Nancy Drew Mystery Stories
By Carolyn Keene

List of Nancy Drew titles and publication dates

Nancy Drew #1-34

The first 34 Nancy Drew books in the original texts published from 1930 to 1956 contain 25 chapters and around 210 to 225 pages each.  The early Nancy Drew is smart, adventurous, flippant, and daring.  Nancy has blond hair and drives a smart blue roadster.  Helen Corning is Nancy's friend in the earliest books, but by volume 5, Bess Marvin and George Fayne are Nancy's closest friends, and Helen only appears occasionally.  Ned Nickerson meets Nancy in volume 7, and the attraction is mutual.  Burt Eddleton and Dave Evans are not present in the earliest texts and are not mentioned until volume 20.  Burt and Dave do appear in the revised versions of several of the early texts.

Nancy Drew #35-56

Volumes 35 through 56 and the revised versions of volumes 1 through 34 are 20 chapters and around 180 pages each.  In these books, Nancy becomes more sedate and is nearly always calm, cool, and collected.  Nancy is still smart and daring, but she is no longer flippant or excitable.  One cannot imagine this Nancy ever having a hair out of place.  It is this Nancy Drew that people refer to when they say that Nancy Drew is 'perfect.'  The original Nancy Drew is not perfect, but this one is perfect, or at least very close to perfect.  Nancy now has reddish-blond hair and drives a blue convertible.  Nancy is often accompanied by her friends Bess, George, Ned, Burt, and Dave while she solves her mysteries.

Nancy Drew #57-175

Some people say that Nancy Drew is dramatically different in the paperbacks and that she is not the real Nancy Drew.  However, when read in order right after the original 56, Nancy Drew is not much different at all.  #57 and #59 through about #70 are very much like the higher-numbered volumes of the original 56, and the only real difference is that they are paperback books rather than hardcover books.  Many people avoid the paperbacks simply because they are paperbacks and would collect the paperbacks if the books had been issued in the Grosset and Dunlap hardcover editions.  It was my quest to acquire hardcover versions of the paperback titles that led me to the different library bindings.

After the early group of paperbacks, the series does slowly change with Burt Eddleton and Dave Evans disappearing from the series, never to reappear.  Ned Nickerson does stick around but appears only sporadically.  Bess Marvin and George Fayne are in most of the books; that is, at least one of the two girls is present.  They tend to take turns being with Nancy with the other being unavailable, which actually makes a lot more sense than in the original 56 when not only Bess and George, but Ned, Burt, and Dave are able to drop everything and join Nancy at a moment's notice anywhere on the planet.

These books have Nancy driving a blue Mustang convertible.  Sometimes Nancy's hair is blond and sometimes it is reddish-blond.

The Nancy Drew Files #1-124

This spin-off series which was published from 1986 to 1997 has Nancy Drew dressing in trendy clothes and sometimes interested in guys other than Ned.  Ned Nickerson is still Nancy's boyfriend, but Nancy and Ned frequently argue.  Ned sulks about Nancy spending too much time on her cases, and Nancy feels that her cases come first and that Ned should support her work even if he can never spend time with her.  They break up several times during the course of the series and always get back together.  In this series, Nancy and Ned are a dysfunctional couple that seems to thrive upon the abnormality of the relationship.  In the middle of the melodrama, Nancy continues to solve mysteries that in these books usually involve murders.

Nancy Drew, Girl Detective

This new series began in early 2004 after the end of the original series at volume 175 in late 2003.  Nancy Drew is once again impulsive and flippant just as she is in the early books from the 1930s.  However, this series takes a totally different approach as it is written in the first person rather than in the third person, making Nancy much more real.  Additionally, Nancy becomes so obsessed with her mysteries that she often forgets to complete ordinary tasks.  Ned Nickerson is once again present, and he and Nancy get along well.  Nancy's friends Bess and George take a more active role in helping Nancy; Bess is now a skilled mechanic, and George is a technology wiz.

The first 38 Nancy Drew books were issued by Grosset and Dunlap in hardcover with dust jackets from 1930 to 1961.

The yellow spine picture covers have been printed since 1962 and consist of #1-56..

Dozens of Nancy Drew books were translated into Danish and published in Denmark.  These books picture a very sophisticated Nancy Drew on the covers.

Some Nancy Drew books were translated into Hebrew and published in Israel.

The Nancy Drew series has been very popular in Norway.  The cover art is new and original, but based on the original Grosset and Dunlap editions.

The Econo-Clad books come in several colors and in most cases feature the original picture cover art which is glued to the library binding.

The Bound to Stay Bound editions exactly reproduce the Grosset and Dunlap art but use a variety of binding colors.

These library bindings feature line drawings of the 1950s dust jacket art, a cameo spine symbol, and a magnifying glass symbol on the back cover.

The FLB editions use a crude drawing based on the Nappi cover art for Twisted Candles.

The Geometric Design library bindings consist of simple geometric designs.  Also pictured are examples from other series.

These library editions were bound during the 1960s and early 1970s and feature a black and white drawing based on the cover art of the 1960s.

These library bindings feature a plain cover with the title or the title and a crude drawing contained within a box on the front cover.

These library bindings feature a cover art design similar to the multipic endpapers design used in the regular 1970s editions.

These library editions were likely bound during the late 1940s or 1950s, and the covers feature a line drawing based on the early Russell Tandy cover art.

These library editions were bound during the late 1950s and early 1960s by the American Publishers Corporation.

These library bindings consist of generic patterns similar to the types of patterns used on wallpaper.

These hardcover versions of the Wanderer and Minstrel paperbacks have bindings with the cover art attached to the binding by either lamination or glue.

These hardcover versions of the Wanderer and Minstrel paperbacks have bindings with the cover art printed directly on the library binding.

This guide to the Grosset and Dunlap Editions gives examples of the different types of Nancy Drew books.  If more information is needed, a Farah's Guide to the Nancy Drew books can be purchased from David Farah at www.farahsguide.com or on eBay.