Mildred Augustine Wirt Benson

Most people know her as Carolyn Keene, the author of the Nancy Drew books. But the truth is that that is a pseudonym used by her and as many as five others. Born in 1905, she always loved writing and sold her first story, "The Courtesy," at age 12, making $2.50. She was always a tomboy, and liked sports, outdoors, and hated playing with dolls. In fact, she shaped the character Nancy Drew after herself: independent, outgoing, brave, and strong. But, wanting Nancy to be even better, she gave Nancy what she thought she herself didn't have; good looks, admiration and respect, and lots of dates.

Apparently she agreed with her eager readers, "The girls were ripe for a change in literature. They were way overdue for a good entertaining story that broke away from the old style of writing. I think Nancy Drew was the character the girls were waiting for." And so it was. Nancy Drew books were snapped up like candy, and fans saw something they had never seen before: a girl was who independent, kind, new, old-fashioned, a little bit naughty, a little bit nice, a little sassy, and not afraid to stand up to adults, even criminals for what was right. It seemed that at times Nancy was more boy than girl... and that girls still loved Nancy that way, if not loving her for it.

Mildred wrote over 100 books during her long career, and enjoyed doing it. After stopping writing of the Nancy Drew series on book 23, she went on to continue working as a journalist for 58 years. She was the first woman to graduate from Iowa University with a major in journalism in 1927. When she was in her sixties, she became a licensed commercial and private pilot.

Sadly, on May 28th 2002, she died of lung cancer at the hospital in Toledo, Ohio. She was 96.

P.S. 3/15/06: Please check out my new website at www.nancydrew.scriptmania.com
I update it all the time, and you'll see tons of cool stuff on there. Have fun! (and I promise I'll post a new blog entry soon!)