Remember the Nancy Drew Series?

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If you are a woman who grew up in the 50s or after you may have gotten these popular mysteries at the library. They were about a young girl solving mysteries. It wasn't until just a few years ago that I found out the truth about who I had thought was the author, Carolyn Keene. The real author wasn't Keene at all but several ghost writers which was the "literary genius" of Edmund Stratemeyer. He had contracted several to write these books and also was the creator of The Hardy Boys, The Bobbsey Twins, and Tom Swift. Mildred Wirt Benson was one of these writers but she rewrote the character and made her more independent and rebellious. Benson was the first woman to earn a Master's degree in journalism from the University of Iowa. The truth about Carolyn Keene only came out due to a massive lawsuit in 1980 between the original publishers Grosset & Dunlap and the publishers who took over Simon & Schuster.