The Clue of the Velvet Mask

The Clue of the Velvet Mask, was first published in the regular Nancy Drew format--blue tweed boards and wrap dust jacket--in 1953. It was written by Mildred Wirt Benson, who had written 22 of the previous Nancy Drew books. Velvet Mask was her 23rd and the last volume she wrote for this series.

In 1959, the Nancy Drew Readers Club premiered and its promotional volume was Velvet Mask. Since it was the promotional volume it is more widely available than the other 12 cameo editions. It only cost club members 10¢, while other volumes each month would be $1.49 each.

The dust jacket featured the art shown at left which was also the same art used for the frontispiece. The background color of the dust jacket was blue. The covers as shown above were grey and the spine was greenish-blue in color. The ribbon holding the Cameo was turquoise and the endpapers featured the same turquoise colored ribbon. The ink-topped pages were turquoise in color to match the ribbon. Shown below are the endpapers and an ad that this volume was featured in:

There were 8 line drawings throughout the text on two pages each. The text started on page 7 and due to the larger size of the pages the pages do not match up the same with the regular book version. Click on the thumbnails below to view these fine drawings by Polly Bolian:

Pgs 18-19	Pgs 44-45	Pgs 70-71	Pgs 88-89
Pgs 122-123	Pgs 138-139	Pgs 164-165	Pgs 180-181