Thursday, November 29, 2012

vintage Nancy Drew books

My favorite thing about Moda's new Get a Clue With Nancy Drew fabric is the bookspines, closely followed by the end papers. Those images stirred up all kinds of happy chilhood memories and made me want to dig out my own collection and start reading...which is what I almost immediately did! It kept me busy while I was waiting to get my hands on the fabric.  
 

I've had Nancy Drew books as far back as I can remember. There are two old editions that belonged to my mother when she was a girl, The Secret of the Old Clock and The Bunglalow Mystery.  
 

I have a few blue tweed copies that we picked up at bookstores for me when I was little, and lots and lots of the ones with the matte yellow covers. And a handful of the ones with the shiny yellow covers that I started picking up after Alex was born. Have I mentioned that my girl would not read Nancy Drew?  She was too busy reading everything else, so I suppose I can't complain too much. And she did read Trixie Belden.

Did you know that the books with the blue covers were revised for the yellow covered printings? I can understand the publishers removing offensive stereotypes, but they also made the books shorter by eliminating five chapters, and, in a feew cases, completely changed the plots.


Over the years, I've been trying to put together a collection of the original editions. I pick them up whenever I find an inexpensive one at a used book store or estate sale. And, since I got the fabric and made the quilt, I admit I've been haunting the local antique shops. But they're getting harder to find than they used to be, and there seems to be another collector a few steps ahead of me.


To celebrate my new quilt, and in an attempt to suck all of my readers into my Nancy Drew obsession, I'm giving away copies of four of the six titles featured on the quilt top to give away. For more information about the quilt and the giveaway, and to enter, read this post.
 
The Nancy Drew Sleuth is a fantastic site with a ton of information about the different formats and when they were published. This post is linked to Time Travel ThursdayTreasure Hunt Thursday,  and Vintage Thingie Thursday.

6 comments:

LV said...

I share your interest on both items.Love books and quilts.

Visits With Mary said...

I love Nancy Drew Mysteries! At one time I think I had all of them, not originals, anyway, when my girls started to read my books slowly disappeared!! Oh well, it'a all part of raising children!

the cape on the corner said...

i've always loved reading, and nancy drew was no exception! thanks for the memories with this post. stopping over from VTT.

Jeannie Marie said...

All those end pages are so familiar! I read all the different issues except any past 1970. I haven't seen the inside of the books for years! What a great idea for a quilt.

beaquilter said...

are you joining the ND blog hop?

Karen O said...

I have some from different eras also. I have most of those from the 60's - 70's. The originals were much better stories with better writing. Trixie Beldon...my favorite mystery series as a kid. :)

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