Rediscovering Nancy Drew

6. Fulfilling a Quest for Adventure

Fulfilling a Quest for Adventure Mildred Wirt Benson rn rr:::" og" was the bob-tailed title of the short story printed in Lutr theran Young Folks in 1935 (Wirt). My eye fell upon the yellowing issue as it tumbled from an old filing cabinet. The story bore my name, Mildred Augustine Wirt, a Ladora, Iowa, graduate ofthe University of Iowa School of Journalism. Certainly I had written that story and nearly one hundred others at a previous or slightly later date, yet blessedly all memory of this tale of aviation's early day had been erased from my mind. Scanning it, I winced at a few aeronautical inaccuracies; yet it did seem to carry suspense and imagination , particularly the latter, for in the 1930s my nearest approach to flight had been a brief ride taken as a child with a Cedar Rapids pilot who barnstormed Iowa towns in an old jenny. Reviewing "Fog," it dawned upon me that my style as a writer of action books for young people already had been set, a style which possibly evolved from extensive childhood reading of St. Nicholas Magazine. Not style, however, but content snagged my attention. In this tale of a girl who, despite feelings of inadequacy, successfully challenged the skies, did I not detect a long-slumbering personal wish? Until this moment, the motivation which led me, late in life, to become a pilot had gone unrecognized. At an age when wiser persons welcome Social Security, this misguided author took up flying, earned advanced ratings, and functioned as a commercial pilot, reporter , and aviation columnist for a Toledo newspaper. 59 60 CREATING AND PUBLISHING NANCY DREW Significantly, now that I might be better qualified to write aviation fiction, I feel no urge to do so. Facts, I am sure, would fetter my imagination. Scenes which rolled rather smoothly in "Fog" would be rejected as "improbable" by an aeronautical mind. So, too, would the several out-of-print aviation fiction volumes contrived by me for Barse & Co. in the 1930s. Ruth Darrow in Yucatan (1931), for example , combined flight with archaeology, of which I then knew nothing .I Later the subject became an absorbing hobby, leading to nine trips to Mayan Indian sites in Yucatan and to more remote parts of Central America. However, having savored fascinating reality, I felt no compulsion to make printed use of any material gathered. Glancing over shelves usurped by 120 to 130 volumes of juvenile fiction written by me over a thirty-year span, I cannot avoid the conclusion that much of my writing was based upon an unfulfilled desire for adventure. Even as a child, a determination to write possessed me. I detested dolls, but played with hundreds oftiny wooden spools, moving them as actors on a stage. "When I grow up I'm going to be a great writer," I proclaimed to anyone who would listen. In those uncomplicated days, "prolific" was unknown in my vocabulary. When I was twelve, my first short story appeared in St. Nicholas Magazine (Augustine 1919).2 Others followed, printed primarily in denominational papers. Soon after obtaining a bachelor's degree in 1925 at the University of Iowa, and working for a year on a Clinton, Iowa, newspaper, I headed for New York City. An anticipated writing job failed to materialize , but I did meet Edward Stratemeyer ofEast Orange, New Jersey , hp.ad of the Stratemeyer Syndicate and author of numerous series books, including the famed Rover Boys. The syndicate, so flourishing later, then consisted of Stratemeyer himself, a secretary, and a few "ghosts" who accepted a brief plot outline, vanished, and returned to the office weeks later with a finished manuscript. Shortly after my return to Iowa, a letter came from Mr. Stratemeyer , offering me an opportunity to continue the then-faltering Ruth Fielding series. This full-length book was written at my parents' home in Ladora, Iowa, and it fought me on every page, as I could gain no kinship with the main character. A second volume, Ruth Fielding Clearing Her Name (Cupples & Leon, 1929), came easier. By this time I was brain-deep in graduate work at the University of FULFILLING A QUEST FOR ADVENTURE 61 Iowa. The story was written on a typewriter in the old journalism school. Fortunately my professors assumed that I was hard at work on a thesis. Next came a chance to undertake a new series, Nancy Drew, one destined to...