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Currently, I am writing a book which focuses on the 75 year history of Nancy Drew®, Nancy Drew Sleuth:
75 Years of Mystery Revealed. A biography on the original "Carolyn Keene," Mildred Wirt Benson, is in the works.
While this website is a good introduction into the world of Nancy Drew®, you will find indepth analysis of all things
Drew in my upcoming book.
Nancy Drew's® popularity over the last 75 years has led to a wide variety of collectibles
aside from the mystery stories themselves. Ranging from the Nancy Drew Mystery Game to puzzle and
code books to the diary, there is something for everyone to collect.
One of the earliest book related collectibles is the Nancy Drew Mystery Game issued by Parker
Brothers in 1957. The game was issued again in 1959 with a new cover. Shown at left is the 1957
version featuring Nancy in a red rain coat. The later version featured a green rain coat. There
was also a Canadian version of the 1959 game as well as many different formats the games went
through. Visit
The Nancy Drew Mystery Game section for more information on the various game formats and other
series book games including The Dana Girls, Tom Swift, The Hardy Boys® and more of your favorite series.
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In 1967, the Madame Alexander doll company released the Nancy Drew® doll. It was 12 inches tall
and had a rather baby-like face. There were several versions as shown above featuring a
matching
dress and coat and a two-piece suit along with scarf and hair ribbons and boots. Accessories
included a camera, purse, and sunglasses. The doll was not on the market for very long and
remains pricey to collect. Shown above are 5 dolls from the Victoria Broadhurst collection.
In 1973, The Nancy Drew Cookbook: Clues to Good Cooking was published by Grosset
& Dunlap.
What is so secret about Bess's Secret Chocolate Waffles?
Are the Captive Biscuits being held captive somewhere? Is
Lemonade Disguise another one of Nancy's "bad" aliases? Does the
Ivory Charm Shrimp Curry have any lifesaving properties in it? Does the
Crumbling Wall Coffee Cake crumble when you eat it? And what is so "special" about
The Cousins' Special Cauliflower? These and other questions can be answered in this collectible cookbook,
collectible
mostly for its nostaliga as a Nancy Drew® collectible than for any real tie-in to the
mysteries themselves. For a fun look at the cookbook and review of some recipes, visit the
Cookbook section.
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The three mystery activity books were issued as a boxed set as well which featured the cover to #2.
Grosset & Dunlap also released two large hardcover picture books for younger children, #1,
The Mystery of the Lost Dogs, and #2, The Secret of the Twin Puppets.
There were
never anymore produced although others may have been planned.
Grosset & Dunlap produced several activity books in the late 1970's:
In 1979, The Nancy Drew Sleuth Book: Clues to Good Sleuthing was published by Grosset
& Dunlap. It featured a large thumbprint on the cover with a silhouette of Nancy and her trusty
magnifying glass--same scene repeats on the back cover. Cover design was by Rudy Nappi. Chapters
ranged from handwriting to fingerprints to codes. Each chapter featured Nancy and her Detective Club.
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My Nancy Drew Private Eye Diary came in to versions. The earlier white diary is
extremely
rare to come across. Its distribution must not have been very widespread as the red diary soon
replaced it on the market. The red diary is somewhat hard to find but comes up for
auction a couple of times a year on eBay. The white diary pictured above is from the David
Farah Collection.
Vanishing Pyramid is the hardest to find of the three. Often the books
come up for
sale without the records intact.
KidStuff Records & Tapes released three book and record sets:
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There were several cereal promotions ranging from Raisin Bran to Lucky Charms.
Some of the promotions,
like those above, involved the regular mystery books or the activity books.
Cookie Crisp had coloring books inside
that folded out as shown below. There were 6 of these to collect and the actual box is very
rare to come by:
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Fan Clubs were advertised in the backs of Nancy Drew&3174; and The Hardy Boys®
Wanderer digest paperbacks and other publications. Shown above
are thumbnails of a newsletter issued for the fan club. Also given out were items including notepads and
stationary. The above fan club newsletter was donated by a fellow collector, Dorothy.
It was three-hole
punched to go in a child's school notebook.
The scan at left is part of the Victoria Broadhurst
collection.
Released around 1980, this datebook and homework planner was available in two styles.
From dastardly villians to spooky old mansions to things that do not always appear as they seem, you'll delight in the fun
computer games that Her Interactive has been issuing twice a year. These games are lots of
fun to play and to collect the various formats of. Visit the
Her Interactive Computer Games section of the library for more details.
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Over the years there have been many articles and oboks written about our intrepit sleuth. Shown above is the earliest of
such magazines. The April 1934 issue of Fortune Magazine contained an article about Edward Stratemeyer and the
Stratemeyer Syndicate. John Axe's guide, The Secret of Collecting Girls' Series Books, is a great resource for all of
the various cover art and formats. Other guides include the excellent guide to the Nancy Drew® printings, Farah's Guide to
Nancy Drew Books and Collectibles. Please visit the
Sources section for more information on the various books and
guides.
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If you have an interesting collectible not featured on this website, e-mail me about it
here. Many thanks to the wonderful collectors who
donated images for the Collectibles sections!
At left is a promotional bookmark that recently came packaged with 6 book glossy flashlight
picture cover sets. Click on the bookmark to see a large image of the back of the bookmark which
featured all the book covers. There are a host of other collectibles, several featured above in clickable thumbnail images,
including:
Copyright 2000-2010 by Jennifer Fisher. All Rights Reserved. Nancy Drew® and the Hardy Boys® are registered trademarks of Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved. This site is neither affiliated with nor endorsed by Simon & Schuster, Inc. Any of Simon & Schuster's Copyright material appearing on this site complies with fair or acceptable use principles established in U.S. and International coypright law for the purpose of review, study, criticism, or news reporting.