How Do You Collect Nancy Drew Mystery Stories?
Many of us have found memories of being caught at school with a book under our desk. For me, it was always Nancy Drew books I hid from my teachers — either one from my grandmother’s collection (thick blue books with orange endpapers) or a yellow spine edition dating from the 50’s-70’s that I’d picked up from a used book sale. Whether you prefer to collect a complete set of Nancy Drew mysteries or finish the set that you inherited from your mother, here’s what you need to know about formats, original texts vs. revised versions, condition, and sources. Because Nancy Drew books were published over the course of 70+ years much has changed. The first 34 books (published between 1930-56) contain 25 chapters. In the mid-1950’s new books were shorter — they only have 20 chapters each — and the old books were revised and cut to make them shorter and to modernize their content. In the 1970’s & 80’s, new Nancy Drew novels were published in paperback and spawned spinoffs, including mysteries sh
