This listing is for Carolyn Keene Nancy Drew Mystery Stories #1 The Secret Of The Old Clock Hardcover Book.   

#1  The Secret Of The Old Clock (2002 Print)

The Secret of the Old Clock is the first volume in the Nancy Drew Mystery Stories series written under the pseudonym Carolyn Keene. It was first published on April 28, 1930 and revised in 1959 by Harriet Stratemeyer Adams. Nancy Drew is an eighteen-year-old high school graduate. Her father, Carson Drew, is a well-known criminal defense lawyer. The Drews reside in River Heights and employ a housekeeper, Hannah Gruen. In early editions, she is depicted as a mere servant; later in the series she becomes more of a family member.

The Nancy Drew Mystery Stories was the long-running "main" Nancy Drew series, published between 1930 and 2003, under the pen name Carolyn Keene. Initially, titles were published by Grosset & Dunlap, but with volume 57 (1979), publication switched to Simon & Schuster. Most people consider these first fifty-six to be the original series and consider the Simon & Schuster series to be an entirely different series. The first fifty-six are considered to be the "classic" Nancy Drew books. In 2003, the series was discontinued, and a new, more contemporary series Nancy Drew (All New) Girl Detective was created in its place. In 2012, the girl detective series was ended and a new, current series Nancy Drew Diaries was launched.

Mildred Wirt Benson is credited with writing 22 of the first 25 novels in the series. Other authors contributed as well, but in 1959, Edward Stratemeyer's daughter, Harriet Adams began rewriting the earlier books in the series, sometimes substituting entirely new plots while retaining the same title.

In the Harriet Adams revisions, Nancy is depicted as a less impulsive, less headstrong girl of Stratemeyer’s and Mildred’s vision, to a milder, more sedate and refined girl— "more sugar and less spice", with an extensive wardrobe and a more charitable outlook. Helen Corning appears older, perhaps in preparation for her "write-out" after volume 4 of the revised series (no explanation was made in the original series) and to introduce Bess and her cousin George. Perceived racial stereotypes were omitted. Action increased significantly and became faster-paced. Greater developmental detail was given to Nancy and her home. In 1979, after a court battle between the Stratemeyer Syndicate and Grosset & Dunlap, the original publishers (in hardback) of the first fifty-six Nancy Drew titles, publication rights to new stories were granted to Simon & Schuster. Titles from #57, The Triple Hoax (1979), were thereafter published primarily in paperback. Books #57-78 were initially printed under Simon & Schuster's Children's imprint Wanderer as digest sized paperbacks (although some were also later published in the regular paperback format, which was also the format of choice for some foreign editions, especially the UK Armada releases). Limited numbers of hardback editions are also known to have been produced, mostly for libraries.

The titles were initially presented in set cover format referred to as the "Arch" design, with most covers drawn by Ruth Sanderson. The twenty-two titles were also reprinted under the Wanderer imprint in a new "checkerboard" design before the series moved, from #79 on, to the new Minstrel imprint, whereupon they received still newer covers in the "checkerboard" design. The series ultimately moved again to Simon & Schuster's Aladdin Paperbacks imprint, undergoing two further cover revamps, "White" and "Paint".

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