Invitation to Mystery: Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys

This is another article that I wrote for I&F, which is now called Fellowship and Fairydust. And this article is, as the title says, about Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys books.

Photo by Nicole Honeywill on Unsplash

In 1926, the dearly loved Hardy Boys books were created by Edward Stratemeyer. The year 1930 saw the creation of Nancy Drew, the greatly loved girl detective by Stratemeyer as well. Both series were ghostwritten under the names Franklin W. Dixon and Caroline Keene. Most of The Hardy Boys series was actually written by a gentleman named Leslie McFarlane, and the Nancy Drew series was written by a lady named Mildred Benson.

When Edward Stratemeyer first brought up the idea of the Nancy Drew series to the Grosset and Dunlap publishing company, who were publishing The Hardy Boys series at the time, he suggested that they call the series Stella Strong stories, Diana Drew stories, Diana Dare stories, Nan Nelson stories, Nan Drew stories or Helen Hale stories. After looking at the names that Stratemeyer had given them, the editors decided to use “Nan Drew,” and lengthened Nan to Nancy.

When The Hardy Boys were taken to Grosset & Dunlap, on the other hand, Stratemeyer suggested that the books be called The Keene Boys, The Scott Boys, The Hart Boys, or The Bixby Boys. For unknown reasons, the editors went with The Hardy Boys.

One thing that many people may or may not notice is that both The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew books are written as a kind of form novel. All of the books in both series have twenty chapters and are between 170 pages and 180 pages. The series’, however, follow their main character(s) in different ways.

In a Nancy Drew mystery, when Nancy stumbles upon a mystery, it is either connected to something that her father is working on, or someone asks her to solve it. Nancy either works alone or with her friends, Bess and George, their dates, Burt and Dave, and her special friend Ned. Though a lot of her mysteries happen in or around River Heights, Nancy will on occasion travel to different states or out of the country to solve one. Some of the places that she has traveled to are Japan, New York, Turkey, and Illinois. When she is working on a mystery, Nancy does work with her father on occasion. When she does, Nancy enjoys it as well as working with her aunt, who will at times give her a mystery to work on.

Frank and Joe Hardy work on any mystery that comes their way, and they like working together. As in the Nancy Drew series, the Hardys will come across a mystery that is either connected to one that their father is working on, or someone will ask them to work on one for them. At times their friends Chet, Biff, Phil, Jerry, and Tony like to help them work on solving the mysteries. Though she doesn’t really seem interested when she actually is in the mysteries that Frank and Joe do, their Aunt Gertrude likes to visit the Hardy family. Again, like in the Nancy Drew series, the mysteries that Frank and Joe work on will sometimes take them either out of state or out of the country. They also enjoy working closely with their father, a bit more than Nancy Drew, when there is a mystery.

Though they are similar, both the Nancy Drew series and The Hardy Boys have their slight differences. One difference is how closely the Hardy boys work with their father on a mystery, compared to the fact that Nancy and her father don’t often work on mysteries together. Even though there are differences here and there in the books, anyone can and will enjoy a good Nancy Drew or Hardy Boys book.