Date: Wed, 29 May 2002 14:07:31 -0400
From: Ted White <tedwhite at compusnet.com>
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Nancy Drew Author Dies
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>

Michael Walsh wrote:

> Not skiffy, but of somewhat fannish interest.
> Mildred Wirt Benson, aged 96.
> See: http://click.email-publisher.com/maaanDlaaSkfja4fqn8b/

Interesting; she was the subject of an article in the POST
within the last year.

The POST article explained what this one does not, but only
hinted at.   After calling her the "creator" of the Nancy Drew
series (published by Grossett & Dunlap in parallel with the
Hardy Boys series), this obituary states:

"Benson, known as Millie to friends and fans, wrote 23 of the
30 original Nancy Drew stories using the pseudonym Carolyn
Keene. She was paid $125 per book and never collected royalties
from the books, movies and board games."

The reason is that she wrote the books (as works for hire) for
the Stratemeyer Syndicate, which *actually* created them,
providing her with the full cast of continuing characters and
the plots (meticulously outlined).  All she had to do was to
connect the dots.  $125 a book doesn't sound like much until
you recall that this was in the '30s, in the midst of the
Depression, when $125 was more than many people made for over a
month's work.

--Ted White