Introduction, by Sarah Nowicki

Here is Elizabeth Morgan's essay detailing one instance -- the first -- of the dulling down of the Nancy Drew Series. The original story was written by Mildred A. Wirt, following the plot outline of Edward Stratemeyer, and was published on April 28, 1930.

In 1959, Harriet Adams penned the revision, to modernize the series and to remove several "offensive" elements of the story. (Similar revisions were made to the Hardy Boys, Kay Tracy, and other Stratemeyer Syndicate offerings.)

As you read through the following paragraphs, it might become clear why the original stories are so much more prized. (Note: the page numbers in parentheses refer to the version under discussion.)

The Secret of the Old Clock tells the story of the missing will of Josiah Crowley, whose previous will left everything to the unpleasant Topham family. As Nancy Drew races for protection from a storm, she drives into a barn belonging to a young woman named Grace and her even younger sister. From these sisters Nancy hears an interesting story about Josiah Crowley's will, and she initiates a conference between the girls and her lawyer father.

Nancy turns sleuth and visits all the Crowley relatives, searching for clues to the lost will. After a discouraging day of dead ends, Ms. Rowen remembers information about a clock. Ms. Rowen discloses that a notebook containing directions to the will is hidden in Crowley's mantle clock.

When Nancy visits the Tophams under the pretense of selling charity dance tickets, they inform her that the Crowley clock is in their Moon Lake bungalow. Nancy follows this clue by visiting her friend's camp on Moon Lake. Nancy's plans to see the clock are thwarted by her unexpected adventure of being stuck on the lake all day in a balky motorboat.

When she finally does get to the Topham bungalow, she discovers that it has been robbed. Nancy faces a desperate situation with the lead robber, who locks her in a closet and leaves her to starve. The caretaker, Jeff Tucker, had been tricked by the robbers but escapes and lets Nancy out also. Together, they notify the police about the robbery.

Alone, Nancy locates the robbers' van and successfully searches for the Crowley clock. Inside the clock is Crowley's notebook. The robbers are captured by the police.

Safe at home, Nancy reads in the notebook that the missing will is in a safe deposit box. Nancy and her father find the will at the bank the following day. The startling new will topples the Tophams and favors Grace, her sister, Ms. Rowen, and other deserving individuals. Nancy is rewarded by Grace and her sister, who give her the Crowley clock as a souvenir of her first case.

This synopsis fits both the original 1930 version and the revised 1959 version of the story. Significant differences in the story line occur in the first chapter of the revision, wherein Nancy rescues a little girl named Judy, who was almost run over by a moving van--the same van that was later used to rob the Tophams' cottage. Judy's guardians are her great-aunts Mary and Edna Turner, who are an updated version of Matilda and Edna Turner, introduced in 1930 as "old maids" (71). The Turner sisters are poor relatives of Josiah Crowley.

The introduction of little orphan Judy in the revision gives Nancy a more altruistic motive to seek the missing will--to find money for her great-aunts to give Judy the special-quality education that her cleverness warrants. Originally the will was common talk about town, and Nancy simply didn't want the Tophams to inherit. Nancy describes the Tophams in the 1930 version: "Richard Topham is an old skinflint who made his money by gambling on the stock exchange. And Cora, his wife, is nothing but a vapid social climber. The two girls, Isabel and Ada, are even worse...I never saw such stuck-up creatures in all my life" (3). The original Nancy comments on Crowley and the Tophams: "Folks said he died just to be rid of their everlasting nagging" (2). But in the revision, it is "housekeeper" (13) Hannah Gruen, no longer merely a servant (12), who takes over saying that which is less than kind, so Nancy doesn't have to.

Nancy's relationship with Hannah Gruen is quite changed in the revision. In 1930, Hannah is introduced as a maid (12), and it was ten-year-old Nancy who took over management of the household upon her mother's death (12). Nancy tells Hannah, "I have made out the dinner menu and ordered the groceries..." (13). In the kinder, gentler revision, Hannah has helped rear Nancy since the death of Nancy's mother many years before (13). Now Nancy asks Hannah, "Any errands for me?" (21).

Grace and her younger sister Allie bore the last name Horner in 1930. In 1959 Allie was renamed Allison and Horner was changed to Hoover. Grace and Allie Horner, who were originally simply poor, became in the revision poor girls who needed money for singing lessons. The sister renamed Allison Hoover was destined to become an operatic star, if only she had the money for training.

An unpleasant encounter that Nancy faced with the Topham sisters in a department store was left out of the revision. Conversely, an angry dog that attacks Nancy at one of the Crowley relative's house does not appear in the original version. Nancy, over the course of twenty-nine years, aged two: from a sixteen-year-old with a curly golden bob (1) to an eighteen-year-old blue-eyed blond (1).

Nancy's most important change is her new attitude of following not only the spirit but the letter of the law. In 1930, "It was probably fortunate for Nancy Drew that the traffic police were not patrolling the road..." (147) because she was speeding to report the robbery. In 1959, "Nancy drove as fast as the law permitted..." even as the robbers were getting away.

In the original version, Nancy replaces the notebook into the clock, and keeps the whole thing. She even hides it under a blanket when a policeman gets in her roadster. In the revised version, Nancy wisely puts the notebook in her pocket, enabling her to offer the surrender of the clock to the police.

The woman introduced as Miss Abigail Rowen in 1930 was over seventy years old. In testament to the improvement of American health care during the period, the revised Abby Rowen is a widow, over eighty years old, and Nancy is able to get help for the poor, sick woman from "one of the county's visiting nurses" (80), in addition to the help of a kind neighbor. Not only does Ms. Rowen's health improve, but also her grammar. Her original statement, "There ain't any tea in the house" (80) was revised to "There's no tea in the house" (74).

The 1930 version contains four references that could be considered stereotyping of women. Nancy's father gazed upon her and thought, "Not at all the sort of head which one expected to indulge in serious thoughts" (2). But Nancy was indulging in serious thoughts about the will. During Nancy's misadventure on the lake, the original version states, "Like most girls, she had never interested herself in the mechanics of what made wheels go around" (115). But nonetheless, she eventually got the recalcitrant motor working. The 1959 revision deletes both of these references.

The third reference comes when she wants to be freed from the closet and lets out a "feminine scream". "Dar ain't a man in de world could make a racket like dat!" the caretaker Jeff Tucker replies (138). In the revision, she again lets out a "feminine scream" to which the caretaker answers, "No man could make that racket" (115). The final reference is made to Nancy by a policeman: "Not many girls would have used their brains the way you did" (172). The revision substitutes the word "wits" for "brains" (140).

Another stereotype is the caretaker Jeff Tucker. In 1930 he is a "negro" (110), but in 1959 he becomes "the tallest, skinniest man I've ever seen outside a circus" (94). Whether it is an improvement for a caretaker to go from "colored" (122) to "tall and slender" (104) is up for individual interpretation.

While the revision attempted to remove some stereotypes, it inexplicably added an insensitive reference. In the original version, Carson Drew tells the story of a word puzzle that was solved by "a puzzler" (187). The revision has the word puzzle in Chinese, and Carson says, "...a Chinese solved the puzzle..." (155).

The revision has also been sanitized by ridding it of mentions of alcohol and firearms. While the original Jeff Tucker was lured away by expensive liquor, the revised Jeff Tucker was merely locked in a shed. This change robbed us of the best passage in the book. Jeff explains to Nancy, "...while I's done sowed all mah wild oats, I still sows a little rye now and den". "Yes, Jeff--" she answers. "I can smell that on your breath right now" (141).

The robbers, when Nancy catches up to them in the 1930 version, are participating in a "drinking orgy" (154). In the 1959 version, they are merely "eating voraciously" (126). Even caffeine is not safe from the revision. Originally Carson Drew and a lawyer friend discuss the will "over the coffee cups" (20), but in the revision they discuss it "after the dessert course" (28).

The police in the original version are instructed: "Don't fire unless it's necessary...But if they resist, pepper them!" When the police called, "Halt or we'll fire!" the robbers fired the first shot (170).There are no guns mentioned in the revised edition. The police merely run the robbers off the road and into a ditch (139).

Nancy's father gave her a new, blue automobile for her birthday. In 1930, it was a shining roadster (13); in 1959 it was a dark convertible (1). The roadster was lucky to have a gravel road to travel on, which was preferable to mud. The convertible was blessed with paved highways. The roadster had a single windshield wiper and no top, while the convertible had a pair of wipers and a button on the dashboard to raise the top.

In 1930, Nancy asked directions from a farmer with a team of horses and a wagon (152). In 1959, she inquires of a service station attendant (124).

The revised Nancy has been robbed of her wit and candor. Our updated heroine is more reserved and restrained. Always eager to help the wronged, the new Nancy is more Christian and less vitriolic to the evildoers. The revised world that Nancy inhabits is likewise free from caffeine, alcohol, firearms, colored people. It is a more convenient world of push-button technology and paved roads.