What Does Nancy Drew Look Like?

     For those of you who don't know, HeR Interactive is a game company that has been making Nancy Drew games for 15 years. They have made 28 ND games. Their most recent one, Ghost of Thornton Hall came out the beginning of this month. At the end of every game is a trailer for the next one.

     The trailer for the newest game was very short and only revealed a small amount of information, but it has everyone very curious and excited. These are the things we know about the game:

1. It will be called The Silent Spy
2. It will be set in Glasgow, Scotland
3. It will be about Nancy's MOM!

     You can watch the trailer here:

     There are a lot of people who are excited about this game, but some people are not looking forward to it. Not much is known about Nancy's mother or how she died. And a lot of people want it to stay that way. Here is what we do know:

• Nancy was only three years old when her mother died (ten in the original Classic books)
• Her maiden name was Austin
• Her family to America from Scotland and her grandmother (Nancy's Great-Grandmother) still lives there
• She died of a long, mysterious illness

     The French Nancy Drew books say that her first name was Elise, her maiden name was Beauchamp, and she is from Louisiana. In the 2002 pilot episode of a Nancy Drew show that never took off, Nancy says that her mother died of a heart attack. I have also heard some people say that she died in a car accident, but I am not sure where that came from.

     Some people are very concerned that, because this game is about Nancy's mom, we may finally see her dad, Carson in this game. We have talked to him over the phone a few times, but never actually see him. This may also be our chance to see Hannah, Ned, Nancy's Great-Grandmother, and maybe even Nancy herself. Personally, I will not be bothered by seeing anyone in this game. I actually want to! I have seen so many different interpretations of what people think Nancy and her family and friends look like that seeing one more will not bother me a bit and I am interested in knowing how HeR imagines Nancy to look. Here are a few different versions of what people have thought Nancy to look like over the years:

Graphic Novel 1, Girl Detective 44, Emma Roberts, Tracy Ryan
Classic 44, Classic 1, Girl Detective 41, Several Different Pictures

     What are your thoughts about possibly seeing what Nancy or certain other characters look like in a HeR Interactive game for the first time?

~Sienna


Random Fact of the Week: Nancy has been portrayed by twelve different actresses in movies and on tv shows in the last 83 years!

Word Search 1

     Hi everyone! I am so sorry this took me forever to post, I have been very busy lately. I am in the middle of several posts now, but until I can finish them I decided to let you all work on this word search that I made for a Nancy Drew activity book I just recently finished! Here it is:

     There are only ten words to find in this one. They are:

1. Nancy Drew
2. Bess Marvin
3. George Fayne
4. Ned Nickerson
5. Carson Drew
6. Hannah Gruen
7. Chief McGinnis
8. Togo
9. Detective
10. Old Clock

     Here is the answer key:

     Please comment to let me know if you like it! If you do, I may post a few more puzzles every now and then! Enjoy!

~Sienna


Random Fact of the Week: Bonita Granville was the first actress ever to portray Nancy Drew. She starred in four Nancy Drew movies during 1938 and 1939.

Happy Birthday, Nancy Drew!

     Today is the 83rd anniversary of the Nancy Drew series! 83 years ago, there were only three different N.D. books and they were all part of the same series. Since then, Nancy has solved over 600 mysteries in books, on tv shows, in movies, and more! Here is a timeline of the things that have happened through the Nancy Drew years:

• 1862 - Edward Stratemeyer is born.
• 1892 - Harriet Stratemeyer is born.
• 1893 - Russell H. Tandy is born.
• 1895 - Edna Stratemeyer is born.
• 1898 - Walter Karig is born.
• 1905 - Edward Stratemeyer starts the Stratemeyer Syndicate, Mildred Augustine is born.
• 1911 - Bill Gillies is born.
• 1915 - Harriet Stratemeyer marries Russell Vroom Adams.
• 1918 - Mildred Augustine's first short story is published.
• 1918 - Mildred Augustine's first published work, The Courtesy, wins a silver badge.
• 1923 - Rudy Nappi is born. Bonita Granville is born.
• 1925 - Millie begins her career in writing.
• 1926 - Mildred Augustine begins working for the Stratemeyer Syndicate.
• 1928 - Mildred Augustine marries Asa A. Wirt.
• 1929 - Nancy Drew is created and Mildred Wirt is hired to write the books.
• 1930 - The Nancy Drew series debuts. Edward Stratemeyer passes away.
• 1931 - Bess Marvin & George Fayne are introduced.
• 1932 - Nancy meets Ned Nickerson, Walter Karig writes Nancy's Mysterious Letter. (this is the first change in authors for the series).
• 1933 - Macy's sells 6,000 Nancy Drew books during the Christmas season!
• 1934 - Millie continues to write the Nancy Drew books, The Clue of the Broken Locket, is released with its mysterious cover art.
• 1935 - Nancy solves The Message in the Hollow Oak, her first case set outside of the U.S.A.
• 1937 - Togo is introduced, The frontspiece becomes the only glossy internal illustration in the books.
• 1938 - Nancy Drew makes her first movie appearance.
• 1939 - Three more Nancy Drew movies are released. Also, Mildred A. Wirt Benson's busiest year. She wrote 13 books.
• 1940 - Nancy's cat Snowball makes her one and only appearance (#17).
• 1941 - Paper frontspieces are used instead of glossy's.
• 1947 - Mildred A. Wirt's husband, Asa A. Wirt, passes away.
• 1949 - Russell H. Tandy stops illustrating the Nancy Drew books.
• 1950 - Bill Gillies begins illustrating the Nancy Drew books. Mildred A. Wirt marries George A. Benson.
• 1953 - Mildred Benson stops writing the Nancy Drew series, Rudy Nappi begins illustrating the Nancy Drew books. Pamela Sue Martin is born.
• 1956 - Walter Karig passes away.
• 1959 - The revisions for books 1-34 begin, the cameo books begin releasing.
• 1960 - The last six cameo books are published.
• 1961 - Russell H. Tandy passes away. Dust jackets are no longer used..
• 1973 - The Nancy Drew Cookbook is released.
• 1974 - Edna Stratemeyer ?Squier? passes away.
• 1977 - Nancy Drew Makes her first television appearance. The revisions of books 1-34 are complete.
• 1978 - Janet Louise Johnson replaces Pamela Sue Martin as Nancy Drew in The Nancy Drew Hardy Boys Mysteries. Nancy Drew is cut out of The Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys Mysteries TV show, the show is renamed The Hardy Boys Mysteries.
• 1979 - The Classic Nancy Drew series ends, Simon & Schuster begin publishing Nancy Drew books, The Digest Series begins. The Hardy Boys Mysteries TV show ends.
• 1981 - Nancy Drew and The Hardy Boys appear in their first book together.
• 1982 - Harriet Stratemeyer Adams passes away.
• 1984 - Simon & Schuster publishers purchases the Stratemeyer Syndicate, the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys Be a Detective series debuts.
• 1985 - The first David Farah's first Farah's Guide book is published, the last of the Be a Detective books are published.
• 1986 - The Nancy Drew Files series launches.
• 1988 - The Nancy Drew Hardy Boys Super Mysteries is published. In the Files series, Nancy gets engaged, but not to Ned! The marriage never takes place. Bonita Granville passes away.
• 1989 - The River Heights series debuts.
• 1990 - March 6, the very first Nancy Drew play!
• 1992 - The River Heights series ends.
• 1993 - The Nancy Drew Conference is held in Iowa.
• 1994 - The Nancy Drew Notebooks series is published.
• 1995 - The second Nancy Drew television series airs and the On Campus series debuts.
• 1997 - The Nancy Drew Files Series ends.
• 1998 - The Nancy Drew Hardy Boys Super Mysteries and the On Campus series ends, HeR Interactive releases their first Nancy Drew computer game.
• 2000 - Bill Gillies Dies.
• 2001 - The first Nancy Drew Convention is held in Toledo, Ohio.
• 2002 - Mildred A. Wirt Benson passes away, A pilot for a new Nancy Drew tv series airs, but is not picked up as a tv series, the first Nancy Drew audio books are released.
• 2003 - The Nancy Drew Digest Paperbacks series ends.
• 2004 - The Nancy Drew Girl Detective Series begins.
• 2005 - The Nancy Drew Graphic novels are released, the Nancy Drew notebooks series ends.
• 2006 - The Nancy Drew and the Clue Crew series is published, The Sleuth, a magazine all about Nancy Drew is published for the first time (Sep/Oct).
• 2007 - The fifth Nancy Drew movie is released.
• 2010 - The Nancy Drew Graphic novels end, new case files series begins.
• 2011 - The Nancy Drew Paper Dolls are released, the New Case Files end, HeR Interactive releases their 25th ND computer game, a special edition that was their first game set in River Heights. HeR Interactive also releases a Nancy Drew app into the iTunes store that is based on their game, The Secret of Shadow Ranch.
• 2012 - The Nancy Drew Girl Detective series ends, a second set of Nancy Drew Paper Dolls comes out, this time featuring Nancy, Bess, George, Ned, and even Togo! Clue Crew graphic novels are published for the first time.
• 2013 - The Nancy Drew Diaries series debuts and SiennaRose starts the All About Nancy Drew Blog ;)

Wow, that was really long! Thanks to Jennifer Fisher from nancydrewsleuth.com for her timeline! I checked it often to make sure I wasn't forgetting anything! Thanks for reading! I hope we will get to see a lot more of Nancy in the future!

~Sienna

Random Fact of the Week: The typewriter that Mildred A. Wirt Benson used to write Nancy Drew books is now in the Smithsonian Institute!

The Nancy Drew Classic Series: Originals vs. Revised

     The classic Nancy Drew series was written from 1930 to 1979. Thirty-four of those books were written over a period of twenty-nine years, then in 1959, those books began to be revised and the next twenty-two books started being written in this new format. The books were revised for several reasons. Mainly to update the books and remove all stereotypes. Here is a list of the changes that were made to the revised books. The (o) stands for original and the (r) for revised.

1. (o) Nancy's mother died when Nancy was ten years old.

    (r) Nancy's mother died when Nancy was three years old.

2.  (o) Nancy's hair was blonde.

     (r) Nancy's hair is strawberry blonde.

3. (o) Nancy was sixteen years old.

    (r) Nancy is eighteen years old.

4. (o) The books had 25 chapters.

    (r) The books have 20 chapters.

5. (o) The books were approximately 200 pages long.

    (r) The books are approximately 180 pages long.

6. (o) The books were illustrated mainly by Russell H. Tandy.

    (r) The books are illustrated mainly by Rudy Nappi.

7. (o) Bess and George were sixteen years old.

    (r) Bess and George are eighteen years old.

8. (o) Hannah Gruen was nothing more than a housekeeper.

    (r) Hannah Gruen was Nancy's dear friend and mother figure.

9. (o) Nancy was fearless.

    (r) Nancy was much more careful.

10. (o) Nancy didn't mind breaking the rules a little bit if it meant she would solve the mystery.

      (r) Nancy would never break the rules.

11. (o) Nancy was described as "pretty".

      (r) Nancy was described as "attractive".

12. Books 2, 4, 5, 11, 12, 14, 17, and 18 got brand new stories when they were revised.

13. Several titles were slightly altered. (e.g. The Secret at Shadow Ranch became The Secret of Shadow Ranch)

~Sienna

Random Fact of the Week: When Edward Stratemeyer was creating Nancy Drew, some of the names he considered were Diana Drew, Nell Cody, Stella Strong, Nan Nelson, Diana Dare, Helen Hale, and Nan Drew.

Welcome!

     Hi everyone! Welcome to the All About Nancy Drew blog! I started this blog because I love Nancy Drew and everything about her. This blog will be a place for people like myself to come and learn more about the Nancy Drew. I am currently working on a book about Nancy and a Daily Calendar with 365 facts about Nancy and the people who created her.

     I am going to try posting as often as possible, probably once or twice a week. I hope you enjoy reading this blog! Please Comment, I would love to hear what you have to say!

     ~Sienna ♥


Random Fact of the Week: Did you know that Nancy Drew was created in 1929 by a man named Edward Stratemeyer? Mr. Stratemeyer also created many other children's series such as The Hardy Boys, Tom Swift, Ruth Fielding and The Bobbsey Twins!