When Edward Stratemeyer conceived of the Nancy Drew Mystery Stories in 1929, he envisioned a girls' version of his popular Hardy Boys series. He hoped it would prove successful, but he could not have foreseen that it would fast become the bestselling juvenile series in the country (originally targeted for 10-to-15-year-olds and later for 8-to-11-year-olds), and would eventually gain renown as the longest-running series of children's fiction in American history. Nancy Drew even conquered foreign shores: first appearing in Norway in the late 1930s, by the 1980s she had been translated into over a dozen different languages. In Nancy Drew, Edward Strate-meyer did not merely create a series of books, he created an enduring cross-cultural icon.

Ghostwriter Mildred Wirt had already worked for the Stratemeyer Syndicate, contributing to a well-established series. When she was assigned the first volumes of Nancy Drew, Wirt was glad for...