Rediscovering Nancy Drew

18. Yellowback Library and the Collector

Yellowback Library and the Collector Gil O'Gara ~ began reading series books in the first or second grade, even before ~ realizing that they were series books. These were the approved books on the library lists in our county: Miss Pickerell's adventures, Pippi Longstockings, the Mushroom Planet books. One day when I was nine a neighbor showed me a book she had just finished reading. It was Carolyn Keene's The Haunted Bridge (1937). She explained with some excitement that Nancy Drew, the main character, was a girl detective who had a great many adventures , all of them recorded in a long line of other novels. She showed me the listing on the back of the book and then loaned the story to me. It may have taken me all of one day to read it, such was my fascination for the character, the tale, and eventually the genre. I began borrowing more books from her and then discovered and became equally enamored of the Hardy Boys, Tom Swift, Jr., and others. And that is how I became what I am today. I was fortunate that we lived near a small Nebraska town, about twelve miles from our farm. The library was also small, built during the Depression by the Work Projects Administration (WPA). Money being tight, the library had filled its shelves with volumes of inexpensive juvenile literature-primarily fifty cent series books. It appeared as if library purchases had ceased around World War II, except , of course, for the daily newspaper. Thus it was a great place to catch up on the series books of bygone days. There I discovered that 159 160 COLLECTING AND STUDYING NANCY DREW Tom Swift, Jr., actually had a famous inventor father who had a series ofhis own. There I discovered the works of writers Leo Edwards, Clarence Budington Kelland, and others. It was a treasure house of imagination, adventure, and continuity. Eventually I managed to read nearly all of the series books the library had. I began to seek books on my own, looking in thrift shops, charity shows, garage and farm sales. I was becoming a collector as well as a reader. Years later I discovered that there were other people out there in the vast world with the same interests. One common element I encounter in nearly all of the collectors of series books is the initial feeling that they are the only ones with such an interest, the only collectors ofjuvenile fiction of this type in the universe. I believed it myself. Eventually, however, I was able to contact men like Bob Chenu and Harry Hudson,l two of the greatest figures in old time boys' book collecting, through ads they had placed in general collectors ' publications not geared directly to books. Soon I decided to begin my own publication. Bob Jenning's Boys' Book Buffwas being published for series book collectors,2 but it had gotten to that random frequency which signals the first stages of death. Previously Alan Dikty's Boys' Book Collector had prospered for about thirteen issues, but it had folded.3 The Dime Novel Roundup was publishing quite a bit about series books-I had contributed some articles myself-but I thought another magazine would certainly do no harm. At that time Fred Woodworth came out with his Mystery and Adventure Series Review.4 I was cautioned that there would not be much of a market for my idea with his new magazine in progress. I subscribed to it; but in reading the magazine, I realized that my approach would be rather different and that it was unlikely that anyone could confuse my work with his. I issued the first number of Yellowback Library in January 1981.5 Issue 126 came off the presses in December 1994. It consists of from 30 to 50 percent advertising, with news, reviews, and letters from readers. However, despite its definite slant toward the acquisition or sales ofjuvenile series literature, I have always attempted to include a number of articles on the genre. While Yellowback Library is not an academic publication, we YELLOWBACK LIBRARY AND THE COLLECTOR 161 have run many articles by recognized scholars in the field, including Deidre Johnson, J. Randolph Cox, and Kathleen Chamberlain. But the magazine draws primarily collectors. I have tried to keep the magazine on a level which appeals to those in the hobby who are most interested in completing...