In 1930 a plucky girl detective stepped out of her shiny blue roadster, dressed in a smart tweed suit, ready to restore a stolen inheritance to its rightful owner. Later, tied up by the villains, she managed to free herself and bring them to justice—all while wearing a pencil skirt and high heels. Eighty million books later, Nancy Drew has survived the Depression, World War II, and the sixties (when she was taken up with a vengeance by women’s libbers), and emerged as beloved by girls today as she was by their grandmothers. Now, in a narrative with all the fast-paced thrill of one of Nancy’s adventures, Melanie Rehak solves a page-turning literary mystery: Who created Nancy Drew? And how did she go from pulp heroine to American icon?
Melanie Rehak will send you back to your old Nancy Drews—but thanks to Girl Sleuth you’ll never read them the same way again.
Melanie Rehak's work has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, the New York Times Book Review, Vogue, Real Simple, Salon.com, the Nation, and other publications.
Her poetry has been published in the New Yorker and the Paris Review. She has held fellowships at the New York Public Library’s Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers and the MacDowell Colony.
She lives in Brooklyn. Girl Sleuth is her first book.
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"It's truly fun to see behind the scenes of the girl sleuth's creation, transformation, and the publishing phenomenon."
—Publishers Weekly
"With her first sentence ("Grab your magnifying glass, because this is a mystery story") Rehak shows she has a finger on the pulse of the faithful. A proper sleuth for grown-up girls, Rehak—in prose steely, lovely, and precise—explores why Nancy Drew has remained so popular since her arrival, in 1930, and answers the question Who was the mysterious Carolyn Keene?"
—Sandra Tsing Loh, The Atlantic Monthly
"Rehak sheds light on perhaps the most successful writing franchise of all time and also the cultural and historic changes through which it passed. Grab your flashlights, girls. The mystery of Carolyn Keene is about to begin."
—Karen Joy Fowler, author of The Jane Austen Book Club
"Girl Sleuth is meticulously researched, elegantly written, and riveting. Melanie Rehak juxtaposes teen sleuth Nancy Drew’s omnipotence with the all-too-real struggles of her creators."
—Susan Kandel, author of Not a Girl Detective
"Witty, fast-paced, and smart, Girl Sleuth makes the story behind Nancy Drew as much fun as the mystery novels themselves."
—Jean Strouse, author of Morgan, American Financier
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The original proposal for nancy Drew suggested that her name be Stella Strong, Nell Cody, Helen Hale, or Diana Dare. |
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When Nancy Drew was introduced she wore cloche hats and gloves whenever she was out in public, as was proper in the 1930s. Later, in the ‘50s, she changed to sport dresses and rompers, and even—gasp—pants. |
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Nancy got her famous hair color by mistake: She was originally blonde, but when a printer’s error gave her hair a reddish cast in a cover illustration, the writers followed suit and described her thereafter as “titian-haired.” |
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| Discover More Nancy Facts >> |
• Interview with Melanie Rehak
• Discover Nancy Drew Facts
• Read an Excerpt
• Reading Guide
• Teacher Guide
• Biography & Autobiography - Literary
• Biography & Autobiography - Women
• Literary Criticism - Books & Reading
• History - United States/20th Century
• Social Science - Popular Culture
• American Literature
• Comparative Literature
• Women's Studies
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