Full Description
Titular series heroine Nancy Drew has taken up most of the scholarly attention surrounding mid-century U.S. girls' series, and for good reason given her popularity, longevity, and feminist leanings. Since her debut in the 1930s, Nancy has been foiling criminals for nearly a century. However, Nancy and her heroics do not occur in either a publishing or a temporal vacuum. The chapters in this collection examine the narratives of series heroines that preceded and those that followed Nancy Drew, each in relation to their social, historical, and economic environments. Covering heroines including Miss Pickerell, Madge Sterling, and Polly the Powers Model, among others, this book illustrates that the recovery of stolen inheritances during the Great Depression serves different social ends than, for example, fighting Germans on an international stage. While Nancy Drew's plotlines may have evolved alongside the changing historical context, this book invites readers to critically examine the stories of some of these other "lost" heroines of twentieth century U.S. series fiction. Organized by time period, the chapters give insight into the cultural landscape that perpetuated the popularity of these heroines in their respective eras, how these series reflected the experiences of readers across the decades, and their continued impact well into the twenty-first century.
Contents
Introduction: Imperfect Adventures: 'Relatable' Heroines in Twentieth-Century Girls' Series Fiction
LuElla D'Amico and Emily Hamilton-Honey
Chapter 1: Betty Wales: From Series Book Heroine to Lifestyle Brand
Jill Hobgood
Chapter 2: Adventure, Mystery, and Fashion: On Fashion and the Modelling Profession in Polly the Powers Model: The Puzzle of the Haunted Camera
Erika Johansson Lunding
Chapter 3: Finding the Right Formula, or How The Madge Sterling Series Provided Mildred Wirt (Benson) with the Perfect Formula for Writing Children's Mystery Series
Todd Latoski
Chapter 4: Before Nancy Drew: American Girls' Series Fiction of the 1920s
Susan Ingalls Lewis
Chapter 5: On Being Glad: Pollyanna and Stoic Thought
LuElla D'Amico and Gregory Eiselein
Chapter 6: "To See If College Could Make Half the Woman of Me That It Made of My Mother": The Beverly Gray Series as a Mid-Century Return to Progressive Era Girls' Series Fiction
Emily Hamilton-Honey
Chapter 7: Maida Westabrook: Inez Haynes Gillmore Irwin's Little Lady Bountiful
Robin Cadwallader
Chapter 8: Miss Pickerell Tackles the Stereotypes: Gender, Science Education, and Mid-century Science Fiction
Liz W. Faber
Chapter 9: "More like Americans": Sydney Taylor's Queering of Historical Fiction Girls' Series Melanie J. Fishbane
Chapter 10: "To prove their worth in a man's world": Depicting and Encouraging White Women's Growing Professional Opportunities in Betty Baxter Anderson's 1940s Career Novels Karen Keely
Chapter 11: Inventing the Career Girl Narrative in Vicki Barr
Michael Cornelius
Chapter 12: Student Dancer: Education, Community, and Love in Regina J. Woody's Dance-Career Novels
Jill E. Anderson
