Nancy DrewNancy Drew Cover Art Animation

Nancy Drew is the intrepid mystery solving heroine in this juvenile fiction series created by the Stratemeyer Syndicate in 1930.

The Nancy Drew books have been ghostwritten by a number of authors and are published under the pseudonym Carolyn Keene.

The pseudonym Carolyn Keene was also used for the Dana Girls Mystery series and for the River Heights spin-off series.

Mildred Wirt Benson was the author of many early titles and brought Nancy to life. Wirt authored dozens of girls series books including Penny Parker, of whom Wirt stated "I always thought Penny Parker was a better Nancy Drew than Nancy is."

Walter Karig authored several of the popular early tales.

Harriet Stratemeyer Adams wrote many of the later canonical tales.

Initially published by Grosset & Dunlap from 1930 to 1979 (the "canon"), the rights to publish were sold by Harriet Stratemeyer to Simon & Schuster. G&D sued but lost and since that time the stories have been issued under various imprints of Simon & Schuster. However, G&D retained the right to continue publishing the canonical stories. Under Simon & Schuster, Nancy has appeared in hundreds of titles in more than a dozen series/sub-series.

Nancy is just as popular as ever and sales show no sign of slowing down. First printings of the early titles are highly prized and sought by collectors.

Nancy has been featured in several films, three television shows, a number of popular computer Nancy Drew games and a Nancy Drew board game and has spawned a variety of merchandise and collectibles.


Nancy is 18 years old (16 in the early original texts) and is the daughter of famous attorney, Carson Drew.

Nancy's mother died when Nancy was only 3 (10 in the early original texts).

Hannah Gruen, a servant in the early original texts, became a mother figure to Nancy in the later stories and revisions.

This ménage lives in the fictional midwestern city of River Heights.

Nancy's particular chum is the early adventures is Helen Corning.

Helen was replaced by the timid, perpetually hungry Bess Marvin and tomboy George Fayne, who are cousins.

This pair accompanies Nancy in all her adventures.

Nancy's boyfriend is Ned Nickerson, while Bess and George date, respectively, Dave Evans and Burt Eddelton.

Ned, Dave, and Burt attend Emerson college and are always handy to help out Nancy and her chums in the course of their mystery solving.

In the early stories Nancy drives a blue (usually) roadster, which in later volumes becomes a blue convertible.

Site Map

The Original Series page has information on the first 56 books published by Grosset & Dunlap, including publishing information, cover art, author & artist information, plot summaries, plus other information and a handy-dandy check list of Nancy Drew books.

The Paperback Series page links to information on the many paperback series published by Simon & Schuster, including publishing information, cover art, author & artist information and plot summaries.

The TV, Film, etc page has information on Nancy Drew in the movies and on TV, information about the board and video games and other collectibles.

The My Sales page has my own series book for sale.

The Amazon Sales page lists all the Nancy Drew books and games for sale from Amazon.com.

The Social Media page has Facebook groups for juvenile series collectors & more!