Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayer discussed Nancy Drew with Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-Md). Both apparently remember the titian-haired eighteen-year-old detective from River Heights fondly, as do a lot of us. I had nearly all the Nancy Drew books, and read and re-read them avidly, although as I got older, I also read the Hardy Boys, which I liked for the mysteries (I thought the female characters were pretty useless though).
For more on Nancy and her influence, see
Sherrie A. Inness, Nancy Drew and Company: Culture, Gender, and Girls’ Series (1997).
Glenwood H. Irons, Feminism in Women’s Detective Fiction (1995).
Bobbie Ann Mason, The Girl Sleuth (1995).
Melanie Rehak, Girl sleuth : Nancy Drew and the women who created her (2005).
See also
The History of Nancy Drew
The Nancy Drew television series (1977-1978), starring Pamela Sue Martin, is currently available on DVD. The film, starring Emma Roberts, is also available, as are the films starring Bonita Granville, made in the 1930s.
