Nancy Drew is a teenage detective that solves cases with her friends, Bess and George. She started her mysterious career in 1930's with "The Secret of the Old Clock" and is still solving mysteries today, with her latest being "On the Trail of Trouble." The earlier Nancy Drew mysteries are rather formal with Nancy solving mysteries in skirts or dresses, but now she mostly wears jeans and sneakers. These "original" Nancy Drew stories are called digests to distinguish them from the Files and the Notebooks.

The older mysteries that were first written in the 1930's were rewritten in the 1950's and 1960's to give Nancy a more "modern" feel to her books. Those "old" versions are now being re-released by Applewood Books.

When I was a little girl, I used to read all of the Nancy Drew books our small library had. I thought that someday I would collect Nancy Drew mystery stories. Finally, that someday came. My husband and I came across an almost complete set of Nancy Drew yellow spine, non-glossy, picture cover books for $3.00 each. We bought a few books at a time, and kept returning to the store when we had the spare money to buy more. My awesome grandmother had saved the few Nancy Drew books I had owned when I was a kid and my quest was born--to have a complete set of Nancy Drews. I often drag my husband to used book stores looking for the few I do not have. Luckily, he loves me enough to put up with spending time in stores!!

As any collector knows, there are several different versions of Nancy Drew mysteries. There are different colored covers, different end-papers, different cover pictures, etc. etc. In the paperback versions (starting with #57) they were first published under the Wanderer imprint (until #79) and then under the Minstrel imprint. The earlier Wanderer editions are hard to find and, unlike the later Minstrel editions, they have black and white drawings throughout the book.

I also collect Nancy Drew Files, but I am not as serious about collecting them. I mostly buy these at used book stores for under a buck. I believe the files are geared towards an older audience than the digest versions and while Nancy is still solving mysteries, she is also more interested in guys.

Finally, there are the Notebooks. These are Nancy Drew mysteries for the younger set. They are a recent invention and I have not read them.