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Carolyn Keene and Many

Amateur teen sleuth character Nancy Drew remains a much-loved mystery seeker for fans everywhere. It seems fitting that series writer Carolyn Keene is another puzzle in the Drew canon — and not really a person at all. Keene was a collective pseudonym for a number of ghostwriters. Founder of book packager/producer Stratemeyer Syndicate, Edward Stratemeyer conceived of the heroine detective after creating the popular Hardy Boys series. While he initially wrote the plotlines for Nancy’s narrative, he hired ghostwriter Mildred Benson to pen the early volumes — a job handed down to multiple writers throughout its history.