Learn About Nancy Drew...

Millie Benson.

       Nancy Drew is a fictional character appearing in many American mystery book series, movies, video games, and a TV show as a teenage amateur sleuth. The books are ghostwritten by six different authors and published under the collective pseudonym Carolyn Keene. Created by the publisher Edward Stratemeyer as the female counterpart to his Hardy Boys series, the character first appeared in 1930 in the Nancy Drew Mystery Stories series, which lasted until 2003 and consisted of 175 novels.

       Mildred Augustine Wirt Benson (July 10, 1905 ‚ May 28, 2002) was an American journalist and writer of children's books. She wrote the most popular earliest Nancy Drew mysteries and created the detective's adventurous personality from 1929 to 1947. She contributed to 23 of the first 30 Nancy Drew mysteries, which were bestsellers. (listed below)
       Although Nancy Drew was conceived by Stratemeyer, who provided Benson with index card thumbnail sketches, Benson crafted Nancy into a spunky, plucky personality, with a daring, adventurous spirit. Beginning in 1959, Harriet Stratemeyer Adams revised and updated the Nancy Drew books written by Benson.    

       Benson never anticipated that the books would be so popular but she knew, as she was writing them, that she was writing something that girls were going to like because the heroine was unusual for her time. She said, "I always knew the series would be successful. I just never expected it to be the blockbuster that it has been. I'm glad that I had that much influence on people."

• Missing Millie Benson
• Storied Life of Millie Benson
• Mildred Wirt Benson Documentary
• Celebrating 75 Years of Nancy Drew

Three Nancy Drew book covers.

Nancy Drew Books by "Carolyn Keene" Aka, Millie Benson:

1. The Secret of the Old Clock
2. The Hidden Staircase
3. The Bungalow Mystery
4. The Mystery at Lilac Inn
5. The Secret of Shadow Ranch
6. The Secret of Red Gate Farm
7. The Clue in the Diary
8. The Clue of the Broken Locket
9. The Message in the Hollow Oak
10. The Mystery of the Ivory Charm
11. The Whispering Statue
12. The Haunted Bridge
13. The Clue of the Tapping Heels
14. Mystery of the Brass-Bound Trunk
15. Mystery at the Moss-Covered Mansion
16. The Quest of the Missing Map
17. The Clue in the Jewel Box
18. The Secret in the Old Attic
19. The Clue in the Crumbling Wall 
20. Mystery of the Tolling Bell
21. The Clue in the Old Album
22. The Ghost of Blackwood Hall
23. The Clue of the Velvet Mask

Read more about the many other authors behind the Nancy Drew novels...