Many ‘Nancy Drew’ books ghostwritten by Iowan Mildred Wirt Benson

'When I grow up,” a young Mildred Wirt Benson used to tell anyone who would listen, 'I'm going to be a great writer.”

The adventurous girl from Ladora was right. She would go on to write many of the 'Nancy Drew” books, a best-selling series about a bold and brave teen detective.

Benson had her stories published in magazines by the time she was 13, and she used the money she earned writing to enroll at the University of Iowa. There, she wrote for The Daily Iowan and participated in soccer, track, basketball, swimming and diving. In 1927, she was the first woman to earn a master's in journalism from UI, according to the university libraries' Iowa Women's Archives.

A couple years later, a publishing syndicate offered her a job as a ghost writer - the syndicate would give her the basic plot of a book, and she would write it under a fake name called a pseudonym. That's how she wrote 23 of the first 30 'Nancy Drew” books.

Although others came up with the books' plots, Benson is credited with creating the independent, bold and spirited character of Nancy, who has been a role model for girls for decades. While readers pored through her books, Benson spent much of her life working as a journalist and traveling. She was fascinated with Mayan ruins, and chartered several flights so she could see off-the-grid archaeological digs. Once in Guatemala, she was even kidnapped!

Mystery surrounded the question of who wrote the 'Nancy Drew” books for decades. When Benson's identity became publicly known in the early 1990s, she was flooded with awards and praise for her work until her death, at age 97, in 2002.

Comments: molly.duffy@thegazette.com