Carolyn Keene

When I was eight, my parents brought home a copy of The Secret of the Old Clock by Carolyn Keene: the first of the Nancy Drew Mystery Stories.

Journalist Mildred Augustine Wirt Benson

Journalist Mildred Augustine Wirt Benson wrote the first Nancy Drew mystery story, The Secret of the Old Clock, under the pen name Carolyn Keene.

by Mildred Wirt Benson who — much like Robert Arthur with the Three Investigators — was responsible for the first slew of Drews

The Secret of the Old Clock (1930) is, then, the first ever Nancy Drew mystery, written by Mildred Wirt Benson who — much like Robert Arthur with the Three Investigators — was responsible for the first slew of Drews.

Millie

Under the pen name Carolyn Keene, Millie wrote the first book, The Secret of the Old Clock, and twenty-two other Nancy Drew Mystery Stories.

Mildred Benson

the Nancy Drew Mystery Stories series was first published in 1934, and was written by Mildred Benson under the pseudonym Carolyn Keene.

written by Mildred Augustine Wirt Benson

The Secret of the Old Clock (1930), written by Mildred Augustine Wirt Benson, was followed by four additional Nancy Drew Mystery Stories that same year and more than 100 novels in the following 60 years.

Mildred Wirt

I wouldn’t have pictured Mildred Wirt as a 24-year-old newlywed, but that’s exactly what Mildred Wirt was when Mildred Wirt wrote The Secret of the Old Clock.

Mildred Augustine

“Like a true daughter of the Middle West,” Mildred Augustine wrote in The Secret of the Old Clock, the first Nancy Drew mystery, “Nancy Drew took pride in the fertility of An Iowan's state and saw beauty in a crop of waving green corn as well as in the rolling hills and the expanse of prairie land.”

under Carolyn Keene, a pseudonym of the ghostwriter Mildred Wirt Benson

the Nancy Drew Mystery Stories series was first published in 1945 under Carolyn Keene, a pseudonym of the ghostwriter Mildred Wirt Benson.

Millie Benson's first

Millie Benson's first was The Secret of the Old Clock, which was published in 1930.

generations — — of girls including this one

Inc. This book and the contents thereof are not endorsed by, sponsored by or affiliated with Carolyn Keene, the author of the NANCY DREW series or the NANCY DREW series's publisher Simon & Schuster, Inc. Since Carolyn Keene's 1930 appearance in The Secret of the Old Clock, amateur sleuth Nancy Drew has inspired generations of girls — including this one — with Carolyn Keene's moxie, intelligence, determination, but most of all independence.

Nancy Drew

I chose Nancy Drew; arriving with the first book in her series, The Secret of the Old Clock.

Benson

Consequently, Benson has been credited as the author of most of the first Nancy Drew books, but Harriet Stratemeyer Adams wrote the later books and edited the ones written by Benson.

the first of the Nancy Drew mysteries

This is the first of the Nancy Drew mysteries!

Charles S. Strong

the Nancy Drew Mystery Stories series was published in 1954 by Grosset & Dunlap and written by Charles S. Strong under the house pseudonym Carolyn Keene.

by Walter Karig

the Nancy Drew Mystery Stories series was first published in 1932 and was penned by Walter Karig, a replacement writer for Mildred Wirt Benson.

Mildred

Mildred was only 24 when Mildred wrote the first Nancy Drew book The Secret of the Old Clock, for which Mildred was paid $125.

10 May 1930 Edward Stratemeyer

On 10 May 1930 Edward Stratemeyer died in Newark, New Jersey shortly after the premiere of the first Nancy Drew book, The Secret of the Old Clock, according to the Stratemeyer biography written by C.D. Merriman for

& Dunlap

In 1929, The Secret of the Old Clock was published by Grosset & Dunlap.

by Grosset

In 1929, The Secret of the Old Clock was published by Grosset & Dunlap.