Girl Sleuth (47 page)

“Enclosed is the outline”:
Harriet Adams to Mildred Wirt, June 10, 1938, SSR/NYPL, box 30.

“It never occurred to me”:
Mildred Wirt to Edna Stratemeyer, February 26, 1936, SSR/NYPL, box 44.

“I am just completing”:
Mildred Wirt to Edna Stratemeyer, January 10, 1937, SSR/NYPL, box 44.

“We hope you will”:
Edna Stratemeyer to Mildred Wirt, January 21, 1937, SSR/NYPL, box 44.

“The new baby's”:
Mildred Wirt to Edna Stratemeyer, January 23, 1937, SSR/NYPL, box 44.

“I am pleased to note”:
Mildred Wirt to Edna Stratemeyer, April 5, 1937, SSR/NYPL, box 44.

“Our vacation this year”:
Mildred Wirt to Edna Stratemeyer, October 18, 1937, SSR/NYPL, box 44.

“We are well settled”:
Mildred Wirt to Edna Stratemeyer, October 21, 1938, SSR/NYPL, box 44.

“At best . . . smoky”:
Mildred Wirt to Edna Stratemeyer, April 24, 1939, SSR/NYPL, box 44.

“Your son”:
Harriet Adams to Elizabeth Ward, September 8, 1936, SSR/NYPL, box 29.

“I must tell you/News from our house”:
Harriet Adams to Edna Stratemeyer, June 10, 1936, SSR/NYPL, box 19.

“We feel we should”:
Harriet Adams to Thomas Mitchell, January 18, 1939, SSR/NYPL, box 29.

“One agent”:
series of letters from Sarah Rollins to Harriet Adams, December 1938, SSR/NYPL, box 19.

“Advertisers would pay”:
Henry H. Hoople to Harriet Adams, July 29, 1941, SSR/NYPL, box 41.

“Your letter of”:
Harriet Adams to Jane Gavere, January 17, 1936, SSR/NYPL, box 19.

“How many times”:
Harriet Adams to Mildred Benson, May 23, 1950, SSR/NYPL, box 33.

“The matter now”:
Harriet Adams to Mary E. Black, May 4, 1939, SSR/NYPL, box 29.

“My lovely baby girl”:
Edna Squier to Grace North-Monfort, November 1, 1938, SSR/NYPL, box 29.

“The two sisters”:
“The Rover Boys Carry On,”
East Orange (NJ) Record,
June 1939.

“Dear Patsy”:
Harriet Adams to Patricia Adams, July 18, 1939, SSR/NYPL, box 29.

“Dear Carolin Keene”:
Virginia Cook to Carolyn Keene, February 15, 1938, SSR/NYPL, box 19.

“For $6,000”:
Heiferman/Kismaric, p. 102.

“I think every intelligent woman”:
Nancy Drew: Detective,
66 mins., Warner Brothers, Hollywood, CA, 1938.

“The publicity for the films”:
All excerpts from publicity for Nancy Drew films in the section come from assorted publicity materials for
Nancy Drew: Detective,
1938, SSR/NYPL, box 243.

“At the end of the movie”:
Elaine Tyler May, “Pushing the Limits: 1940–1961,” in
No Small Courage: A History of Women in the United States,
ed. Nancy F. Cott (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000), p. 475 (hereafter cited as Tyler May).

“I enjoyed having you”:
Harriet Adams to Mildred Wirt, September 20, 1938, SSR/NYPL, box 30.

“I enjoyed my little chat with you”:
Mildred Wirt to Harriet Adams, September 22, 1938, SSR/NYPL, box 44.

“I am glad that you”:
Harriet Adams to Mildred Wirt, August 3, 1939, SSR/NYPL, box 30.

“Occasional holiday nights”:
“Nancy Drew: Reporter,”
Variety,
March 1, 1939, p. 15.

“Yarn so implausible”:
“Nancy Drew: Detective,”
Variety,
December 7, 1938, p. 12.

“Plot is so shaky”:
“Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase,”
Variety,
November 8, 1939, p. 14.

“By the end of 1940”:
Harriet Adams to Henry H. Hoople, n.d. (1941), SSR/NYPL, box 239.

“Nancy Drew . . . has caused publishers”:
“The Rover Boys Carry On,”
East Orange (NJ) Record,
June 1939.

 

CHAPTER TEN: “THEY ARE NANCY
”

“When you receive”:
Harriet Adams to Mildred Wirt, October 6, 1939, SSR/NYPL, box 30.

“And while I am”:
Conrad Black,
Franklin Delano Roosevelt
: Champion of Freedom (New York: Public Affairs, 2003), p. 595.

“In a fireside chat”:
Mitchell,
The Complete Idiot's Guide to World War II
(Indianapolis, IN: Alpha Books, 2001), p. 100 (hereafter cited as Bard).

“In just one week”:
Bard, p. 97.

“Patriotic discomfort”:
Harriet Adams to Elizabeth Ward, December 12, 1941, SSR/NYPL, box 29.

“These are stirring times”:
Harriet Adams to Elizabeth Ward, December 17, 1941, SSR/NYPL, box 19.

“Wouldn't it be nice”:
Harriet Adams to Elizabeth Ward, January 24, 1941, SSR/NYPL, box 29.

“We are trying to play”:
Harriet Adams to Leslie McFarlane, March 9, 1943, SSR/NYPL, box 30.

“The average person”:
Bard, p. 167.

“In Norway”:
Hugh Juergens to Harriet Adams, January 8, 1947, SSR/NYPL, box 39.

“As you no doubt know”:
Harriet Adams to Mildred Wirt, May 31, 1944, SSR/NYPL, box 30.

“Be able to”:
Harriet Adams to Mildred Wirt, July 7, 1941, SSR/NYPL, box 30.

“Few books of that era”:
Geoffrey S. Lapin, “The Ghost of Nancy Drew,”
Books at Iowa
50 (April 1989).

“Until then, only about 5 percent”:
National Archives and Records Administration, “16th Amendment: U.S. Federal Income Tax” (Washington, DC: National Archives Trust Fund Board, 1995).

“Even the Syndicate”:
Harriet Adams to Edna Squier, September 1, 1942, SSR/NYPL, box 29.

“Our office has been closed”:
Edna Squier to Charles B. Fleming, January 19, 1942, SSR/NYPL, box 29.

“I appreciate very much”:
Harriet Adams to J. W. Duffield, July 3, 1942, SSR/NYPL, box 29.

“In commenting on”:
Harriet Adams to Mildred Wirt, December 8, 1942, SSR/NYPL, box 29.

“I had to write all the time”:
Vallongo.

“Thank you for getting”:
Harriet Adams to Mildred Wirt, September 2, 1942, SSR/NYPL, box 30.

“Two subjects”:
Harriet Adams to Mildred Wirt, April 8, 1943, SSR/NYPL, box 30.

“Romance has never been”:
Mildred Wirt to Harriet Adams, June 9, 1943, SSR/NYPL, box 44.

“We are somewhat disappointed”:
Harriet Adams to Mildred Wirt, May 28, 1943, SSR/NYPL, box 30.

“Maybe Ned has asked”:
All excerpts from
The Secret in the Old Attic
in this section come from Carolyn Keene,
The Secret in the Old Attic
(New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1944).

“I believe we actually”:
Edna Squier to Harriet Adams, March 4, 1944, SSR/NYPL, box 46.

“I promised to tell you”:
Harriet Adams to Leslie McFarlane, March 31, 1944, SSR/NYPL, box 30.

“At all times”:
Authors Guild to Carolyn Keene, February 9, 1942, SSR/NYPL, box 19.

“We very much want”:
Calling All Girls
to Carolyn Keene, January 23, 1942, SSR/NYPL, box 33.

“A poll of the magazine's readers”:
Calling All Girls,
September 1942, SSR/NYPL, box 33.

“I did do”:
Marie Hammond to Harriet Adams, n.d. (January 1944), SSR/NYPL, box 19.

“As one girl”:
William M. Tuttle Jr., “The Homefront Children's Popular Culture,” in
Small Worlds: Children and Adolescents in America, 1850–1950,
ed. Elliott West and Paula Petrik (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1992), p. 242.

“In 1942”:
Bard, pp. 102–4.

“Over the course of the war”:
Collins, p. 383.

“At one point during the war/the Office of War Information”:
Tyler May, p. 476.

“At times it gets”:
Tyler May, pp. 477–79.

“‘Once Wrote for Children
'”: Beatrice Borman, “Once Wrote for Children, Now Writes for Times,”
Inside the Blade,
November 1944, p. 11.

“Taking a new position”:
Mildred Wirt to Harriet Adams, July 18, 1944, SSR/NYPL, box 44.

“Women made up”:
Susan M. Hartmann,
The Home Front and Beyond: American Women in the 1940s
(Boston: Twayne, 1982), p. 21.

“1000 Women's Airforce Service Pilots”:
Tyler May, p. 486.

“Too bad about”:
Edna Squier to Harriet Adams, July 30, 1944, SSR/NYPL, box 46.

“It was during the war”:
Mark Zaborney, “Thanks for the 50 Years, Millie,”
Toledo Blade,
September 17, 1994.

“Alma goes to work”:
Tyler May, pp. 489–90.

“The war in general”:
Tyler May, pp. 484–85.

“I could always”:
Mark Zaborney, “Thanks for the 50 Years, Millie,”
Toledo Blade,
September 17, 1994.

“Working the night shift”:
Vallongo.

“‘City's Shops
'”: Mildred Wirt, “City's Shops on Verge of Bare Cases,”
Toledo Times,
April 19, 1945.

“‘Egg Black Market
'”: Mildred Wirt, “Egg Black Market Switch Reported,”
Toledo Times,
April 24, 1945.

“The washing machines”:
Mildred Wirt, “Short of Hosiery and Housing, G.I. Brides Learn U.S. Ways,”
Toledo Times,
March 21, 1946.

“I lived in”:
Mildred Wirt, “War-Torn Repatriate Families to ‘Celebrate' Christmas Here,”
Toledo Times,
n.d. (December 1946).

“I was a tired writer”:
Sally Vallongo, “Thoroughly Marvelous Millie,”
Toledo Blade,
December 23, 2001.

“The salary is so excellent/I do feel”:
Mildred Wirt to Harriet Adams, October 15, 1944, SSR/NYPL, box 44.

“A synopsis”:
Harriet Adams to Mildred Wirt, October 13, 1944, SSR/NYPL, box 30.

“Mrs. Wirt certainly is”:
Edna Squier to Harriet Adams, October 23, 1944, SSR/NYPL, box 46.

“I think our plan”:
Harriet Adams to Mildred Wirt, December 5, 1944, SSR/NYPL box 30.

“A convincing/Before getting off the subject”:
Harriet Adams to Edna Squier, March 22, 1945, SSR/NYPL, box 46.

“Two hundred ninety-five thousand”:
Bard, p. 362.

“During the past”:
Mildred Wirt to Harriet Adams, September 8, 1945, private collection of Geoffrey S. Lapin.

“The MS”:
author unknown, memo, n.d. (July 1946), SSR/NYPL, box 46.

“Nancy does not seem”:
Harriet Adams to Mildred Wirt, July 18, 1946, SSR/NYPL, box 30.

“Right now we are”:
Harriet Adams to Edna Squier, July 18, 1946, SSR/NYPL, box 29.

“Drop her from the S.S.”:
Edna Squier to Harriet Adams, July 22, 1946, SSR/NYPL, box 46.

“Recently I have reflected”:
Harriet Adams to Gordon Allison, May 15, 1947, SSR/NYPL, box 33.

“I was rather amazed”:
Harriet Adams to Edna Squier, January 6, 1947, SSR/NYPL, box 29.

“Actually, the picture”:
Harriet Adams to Edna Squier, June 30, 1947, SSR/NYPL, box 46.

“On the day that”:
Mildred Wirt to Harriet Adams, June 9, 1947, SSR/NYPL, box 44.

“It was with surprise”:
Harriet Adams to Mildred Wirt, June 18, 1947, SSR/NYPL, box 30.

“You will notice”:
Harriet Adams to Mildred Wirt, July 30, 1947, SSR/NYPL, box 30.

“All one can do”:
Mildred Wirt to Harriet Adams, June 22, 1947, SSR/NYPL, box 44.

 

CHAPTER ELEVEN: THE KIDS ARE HEP

“We feel here”:
Hugh Juergens to Harriet Adams, February 28, 1944, SSR/NYPL, box 39.

“The ultimate symbol”:
Tyler May, p. 492.

“In 1946”:
Collins, p. 394.

“Writing in the
Atlantic Monthly”:
Tyler May, pp. 492–93.

“And though 1947”:
Tyler May, p. 493.

“By the middle/they were afraid”:
Betty Friedan,
The Feminine Mystique
(1963; repr., New York: W. W. Norton, 2001), p. 16.

“She can be independent”:
Sara M. Evans,
Born for Liberty: A History of Women in America
(New York: Free Press, 1989), p. 261.

“We married what”:
Tyler May, pp. 496–97.

“Rosie the Riveter”:
Collins, p. 397.

“According to one study”:
Tyler May, p. 518.

“The tail is now”:
“Children Want Realism in Books, Authors Guild Told,”
Publishers Weekly,
October 29, 1949, p. 1895.

“With life going along”:
Harriet Adams to Edna Squier, October 4, 1946, SSR/NYPL, box 29.

“I have had a feeling”:
Harriet Adams to Hugh Juergens, February 12, 1948, SSR/NYPL, box 39.

“Carry on your negotiations”:
Hugh Juergens to Harriet Adams, February 3, 1948, SSR/NYPL, box 39.

“No prospective”:
Harriet Adams to Edna Squier, November 17, 1948, SSR/NYPL, box 46.

“Interested in the church”:
Harriet Adams to Edna Squier, March 31, 1948, SSR/NYPL, box 46.

“Mr. Svenson plans”:
Harriet Adams to Edna Squier, April 20, 1948, SSR/NYPL, box 46.

“My long period of good health”:
Harriet Adams to Edna Squier, June 5, 1949, SSR/NYPL, box 46.

“I believe he eventually”:
Harriet Adams to Edna Squier, April 26, 1949, SSR/NYPL, box 46.

“‘Author of Children's Books
'”: Ira Brock, “Author of Children's Book Works Out Endings First; Finds System Pays Off,”
Toledo Blade,
August 8, 1949.

“The only confidential”:
Harriet Adams to Edna Squier, April 30, 1948, SSR/NYPL, box 46.