It wasn’t until a lawsuit in the 1980s revealed Benson to be the author behind so many Nancy Drew titles that people fully recognized her contributions. Benson wrote for other series with the pen name, such as the Dana Girls. She had to sign a contract agreeing she had no right to use the Carolyn Keene name outside of the Stratemeyer Syndicate.

For her efforts she earned between $125 and $250 per book, and one-fifth of the royalties that each book received. Related: The 30 Best Female Detectives and Amateur Sleuths in Mystery Fictionīenson went on to write 23 of the first 30 Nancy Drew mysteries. The Secret of the Old Clock was published to great acclaim in 1930, and Benson produced three more Nancy Drew books, all in that same year, at 24 years old. In 1927, she became the first female student to earn a journalism degree from the University of Iowa. Benson was given a three and a half page outline to work from while she finished her graduate degree. He hired a woman named Mildred Wirt Benson to write the first in the Nancy Drew series, The Secret of the Old Clock. But as the head of a large editorial company, Stratemeyer had no intention of writing the series himself. Writer and editor Edward Stratemeyer was fresh off the success of the Hardy Boys series when he had the brilliant idea of creating a female detective. But the identity of those writers, and one in particular, reveals a thrilling story behind America’s most beloved amateur sleuth. Many a reader may have wondered while clutching a well-worn copy of The Hidden Staircase–just who was Carolyn Keene, the author of the Nancy Drew series? The truth is, there were several ghostwriters who labored under the Keene pseudonym.

Nancy drew mysteries author