, but also
be willing to make sacrifices and survive when life throws you curveballs. In
the end, it’s all so very worth it.
Bibliography:
- “The Stratemeyer Syndicate” advertisement in the Editor,
April 10, 1926
-Ida M. Gurwell, “Chats with Cleveland Writers: Mildred Augustine
Wirt,” Cleveland Plain Dealer,
n.d. (1931).
-Numerous letters in the Stratemeyer Syndicate archives at the NYPL
covering the period of the mid-1920s to the mid-1930s between Benson and Edward
Stratemeyer, Harriet Stratemeyer Adams and Edna Camilla Stratemeyer.
-Ayers Brinser, “For It Was Indeed He,” Fortune,
April 1934.
-Mildred Wirt
Benson, “The Ghost of Ladora,” Books at Iowa 19 (November 1973).
-Geoffrey S.
Lapin, “The Ghost of Nancy Drew,” Books
at Iowa 50 (April 1989).
-Jennifer Fisher, “Mysterious
Madge Sterling” in parts 1 and 2 in the July/August 2011 &
September/October 2011 issues of The Sleuth
