Nancy Drew Fans: Here You'll Find Collecting Vintage Nancy Drew & Series Books, Nancy Drew Crafts & Projects, Nancy Drew Merchandise and Party Planning, Nancy Drew Convention Info and Many More Mysterious Things!
Grace Horton was the model for Nancy Drew--in the original covers and illustrations by Russell H. Tandy. There is not a lot known about Grace, but she clearly lent a "grace" and sophistication to Nancy Drew's style on the dust jackets of those original books.
Her family was known for Horton Ice Cream. I've created a montage shown above using a recent photo of Grace that was sold at eBay. Grace was a Harry Conover model who can sometimes be spotted in old print ads.
Author Susan Kandel built part of the murder mystery in Not a Girl Detective on Grace Horton and Russell H. Tandy.For more on Russell H. Tandy, check out this page of my website:
An update thanks to a fellow ND collector/Sleuth Vicki! She had a 1977 Hardy Boys watch and I'm including pictures in this blog.
Similar design to the Nancy Drew watch, and dated 1977 and Universal City Studios, Inc. The band is different, but it's for a boy, so that's not a huge clue or anything.
Now to just find out how it was sold! My original thought was that it might have been sold at Universal Studios--maybe in the gift shop--but I checked out some of my other TV show collectibles and noticed the puzzle and the lunchbox all have the same designation of Universal City Studios, Inc. Sears did have a clothing line featuring Sean Cassidy on most items around 1978, so perhaps the watch might have been offered in one of the catalogs--Sear's, Pennys, etc..
I finally took a picture of the painting I purchased at the 2008 Nancy Drew Sleuths convention in Bird-in-Hand, PA. Nancy Drew Files illustrator Tricia Zimic attended and had some of her paintings up for auction. It was a treat to get to meet her and she spoke about her experience illustrating some of the Nancy Drew Files books. This was my first purchase of Nancy Drew cover art, so it was a thrill:)
She still has paintings available for sale if anyone is interested!
I received the watch today! I'm including photos of it.
Including the front, face, sides.
It states on the face, 1977 Universal City
Studios, Inc. I'm wondering if this watch may have been sold at the theme park?! It's a child's watch as the band is very small. No other markings. I even checked it out using my trusty magnifying glass as any Nancy fan would ;) haha!
Since it was for a child, it would have been marketed as such so in some child mags, fan mags, or like I'm suspecting, at the theme park itself.
If anyone has any clues, I'd love to hear them:) There may have also been a counterpart for the Hardy Boys sold at the same time.
So I was checking out eBay a week ago and came across a listing for a Nancy Drew watch--1977 Universal. The face as you can see features a somewhat Pamela Sue Martin style Nancy Drew with a magnifying glass and footprints. It's very Nancyish. I've never heard of this collectible before!
I'm not sure whether it was something available that people could order, perhaps a fan club item, or if it was a promotional item, maybe a cast/crew item. I'm going to contact some TV show people who worked on the show to see if they can shed some light on it. My other thought was some kind of bootleg item.
What stunned me more was that the bidding ended at only $35.89! Where were all the bidders, the usual suspects? Not that I'm complaining:)
I'll let you all know more once I receive the watch and do some digging.
I was at Half Price Books a week ago and ran across a volume discounted for $19.98: The History of Mystery by Max Allan Collins. Very large oversize hardcover with dust jacket. Covers mystery books and features lots of illustrations and covers throughout from Edgar Allan Poe to Sashiell Hammett to Raymond Chandler to lots of pulp fiction covers--and even Nancy Drew!
Featured on pages 106-108 is information on boy and girl detectives: the Syndicate and Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys. Pictured is the Applewood book cover of The Secret of the Old Clock.
For Drew enthusiasts who like to collect anything that has something to do with Nancy Drew this is for you--and if you like mystery in books, tv, etc.. this will be a nice feature on the history of this genre--makes a nice coffee table book too. Copyright 2001, Collectors Press.
If you don't have a Half Price Books, I've seen this listed often on eBay and also many copies abound at Amazon.com.
The University of Maryland had a neat 75th anniversary exhibition in 2005 and now has an online display you can view! Taken from their website is a blurb about the event:
"To celebrate the 75th year of publishing of Nancy Drew books, The University of Maryland Libraries featured an exhibit on Girls’ Series books in the fall of 2005 in the Hornbake Library Maryland Room Gallery. This exhibit highlights the girls’ series books in the Rose and Joseph Pagnani Collection in the University of Maryland Libraries. This collection contains over 300 books from 33 different series published from 1917 to 1980. Although Nancy Drew is the star of the exhibit, other girls’ series heroines such as Vicki Barr, Sue Barton, Judy Bolton, and the Dana Girls are also included."
They had a nice exhibition and speakers for the event. Here's a link to the online version of the exhibit:
We had a great time last year in PA for the Sleuths '2008 convention: Bird-in-Hand, PA, a little town near Lancaster where in this area of PA, Nancy and her chums sleuthed around in The Witch Tree Symbol. Above was our banner on the convention day with the neat hex symbol Sleuth Kelly designed. Below is the fun cake the town's bakery decorated for us.
Sleuth Dean outdid himself on this gift for the Nancy Drew theme gift exchange--Nancyopoly!
Two of our members--Debbie and Marti came in character to the party: Villain Madame from Tolling Bell and Madame Alexandra from Jewel Box.
If you're interested in attending a convention, check out the Sleuths' website:
I was shopping in Half Price Books the other day and purchased over 30.00 so I got one of their calendars free--these calendars feature literary figures' birthdays and other information throughout the calendar as well as coupons in the back to save throughout the year.
I decided to turn to the April to see if perhaps Nancy Drew was mentioned, nothing. Then turned to October--and on the 4th of October it lists Edward Stratemeyer along with Brendan Gill and Damon Runyon--neat!
If you have one of these stores, check it out! It looks like they have then in AZ, CA, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, MN, MO, NE, OH, OK, PA, TX, WA, and WI. Check out their website for locations near you:
The University of Michigan at Dearborn held a reception at the Berkowitz Gallery in the Mardigian Library on September 12, 2008 to go along with an exhibition on children's series books including artwork that was displayed. The exhibition, “Timeless Treasures: Children's Series from the Juvenile Historic and Quigley Collection,” was on display from September 12 through October 24. The displays included many different series books with highlights on Nancy Drew, Mildred Wirt Benson books and series, and Tom Swift. There were Laura Ingalls Wilder books and memorabilia and Oz too plus a nice Uncle Wiggily display.
I was contacted last year about speaking at the event. In doing research for the exhibition, they came across my website and decided they’d like to focus especially on Nancy Drew as a draw for the reception. You can visit this section of the university’s website for more information on the exhibition:
My focus on the presentation was Nancy Drew history over the years and the various formats and collectibles with a section on Nancy Drew cover art. I featured some of the Tandy and Nappi art as well as Gillies for the classic books. Over 100 attended the event. It was very interesting to meet everyone who attended which included some writers who had written articles about Nancy Drew. There were many fans of all ages and quite a few librarians.
This was the first time I had been flown in for an event to speak. The accommodations were lovely and the weather was great—cool and rainy compared to the heat and dryness of Phoenix. We went to lunch the day of the event at the old Henry Ford mansion on the campus which offers tours. They converted an indoor pool room into a dining room. The food was great and the service excellent—I’d recommend a visit to the estate for anyone visiting the Dearborn area. After the reception I attended a small private dinner with the organizers, some university employees and those who had donated or loaned quite a bit to the collection.
The library is accepting donations of series books for the collection. One nice thing about this collection, is that they don’t loan out the books, they keep them there, if anyone wishes to view them, then they can do so in-house. So, if you’re looking for a place to donate some of your series books or you would like to find a home for them at some point in the future, consider the University of Michigan at Dearborn’s Mardigian Library archives.
Being so close to Toledo, Ohio, I managed to work out my return flight a few days after my talk which gave me time to visit friends in Toledo and do more research on Mildred Wirt Benson. I stayed with Sleuth Rick and his wife Brenda who hosted our group on two occasions in the past and as usual they were super hosts! I did some book hunting with Rick at an antique mall outside of Toledo and checked out Frogtown Books. I found a few books but the neatest finds were at the antique mall. I came upon two large hardcover sets of St. Nicholas magazines bound—several issues in each volume. I found two of Mildred’s short stories!
I had received permission to visit the Toledo Blade’s library to research past columns. On a previous visit in 2002, I had visited there and had gotten some research, which led me to the public library to access past issues of The Blade. Apparently I’m not a whiz with microfilm, as I managed to get some articles home that had only page 1 and not the second part of her column. So I had made a list of what I needed on this current visit and those articles were printed and ready for me at the Blade. I also accessed more of her older columns on microfilm and went through several boxes they have archived there about her. They have articles on her, books that mention her, and other miscellaneous items as well as a lot of photographs of her over the years. They also have a lot of her columns—clippings—saved in folders that I was able to go through and copy. Some other things she wrote and a neat interview that was done with her and a Blade employee before she died. The transcript is hilarious to read in parts as it was really a tug of war between Millie and this employee at times over questions being asked and answers being given. I think they were both probably exhausted by the time it was all over.
I also spoke to some of the employees there about her and a few other locals and got some leads to follow. All in all, I sent back a huge box of copies and notes to myself to add to my stack of growing clues to just who is Mildred Wirt Benson beyond the whole legacy of her just being most famously known as Carolyn Keene.
If you are interested in contacting the university to donate books or set up a donation in the future, please contact Barbara Kriigel:
Barbara J. Kriigel
Associate Director for Circulation & Technical Services
University of Michigan--Dearborn
Mardigian Library
4901 Evergreen, Dearborn, MI 48128-1491
313/593-5614
bkriigel@umd.umich.edu
It is with sadness that I make this post today, I just couldn't yesterday. I spoke to Sleuth Rick yesterday and he let me know that John Axe passed away. For those of you who don't know John, he was a series book collector and had written several series book guides that were very nice. All About Collecting Boys' Series Books and All About Collecting Girls' Series Books and The Secret of Collecting Girls' Series Books. They are not in print anymore, but you can usually find copies of them at eBay or other online bookstores from time to time. He especially liked the Judy Bolton series and attended the Coundersport gathering each year, except for this past year. He had quite a wit about him and was very creative and talented, so it was sad to see him decline in the last year of his life. We used to exchange very entertaining e-mails and I have missed that over the last year. He always had something interesting to say and was a great help to collectors. He will definitely be missed!
I was recently in Michigan and Ohio in September for a speech I gave at the Univ. of Michigan--check back for a future Blog on that soon--and also some research and book hunting in Ohio! I met up with Sleuth Rick who hosted us for our first official convention in Toledo in 2001 and some other fun Sleuth events in 2002.
We visited Jeffrey's Antique Gallery located in Findlay, OH. That place is huge! Tons of dealers and quite a bit of series books here and there! I'm including a picture I snapped of one shelf of series books--click on it for a larger image. If you are near Findlay, OH, I'd recommend stopping in--it's located right off the main highway, 11326 County Rd. 99, phone number: 419-423-7500.
Also including a picture of the place--you can't miss it traveling down the highway!
Here's a display of series books from a local bookstore in the Phoenix area: Book Gallery in Mesa on Main Street. They have a very large and nice selection of series books! Many in dust jacket.
With eBay becoming less and less fun for collectors, less and less interesting books and collectibles being listed, and more and more books and collectibles constantly being purchased by resellers who drive up prices and from whom I won't buy from generally, it's a lot of fun to scout your local area and see what is out there. Plan book hunting trips with friends. You might be surprised at what you find! Don't forget to check out the antique stores and malls--they often have series books and reasonable prices too!
So, this may not be Ned in Nancy's roadster, but I found this little car at Wal-Mart in the Christmas section. Wasn't too expensive. I have it displayed on the shelf! If only I had a mini Nancy figure to go with it.
It's been a loooooooooong time since I posted! Life--and Nancy Drew--have a way of getting in the way of keeping up with this Blog!
A lot of family drama and tragedies, the convention, flying off to Michigan to speak there, and lots of other things like my party company with our major Halloween sales, and here we are again! So, I'm going to start regularly getting back to this and our favorite feature of eBay Sleuthing! Woohoo!
First entry is my new license plate!!!!!!!! It's personalized. Something I've wanted for ***ages*** too! NCYDREW ! I'm including photos.
So if you see me driving around the Phoenix area, honk! But don't give me a flat tire, waylay me or make me take a fake detour!
I received my set of Girl Detective books from the UK.
Not sure if this is a new item or not, but I found a 7 pack set of the UK Girl Detective books along with the Nancy Drew movie novelization all shrinkwrapped together--which I highlighted in a recent Blog entry here.
The back has a card showing the book covers and the movie novelization cover with the blurb, "Now a Major Motion Picture." So this is a neat UK collectible for the movie. The movie novelization has the words novelization as novelisation and word color as colour--keeping in the style of their spelling. So the noveliz(s)ation itself may likely also have things changed within. I'm not opening my shrinkwrapped set, so if anyone has one of these from the UK, maybe you can see if there is a difference inside as well.
I was just happy to get the set of UK Girl Detective books at a good price, but to find it's a movie-tie in collectible is an added bonus!
I've updated my movie section at the website--if you're interested in seeing all of the fun collectibles out there, check it out:
Grace Horton was the model for Nancy Drew--in the original covers and illustrations by Russell H. Tandy. There is not a lot known about Grace, but she clearly lent a "grace" and sophistication to Nancy Drew's style on the dust jackets of those original books.
For more on Russell H. Tandy, check out this page of my website:
