NANCY DREW SOLVES THE MYSTERY OF WHY SHE'S NAKED IN PLAYBOY

 Y A lit was redefined by an adventuring set of brothers and one sleuthing young lady. The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew created an ideal of teen hood for readers : be smart and aware of your surroundings, be polite, but don't let adults tell you you know nothing because you're a kid. You too can solve mysteries with a bit of pluck and luck. The group united in the 1970s for a TV series, but the girl sleuth edged out the boys to reign as Queen Supreme of the kid lit set. The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew are some of the best known literary characters worldwide.

Edward Sratmeyer created Frank and Joe Hardy in 1927 (pseudonym Franklin W. Dixon.) Wanting to take his boy adventurers further, Sratmeyer added a mystery solving element. True to Sratmeyer Syndicate form the boys were teens : Frank, 18 - Joe, 16. One had dark hair - Frank, one blonde - Joe. Frank was logical, Joe was impetuous. They had a father - Fenton, a police detective. The mother figure role was filled by Aunt Gertrude, and an actual mother, Laura. 

Leslie McFarlane was given the task of writing The Hardy Boys books after Stratemeyer's initial run. His Hardy Boys were darker and more cynical ; adults and authorities were corrupt. McFarlane, upon being censured for this disregard for adults, stated he wanted to steer kids away from blind adherence to authority.

(Author opinion - considering the books were written when Hitler, Stalin, and Mussolini were rising to power, McFarlane was correct.) The 1950s Syndicate purge expunged any mention of persons of color from The Hardy Boys, instead of correcting the racist and xenophobic portrayals of non-white characters in earlier books. The Hardy Boys were spun off into a series of television episodes aired on the Mickey Mouse club, one of the first kid centered TV shows. The Hardy Boys books were rebooted in 2005 for a generation of modern kids.

Stella Strong - Diana Dare - Nan Nelson - became legendary Nancy Drew in 1930. Stratemeyer wanted a female version of the Hardy Boys. Mildred Wirt Benton won the ghostwriter contract (pseudonym Carolyn Keene.) Stratemeyer died before Nancy Drew and became a phenomenon. One of his last directives was for Wirt to make Nancy "less bold" - thank goodness she didn't listen!

Nancy, in her first books, was 16 - already graduated from high school. Attractive, blonde haired and blue-eyed, Nancy lived in a world where money, and all it bought, was plentiful and seemingly unimportant - quite different from the lives of the depression era teens devouring every page. Nancy was an instant hit. Girl readers finally had a heroine who, of course while remaining a polite, feminine ideal, ran head first into danger. Nancy had two best friends - delicate and feminine Bess, and "Tomboy" George, and a beau - college student Ned Nickerson. Her father Carson Drew was an attorney, and her mother figure was housekeeper Hannah Gruen. The Stratmeyer overhaul of their books in the early 1950s made Nancy Titian-haired (red) and 18.

Nancy Drew sold 80 million books, published in 45 languages. She has inspired films, TV series, and video games. Supreme Court Justices Sandra Day O'Connor and Sandra Sotomayor count Nancy Drew as an influence. She has been modernized and updated for future generations.

In 1977 The Hardy Boys / Nancy Drew Mysteries debuted on ABC. The stories were original, with only a few episodes coming from the books. The show alternated weeks in its first season, one week the Hardy Boys, the next week Nancy. The Hardy Boys episodes edged out Nancy Drew in popularity, due to Sean Cassidy's (Joe) teen idol status. For the record, if I had been a teen (and not 2 years old,) I would have been all about Parker Stevens / Frank Hardy. Nancy Drew was played by model Pamela Sue Martin. Producers decided the second season should be slightly more Hardy Boys centric, with a few Nancy Drew focused episodes, but should have more Hardy Boys / Nancy Drew crossover episodes.  Pamela Sue Martin posed for a Playboy pictorial, causing a great deal of controversy. In the interview Martin said she had decided to leave the show based on the phasing out of Nancy Drew. Martin was replaced with another actress, but the show lost viewers. The third season was Hardy Boys only, but was canceled soon into the season.

Nancy Drew has been the focus of films since 1938. She has been portrayed cinematically by Bonita Granville, Emma Roberts and Sophia Lillis. The CW revived her in 2019, but added a supernatural element and darkened the atmosphere, capitalizing on the success of Riverdale. Nancy Drew has stood the test of time. Girls see her intrepidness, her ingenuity, her intelligence, her inquisitiveness and her kindness as aspirational. For years to come, whenever there's a mystery at a spooky old house, Nancy and Company will pile into her roadster, and head off bravely into danger.

SOURCES :

The Hardy Boys. Wikipedia. 

Nancy Drew. Wikipedia.

FURTHER READING :

Nancy Drew and the Women Who Created Her 

GIRL DETECTIVES WHO DON'T REALLY DELIGHT

 

After Edward Stratmeyer's death his daughters Edna Squier and Harriet Stratmeyer Adams took over the syndicate. Edna and Harriet could not find a buyer for the syndicate due to the depression. Edna covered daily business operations and Harriet worked with writers and outlined future novels like her father. Edna chose not to continue her work with the company, leaving full control to Harriet. 

Harriet introduced new series to the Stratemeyer world, focusing on strong female characters. Perhaps because Harriet never wanted to be a proper young lady. Born to Edward and his wife in 1892, Harriet climbed trees and read books. She attended Wellesley College, graduating in 1914. She edited manuscripts, but did not write herself. She married in 1915 and had four children.

In the 1950s and '60s Harriet Adams was forced by the publisher Gossett and Dunlop to revise past books, changing racist language and situations to reflect "modern" times. Rewrites caused some plots to change entirely and whole books had to be rewritten. In the late 1970s Adams wanted the two most popular series to go into paperback. Gossett and Dunlop to offence, and sued. For the first time the public learned of the syndicate and its pseudonymic ghost writers. Adams died in 1982, and Simon and Schuster bought the syndicate in 1984.

Before his death in 1930, Edward Stratemeyer created a new character and outlined the first four books in a series, but died shortly after she hit the page. Mildred Wirt Benson was the ghost writer chosen to bring this character to life, as she did other girl characters for the syndicate. Benson gave readers girls who acted bravely, and intelligently, who never gave a thought to being proper, though they were well-mannered and polite. She had her own separate journalism career under her own name. But the work she did under one particular pseudonym will live on for generations.

Mildred Wirt Benson was born in 1905 in Ladora, Iowa. In 1925 she earned an English degree from the University of Iowa. In 1927 she earned a Masters in Journalism degree. In 1928 she married Asa Wirt ; the couple had one child. Asa Wirt died in 1947 ; Mildred married George Benson, the editor of the newspaper for which she wrote, in 1950. He died in 1959. Benson traveled and learned to fly planes, never backing down from an adventure. She died in age 96 in 2002.

Wirt sold stories to several magazines and in 1926 she applied to the Stratmeyer Syndicate. Stratemeyer was impressed by the portfolio Wirt sent in. She was offered the Ruth Fielding series (pseudonym Alice Emerson.) After meeting Edward Stratmeyer at her interview, she never spoke to him again. Ghost writers submitted their work through correspondence. She was paid $125 - $250 per book (equal to three months pay at her newspaper job.) She could not claim rights to her published works nor any pseudonym she wrote under. She wrote Ruth Fielding books until 1934 when Gossett and Dunlop canceled the series. She picked up two more series - Kay Tracy and The Dana Girls. She worked for the syndicate until the changes of the 1950s. When Gossett and Dunlop sued the syndicate Wirt refuted Harriet Stratmeyer Adams claims that Harriet wrote the most noted series of girl books.

Wirt was an early day girl power champion. Heroines - albeit ruled by syndicate regulations - relied on their wits to get them out of trouble ; no being rescued by a dreamy boy. But boys were part of the story, as allies and admirers. Her Kay Tracy series (pseudonym Francis K. Judd,) about a teen girl detective, began in 1934. Kay was a teenage sleuth attending high school. She faced interference from jealous classmate Ethel Eaton - the perfect moniker for a teen bitch. Kate has two friends and a boyfriend. She solved mysteries with the help of friends, but did little else. Wirt wrote volumes 3 through 12 and volume 14. Outlines were extremely detailed, making the writing somewhat abrupt. Kay Tracy was found to be a bit drab, but that is probably a result of the syndicate wanting to repeat the success of their most famous creation. But that teen sleuth was lightning-in-a-bottle one of a kind and any similar character seemed a pale imitator. Still, Kay Tracy lasted almost ten years, ending in 1942.

Another pale imitator was Wirt's third series for the syndicate, The Dana Girls (pseudonym Carolyn Keene.) Sisters Jean and Louise Dana solve mysteries near the boarding school where they reside. This time around the protagonists were orphans - they are looked after by a sea captain uncle and his sister, their spinster aunt, and a maid. Louise, dark haired, 17 is more serious than 16 year old fair "gay-hearted" Jean. The girls face off against a nemesis / hench girl duo - Lettie Briggs and Ina Mason. Wirt did not enjoy writing the series, and lack of enthusiasm shone through. Though lasting from 1934 to 1979 the series never really sparked with readers.

Even though other girl characters would never reach the heights of the most famous syndicate success, they set a presidence for teen girl Y A lit. Female readers found sharp, smart girls who earned the co-operation and respect of the adults in their lives. Adult supported their crime solving, but intervened only when necessary. Away at boarding school the Dana sisters could be themselves without pressure to be what parents or guardians wanted them to be. Marriage was most certainly not an aspiration to these young girls. They were admired for their intellect, which few past literary girls had been. Both series ran their course and were discontinued due to the depression and the onset of World War II. Times were tough, there was only room for one teen sleuth heroine.

ARTICLES :

Harriet Stratemeyer Adams. Wikipedia. 

Mildred Wirt Benson. Wikipedia.

Kay Tracey. Wikipedia. 

The Dana Girls. Wikipedia.

FURTHER READING :

BOYS JUST WANT TO HAVE FUN

The Stratemeyer Syndicate wrote books for both boys and girls. Their books for girls mostly present idealistic heroines who were quiet and good. Their heroines faced light obstacles easy to overcome. By the end of their series the girls were married or near marriageable age and mature. In other words, they were boring.

Boys, however, had rough and tumble role models, boys who got into scrapes and had adventures. The first of these were The Rover Boys, whose antics lasted from 1899 to 1926 and covered 30 books that sold 5 million copies. Written by Stratemeyer himself under the pseudonym Arthur M. Winfield, three brothers - Tom, Sam, and Dick Rover were left in the care of their father's brother and sister-in-law. Their mother died - this was a common theme in Stratemeyer Syndicate books. Mothers told boys to comb their hair and to not get their clothes dirty. Mothers certainly wouldn't let boys traipse around getting into mischief, so mothers did not exist in syndicate land.

The three Rover Boys were students at a military boarding school. Adventure seemed to follow the boys wherever they went. After volume 21 the books focused on the sons of the three original Rover Boys. Boys who read the books found idols who lived in a world that touched on then modern travel innovations like automobiles and airplanes, as luxury travel was not yet commonplace for the poorer class. Most boys who read the books probably had never traveled away from their own home towns, but through the Rover Boys they could see more of the world than they ever thought they could.

Boys also had Tom Swift, (pseudonym - Victor Appleton) a young inventor. Swift had little education, like prominent scientific figures of the day Albert Einstein and Thomas Edison. Again Tom Swift had no mother. His father ran a company and a housekeeper filled the mother figure role. Tom Swift was the book series for science minded boys. Tom Swift started in 1910 and lasted until 1941 in various iterations. The series switched over to Tom Swift Jr. in 1954. As son of the original Tom Swift, junior took on the Sci-Fi interest of the 1950s. The Tom Swift series inspired a board game, but scripts for radio, film, and television series never came to be.

Somewhere in the middle of boy-lit and girl-lit was The Bobbsey Twins series. Focusing on two sets of twins, the series (pseudonym Laura Lee Hope) began in 1904 and lasted until 1979 an, astonishing 75 years. Bert and Nan were 12, Freddy and Flossie were 6, and came from an upper middle class family. 11 authors covered the twins during their initial run. Their father owned a lumberyard, but in this series the characters had a mother. Nan and Bert were dark, Freddy and Flossy, fair. The twins actually aged in the books, unlike other heroes and heroines of the syndicate. The books covered random family adventures until a mystery solving element was added to later books (due to the success of the Syndicate's more famous mystery solving series.) The Bobbsey Twins reflected life for many of their readers - younger kids could identify with having bossy older siblings; older kids identified with having pesky younger siblings.

That was the most important thing to Syndicate - that children find characters with whom they can identify, and keep reading.

SOURCES :

The Rover Boys. Wikipedia.

Tom Swift. Wikipedia.

The Bobbsey Twins. Wikipedia.

THE BIRTH OF A PHENOMENON

In 1927 two brothers solved The Mystery of the Tower Treasure. Three years later in 1930 an intrepid teen girl solved The Secret of the Old Clock. Teenagers solving mysteries became a literary trope, but The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew were just a link in a long chain of kid lit created by one man. Edward Stratemeyer struck gold when he formed a syndicate to produce children's literature. Though some of the syndicate's characters have gone to the literary graveyard, The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew endure even today.

Edward Stratemeyer wrote 13,000 books under various pseudonyms. He would outline plots and pass them on to ghost writers who filled in the story. Stratemeyer was born in 1863 in Elizabeth, New Jersey to German immigrant parents ; his father was a tobacconist. Stratemeyer found inspiration in the Horatio Alger rags-to-riches stories he read. When Stratemeyer was a teen he operated a printing press in the basement of his father's shop. He distributed stories he wrote to family and friends.

In 1889 he sold a story he wrote for $76 - a large sum for the time. In 1890 he opened a paper store in Newark. Stratemeyer wrote stories under pseudonyms in various genres. In 1894 he completed his first full-length book. He finished work began by his boyhood hero Horatio Alger when Alger became too sick to write.

Stratemeyer begin writing the Rover Boys series in 1899 and started his syndicate in 1905. Stratemeyer recognized that entertaining books for children were an untapped market. Children's books were usually morally aspirational. Stratemeyer's characters had adventures and traveled. Stratmeyer would contract ghost writers to write under pseudonyms he created. Books were written under pseudonyms because pseudonyms seemed to sell better ; children might be confused or turned off if their favorite series suddenly had a different author. Stratemeyer would outline the plots of the books and the ghost writers would flesh out the story.

Characters never varied and even though locations changed, the situations were always similar. Books were always written in a series, never a standalones. So, Nancy Drew would always live in River Heights. Her father would always be an attorney. Nancy would always be 18. She would never have friends other than Bess and George (unless they were one-off plot contrived friends who were never mentioned again.) Ned Nickerson would be her only boyfriend. Nancy could go to a ranch, or a ski resort, but never too far from home and never overseas. She would always solve the mystery by the end of the book. Each book series had their own particular formula. The formula system worked and The Stratemeyer Syndicate sold massive volumes of books and made millions of dollars. Stratemeyer died in 1930 at age 67. His daughters would take over and guide the syndicate into a new era.

ARTICLES :

Edward Stratemeyer. Wikipedia.

The Stratemeyer Syndicate. Wikipedia.

BE GLAD FOR EARLY DAY Y A GIRL POWER

Two little girls dominated their particular eras of family entertainment. Both actresses came to define the term "child star."  Both actresses starred in film adaptations a very popular children's books : Shirley Temple in Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, and Haley Mills in Pollyanna. Both novels were written by prolific writers who are all but forgotten today, but in their era were two of YA's most successful authors - Kate Douglas Wiggin and Eleanor H. Porter. Both Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm and Pollyanna are enduring characters of a similar nature who both personify, yet rise above typical adolescent female literary characters.

Kate Douglas Wiggin was born September 28,1856 in Philadelphia. She had a happy childhood with her parents and her younger sister Nora, until her father died. Her widowed mother moved herself and her daughters to Maine. Kate was intelligent and talented in both writing and music. Her mother remarried an educator who oversaw Kate's education.

In 1873 the family moved to Santa Barbara due to her stepfather's poor health. Kate relocated to San Francisco to enroll in a teaching program. Kate saw a need for education among San Francisco's poor and immigrant communities, and started a free kindergarten. When she married in 1881, Kate quit teaching us was the custom. She remained dedicated to fundraising for her various kindergartens. After her writing career became lucrative, she used the profits to fund various educational programs and children's charities.

Kate's first husband died unexpectedly ; the two had no children. In 1894 she married again and Kate and her second husband traveled the world. They made their home in Maine and Kate wrote prolifically.  She died in 1923. Kate Douglas Wiggin left a rich legacy in the world of children's education.

Eleanor Emily Hodgman was born in Littleton, New Hampshire on December 9th, 1868. Like Kate Douglas Wiggin, Eleanor Porter was talented in both music and writing at an early age. Both women's educations were sporadic - Eleanor H. Porter left high school due to poor health and finished her education via private tutors. Eleanor H. Porter married a businessman and for 10 years the couple lived various places before settling in Cambridge Massachusetts. They did not have children. After pursuing music for several years Eleanor H. Porter began a writing career that turned out to be prolific and successful. Eleanor H. Porter died May 5th 1920. Her most popular character, Pollyanna, lent her name to slang for an unflaggingly and (somewhat annoyingly) optimistic person.

Both Kate Douglas Wiggins' and Eleanor H Porter's Rebecca and Pollyanna are similar in nature and backstory. Pollyanna is an orphan while Rebecca has a poor family with too many children for her widowed mother to take care of.  Both girls go to live with relations unknown to them in an unfamiliar place. Rebecca has two aunts while Pollyanna has one ; but Rebecca's Aunt Miranda and Pollyanna's Aunt Polly are stern and reluctant to take in a child, but do so as a matter of family duty. Rebecca has a friend and confident in her Aunt Jane, and Pollyanna in her Aunt's maid Nancy. Both girls meet townsfolk, make friends, and become interwoven in town life. Overall both Rebecca and Pollyanna are pleasant, kind, and well liked. Their stories diverge in that Rebecca grows to young womanhood in the course of her novel. Rebecca wants to become a teacher and writer. Aunt Miranda's death gives Rebecca a monetary inheritance as well as farmland to sell to a developer. All of this makes Rebecca financially independent - closing the book on a happy ending.

Pollyanna's story is a bit darker than Rebecca's. Pollyanna has always played The Glad Game - a way to find something to be glad about even in the bleakest of times. The game started when Pollyanna, hoping for a doll from the Christmas barrel, gets crutches. YIKES! Talk about a bummer and brilliant foreshadowing. When Pollyanna is given a tiny attic room with no pictures, she's glad she can see the whole town from her window - cuz kids are into voyeurism? Pollyanna's situation seems dire to modern readers but considering kids as young as 10 worked long hours at back breaking factory jobs, looking out an attic window in a mansion seems like a dreamy way to live. Pollyanna is hit by a car and temporarily loses the use of her legs. She refuses to play the glad game. Icy Aunt Polly thaws out enough to call her old beau, Dr. Chilton, to help Pollyanna walk again. The town rallies behind Pollyanna, Aunt Polly and Dr. Chilton re-kindle their romance, and Pollyanna goes to a clinic to heal. Not as heartwarming as Rebecca and her wads of cash, but don't worry about Pollyanna. The novel had several sequels and was translated into eight languages.

Both novels were adapted to the screen several times. In 1917 Mary Pickford at age 25 played Rebecca ; in 1920 a 28 year old Mary Pickford played Pollyanna - portrayed as age 11 in the book. Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm's most famous adaptation was overhauled into a vastly different story to showcase child star Shirley Temple. (Keen eyes will recognize a young Rose deWitt Bukater - Gloria Stewart from Titanic.) Pollyanna's most well known adaptation came in 1960 and brought forth the next most legendary child star - Haley Mills.

Both Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm and Pollyanna had an important message - life is hard to anyone who lives, regardless of age. Bleakness and despair gets a person nowhere. Both Kate Douglas Wiggin and Eleanor H. Porter saw hardship and disparity around them and use their writing to combat the difficulty they observed. Kate Douglas Wiggin fought society's ills by opening schools. Eleanor H. Porter use social commentary in her novels, disguising social concerns as stories for children, making them easier to understand. Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm and Pollyanna have been made irrelevant in today's world but should be dusted off and revisited as quaint reminders that even in the darkest of times, hope can get you through.

ARTICLES :

Friends of Mt. Auburn. "Eleanor H. Porter (1968-1920)." Mount Auburn Cemetary, 5 May 2012. 

Eleanor H. Porter. Wikipedia.

Kate Douglas Wiggin. Wikipedia.

FURTHER READING :

Pollyanna ~ Eleanor H. Porter

Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm ~ Kate Douglas Wiggin

FURTHER VIEWING :

Pollyanna ~ IMDb

Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm ~ IMDb

VIDEOS :

Pollyanna {clip of Mary Pickford - entire film available on youtube}

Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm {clip of Mary Pickford - entire film available on youtube}

PAUL NEWMAN AND A RIDE HOME

 

When I was 14 I fell in love. He was smart and sensitive. He was loyal and kind. He saved kids from a burning church. He was entirely fictional. His name was Ponyboy Curtis, protagonist of the Y A novel The Outsiders. The only other book boy who had ever lit up my book nerd girl heart was Gilbert Blythe. I knew I had no chance with Gilbert as he belonged to his beloved "Carrots." But Ponyboy was his own person, despite belonging to the Greasers. I pined for a real life Ponyboy, a boy who loved poetry and saw good in the world where others saw hate and strife. Ponyboy didn't dress like Vanilla Ice. (Class of 93 - Go LHS Tigers!) So what if he existed in another era and came to life in 1967, 8 years before I was born? I still, at 49 (in March,) wish I had a real life ADULT Ponyboy, who could quote poetry and take me to the movies - again as a full grown adult, not as a sensitive 14 year old Greaser.

Author Susan Eloise Hinton, born 1948 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, was troubled by how the rich popular kids in her high school from socially prominent families - the Socs, behaved toward the lower class poor kids - the Greasers. Hinton began writing The Outsiders when she was 15 and the novel was published when she was 18. She was counselled to credit herself as S. E. Hinton to be seen as more mature - and less female - and therefore more of a serious author to reviewers. In the introduction to the Viking Platinum edition of the novel Hinton wrote "But I didn't just write The Outsiders, I lived it. Looking back, I realize how important it was to me to have another life at that time. To be someone else. To deal with problems I had to face, and write my way to some sort of understanding and coping. This is all in hindsight. At some time, I was mad about the social situation in my high school. I desperately wanted something to read that dealt realistically teenage life."

A bildungsroman, The Outsiders explores the personal journey of Greaser Ponyboy Curtis, his life with his brothers Soda Pop and Darry - who was left in charge of their family after the sudden death of their parents. Hinton wrote from the perspective of a Greaser because most books for young adults presented more of an ideal - ie Soc perspective on life. The Greasers are rough and tumble, poor and misunderstood. But they cling together and fight for each other like family. The Greasers are :

Ponyboy - 14-intelligent-book nerd-sensetive high school student

Soda Pop - 16, high school dropout who works at a gas station - the hot boy of the group

Darry - 20, de facto leader of both Curtis family and the Greasers

Johnny Cade - 16, Ponyboy's best friend, abused by alcoholic parents, sweet natured

Two-Bit Matthews - loves Mickey Mouse, cracking jokes, and stealing stuff

Steve Randle - Soda's best friend - kind of unhinged

Dallas Winston - troubled, volatile, Johnny's caretaker in the gang, the only  Greaser who could make me forget Ponyboy

The Outsiders explores the themes of haves / v / have nots, good / v / bad, and as a bildungsroman - finding your identity and place in the world. The Socs have cars, stylish clothes, money, and social clout but are they truly happy? The Greasers are poor but have a bond that compels them to fight - and in some cases - die for each other. Despite having very little financially or socially, the Greasers still dream and aspire to a better life. Well maybe not Dally, and Two-bit is basically content with just his cartoons.

The novel explores what it means to be a "good" person versus a "bad" person. Ponyboy and Johnny rescue children from a burning church even though they are hiding from the law. They risk both their lives and their freedom, even though society casts them out as delinquents. Cherry Valance, Soc girl and double-agent-for-the-Greasers-spy, falls hard for Dally (oh Cherry honey, I feel ya sister) because he's different from Soc boys - not just because he's a Greaser, but because he's passionate about who and what he cares for. Dally is flawed to be sure, but he looks out for Johnny, offering him care his parents simply can't provide. Darry gave up college and a football scholarship to care for his brothers. These are not the actions of bad people.

Ponyboy, at 14, knows life is tough. He lost both his parents suddenly. But, as a kid, he's protected within the gang. His literal journey to hiding out with Johnny shows him that he can be independent (despite Dally taking him and Johnny to Dairy Queen.) Ponyboy is a character apart from the others - and outsider within his own group. He sees the value in education, and learning about literature and life beyond Greaser-dom. His journey returns him home, wiser and more appreciative of what he has, even, if to outsiders it looks like he doesn't have much. And who exactly are The Outsiders - the Greasers, or those who denigrate them?

I can't talk about the book and not cover the film. A school librarian wrote to Francis Ford Coppola and asked if he would consider adapting the novel into a film. 15 pages of student signatures accompanied the letter. Coppola read the novel and set about casting up and coming young actors. He chose : 

Ponyboy - C. Thomas Howell

Soda Pop - Rob Lowe

Darry - Patrick Swayze

Johnny - Ralph Macchio

Two-Bit - Emilio Estevez

Steve - Tom Cruise

Dallas - Matt Dillon

Cherry - Diane Lane 

Of the cast Dillon and Lane were the most established. The rest would go on to varying levels of Hollywood success, and Rob Lowe - literally - looks exactly the same as he did 40 years ago when the movie was made. Fun fact - S. E. Hinton plays the school nurse. The film was not a critical success, but gained following after the actors' Hollywood profiles rose.

The Outsiders is a universal story of belonging and acceptance. 56 years after its initial publication the novel still resonates. People are still alienated if they don't conform to random social standards. Nice girls still want the bad boy. The smart kid tells the story because he remembers everything and can't forget the anguish and the joy. We are all Outsiders, in one way or another.

ARTICLES :

The Outsiders. Wikipedia. (Novel)

The Outsiders. Wikipedia. (Film)

Hinton, S. E. “Introduction.” Outsiders,The. Viking Books For Young Readers; Platinum Edition, 2006.

FURTHER INTEREST : 

The Outsiders House Museum

VIDEOS :

The Outsiders

WHAT HATH EVE WROUGHT

 

The 1990s gave women Spice Girl infused girl power and grunge tinged Riot Grrrls, but 20 years prior feminism told women not to accept the status quo. Y A literature heralded the wome's lib era in the 1979 Lois Duncan novel Daughters of Eve. The novel tells the story of defunct service club at a small town Michigan High School. Irene Stark, art teacher and women's libber, revives the club and hand picks the new members. Ostensibly in the club to do good works, the members speak out about injustice as they face as teen girls. Irene Stark uses their anger to enact her fury as a scorned woman. As a budding feminist teen I read this book about a jillion times (interchangeably with Duncan's Stranger With My Face.) I could not celebrate Women's History Month without discussing teen girl backlash towards everyday misogyny. But just how feminist was Daughters of Eve really?

Louis Duncan was, by her own account, a shy bookish child. Born in Philadelphia to professional photographer parents, the family moved to Sarasota Florida, so her parents could work as photographers for the Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey circus. Duncan attended Duke University, but dropped out to marry her first husband. She wrote over 300 articles for various publications. After her family moved to Albuquerque, Duncan simultaneously taught journalism and earned a bachelor's degree in English.

Duncan had published many Y A novels since the mid 1960s, but her focus shifted to supernatural themes in the 1970s. Her books often echoed real adolescent anguish filtered through ghosts, witches, astral projection, and actual teacher murder. She wrote supernatural Y A novels until the late 1980s. When her youngest daughter Kaitlyn was murdered in 1989, she began to write books for younger children. Duncan wrote Who Murdered My Daughter to push police focus to solving her daughter's murder. Duncan died in 2016 ; In 2021 Albuquerque Police announced the arrest of Kaitlyn's killer.

Women's Lib was a hot topic in the 1970s. Some women spoke out for equality in the boardroom, the sports arena, the classroom, even in the home and bedroom. Other women derided this and believed women should be satisfied as housewives. More than ever before teenage girls were offered more choices for their future. College was easier to attend, certain jobs were no longer seeing strictly as "women's work." Women could indeed bring home the bacon and fry it up in the pan (according to a commercial I was obsessed with as a child.) Daughters of Eve explores varied young women, their future hopes, and how they plan to attain those hopes. The novel also explores how men feel about women women's home, societal, and sexual roles.

The character of Ruth explores the dichotomy of women at home versus  women at work. Ruth's mother takes a job to provide extra income so the family can afford to send Ruth's two older brothers to college. When Ruth says she wants to go to college too, her father finds the notion absurd. She can pay her own way or get married, then take classes after her kids grow older. Ruth points out that her brothers can pitch in with chores and her father pretty much says that will turn his sons gay. The 70s indeed were a stupider time. Ruth is made a housewife as a teenage girl. And what she says is both true and fair and not at all a parade for women's lib.

Ruth's older brother Peter dates Bambi, the "foxiest" girl in school. He has a reputation to uphold (sex) but Bambi doesn't want to end up pregnant. He nearly forces himself on Laura - the chubby girl of the club, thinking she'll be grateful for the attention. Laura sends him off and leaves the club. The girls later get revenge by shaving Peter's head - apt in the era of glorious David Cassidy like cascading manes.

Anne is an artist, and therefore closest to Irene. Anne becomes pregnant and must put aside art school. The pregnancy, coupled with a family tragedy, forces Anne and her boyfriend to marry. In Anne's case her boyfriend is happy with whatever she chooses. He loves her enough to support her no matter what. Irene feels that Anne is naive and ruining her life to accept a life of marriage and motherhood. As her teacher does Irene have a right to influence Anne's future?

The novel is most definitely a feminist one, with scientist girl, athletic girl - and in keeping with Duncan's supernatural bent - a psychic girl. But the girls never feel like cliches or caricatures. They all have unique aspirations and fight their own battles. But Irene becomes a villain as she seeks revenge on male society. To her all men are all the same. The biggest lie a man could tell a woman is "I love you." Irene did the work her boyfriend should have done and he was promoted ahead of her, without giving her credit. Irene becomes a obsessed with punishment and uses the girls to do her bidding, even if it means pitting them against each other.

Some girls get out while they can, others remain loyal and go to extremes to push the club's women positive message. Is the novel truly feminist if women turn against each other, especially at the behest of one woman? The main message of the novel is to not follow a leader blindly. But the novel comes dangerously close to misogyny by showing the girls as revenge bent harpies. But then again, isn't that how feminist are viewed, even today?

ARTICLES :

Daughters of Eve. Wikipedia.

Lois Duncan. Wikipedia.