The Stratemeyer Syndicate was known for publishing book series using one invented author's name for all books, no matter who wrote them. In the case of Nancy Drew, the name Carolyn Keene was chosen. Edward Stratemeyer wrote outlines for the first four stories in the series, but died before the books were published. His daughter Harriet Stratemeyer Adams succeeded him as the head of the syndicate, contributed a number of volumes and oversaw the substantial revisions of the earlier titles begun in the 1950s.

More than 200 million books have been sold worldwide. Many people collect the series, which has gone through several formats over the years. The books have been in print continuously since 1930. Starting in the 1960s, however, many of the early titles were revised or changed completely to eliminate outdated references such as "roadsters," "running boards," and "rumble seats," and to make Nancy and her friends more identifiable with contemporary readers. All titles currently in print are known as "revised text", except the original series reprints by Applewood Books.

The original books have 25 chapters while the revised editions have only 20. Only volumes 1 through 34 were printed in the original format. Volumes 35 and up never had the 25-chapter texts. Volumes 35 and up each had the 20-chapter text in their very first printings and still are printed with the original 20 chapter texts to this day.

Only volumes 1 through 13 were printed with four glossy illustrations. Volumes 14 through 17 were printed with one glossy illustration during the late 1930s and early 1940s, and during the same time period, volumes 1 through 13 were reprinted with only one glossy illustration. Volumes 18 and up never had glossy illustrations; these volumes had only the plain paper frontispiece illustration.

Thus, any existing copy of a Nancy Drew book with 25 chapters and four glossy illustrations is extremely rare and very valuable to collectors.

Starting in 1979, the original series was extended with new volumes published in paperback, and in the late 1980s a new spin-off series The Nancy Drew Files was created for Simon & Schuster, Inc., starting with Secrets Can Kill. In recent years, the spinoff series Nancy Drew Notebooks and Nancy Drew: On Campus have been published. The Nancy Drew Girl Detective series is the newest version of tales about the titian-haired sleuth.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nancy_Drew

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