This edited collection recovers lost girls series fiction heroines of the twentieth century. The chapters examine the role the heroines sociohistorical contexts play in the narrative plot lines as well as the series popularity and relatability for readers.
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 Drews 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.
Introduction: Imperfect Adventures: Relatable Heroines in
Twentieth-Century Girls Series Fiction
LuElla DAmico 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
Childrens 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 Irwins 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 Taylors Queering of Historical
Fiction Girls Series Melanie J. Fishbane
Chapter 10: To prove their worth in a mans world: Depicting and
Encouraging White Womens Growing Professional Opportunities in Betty Baxter
Andersons 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.
Woodys Dance-Career Novels
Jill E. Anderson
LuElla D'Amico is associate professor of English and coordinator of the womens and gender studies program at the University of the Incarnate Word.
Emily Hamilton-Honey is associate professor of English and humanities at SUNY Canton.
