kids encyclopedia robot

Mildred Benson facts for kids

Kids Encyclopedia Facts
Quick facts for kids
Mildred Wirt Benson
Mildred Benson.png
Born Mildred Augustine
(1905-07-10)July 10, 1905
Ladora, Iowa, United States
Died May 28, 2002(2002-05-28) (aged 96)
Toledo, Ohio, United States
Occupation Author
Genre Children's books
Notable awards Agatha Award

Mildred Augustine Wirt Benson (born July 10, 1905 – died May 28, 2002) was an American journalist and author. She wrote many books for children. Mildred is most famous for writing some of the very first Nancy Drew mystery books. She helped create Nancy Drew's brave and adventurous personality. Benson wrote these books using the pen name, Carolyn Keene, from 1929 to 1947. She contributed to 23 of the first 30 Nancy Drew mysteries, which became huge bestsellers.

About Mildred Benson

Mildred Benson was born Mildred Augustine in Ladora, Iowa. She was a very smart student. She earned her degree in English from the University of Iowa in just three years, in 1925. Later, in 1927, she became the first student at that university to earn a master's degree in journalism.

In 1928, she married Asa Wirt. They had a daughter named Peggy in 1936. After Asa passed away in 1947, Mildred married George A. Benson, who was an editor for a newspaper called the Toledo Blade. He died in 1959.

Mildred Benson worked as a journalist for 58 years. She wrote a weekly column for the Toledo Blade newspaper. She kept working full-time, even writing obituaries (articles about people who have died), until just a few months before she passed away. She died in 2002 at the age of 96.

Mildred was also a big adventurer! She traveled many times to Central America. She explored jungles in a Jeep, canoed down rivers, and visited ancient Mayan sites. She even flew airplanes and watched archaeological digs.

Her Writing Career

After college, Mildred Benson started writing for a local newspaper. In 1926, she saw an advertisement from the Stratemeyer Syndicate. They were looking for ghostwriters. A ghostwriter is someone who writes books for another person or company, and their name doesn't appear on the book.

Mildred got the job! Her first assignment was to write a book for the Ruth Fielding series. She used the pen name Alice B. Emerson for this.

Writing as Carolyn Keene

Mildred Benson's most famous work for the Syndicate was writing for the Nancy Drew series. She used the pen name "Carolyn Keene" for these books. Besides Nancy Drew, Benson also wrote The Dana Girls series using the same pen name.

Other Books and Series

Mildred Benson wrote many other book series too. She published the Penny Parker books under her own name, Mildred A. Wirt. She often said these were her favorite books to write. The Penny Parker books were about a young newspaper reporter, which was a lot like Mildred herself!

She wrote under more than a dozen different names and published over 130 books in total.

One interesting series she wrote was the "Ruth Darrow" stories. These books were about a young woman who loved to fly airplanes. Ruth Darrow took flying lessons, flew her own plane, and even landed on an aircraft carrier. She helped the Forest Service fight forest fires and helped the Coast guard stop people from being smuggled. These books showed that women could be very capable and good with machines.

Mildred Benson and Nancy Drew

Mildred Benson is best known for her work on the Nancy Drew books. Edward Stratemeyer, who owned the Stratemeyer Syndicate, hired Mildred in 1926. He wanted her to help write more stories because his book series were becoming very popular.

The Stratemeyer Syndicate owned the rights to the Nancy Drew series. Today, Simon & Schuster owns them. Mildred, like all ghostwriters for the Syndicate, was paid a set fee for each book she wrote. She signed a contract that meant she gave up all rights to her stories and the pen name "Carolyn Keene." However, she was allowed to tell people that she wrote for the Syndicate.

Edward Stratemeyer came up with the idea for Nancy Drew. He gave Mildred simple ideas for the plots. But it was Mildred Benson who created Nancy's brave, clever, and adventurous personality. She took the basic plots and made Nancy a character that girls loved.

Later, starting in 1959, another writer named Harriet Stratemeyer Adams updated and revised the Nancy Drew books that Mildred had written.

Mildred Benson never thought the Nancy Drew books would become so popular. But she knew that girls would like them because Nancy was a unique heroine for her time. She once said, "I always knew the series would be successful. I just never expected it to be the blockbuster that it has been. I'm glad that I had that much influence on people."

In 1980, Mildred Benson's identity as a writer for the Nancy Drew series became public during a court case. Since then, she has been recognized as the person who created the original Nancy Drew's spirit. In 2001, she received a special Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America for her important work on the Nancy Drew series.

Mildred's favorite Nancy Drew story was The Hidden Staircase, which was the second book in the series. She was always happy to sign copies of Nancy Drew books, but only the ones she actually wrote.

Some Books Mildred Benson Wrote

Mildred Benson wrote many books under different names. Here are some of them:

Nancy Drew Mysteries (as Carolyn Keene)

Penny Parker Books (as Mildred A. Wirt)

  • Tale of the Witch Doll, 1939
  • The Vanishing Houseboat, 1939
  • Danger at the Drawbridge, 1940
  • Behind the Green Door, 1940
  • Clue of the Silken Ladder, 1941
  • The Secret Pact, 1941
  • The Clock Strikes Thirteen, 1942
  • The Wishing Well, 1942
  • Saboteurs on the River, 1943
  • Ghost Beyond the Gate, 1943
  • Hoofbeats on the Turnpike, 1944
  • Voice from the Cave, 1944
  • Guilt of the Brass Thieves, 1945
  • Signal in the Dark, 1946
  • Whispering Walls, 1946
  • Swamp Island, 1947
  • The Cry at Midnight, 1947

The Dana Girls (as Carolyn Keene)

  • The Secret at the Hermitage, 1936
  • The Circle of Footprints, 1937
  • The Mystery of the Locked Room, 1938
  • The Clue in the Cobweb, 1939
  • The Secret at the Gatehouse, 1940
  • The Mysterious Fireplace, 1941
  • The Clue of the Rusty Key, 1942
  • The Portrait in the Sand, 1943
  • The Clue in the Ivy, 1952
  • The Secret of the Jade Ring, 1953
  • Mystery at the Crossroads, 1954
kids search engine
All content from Kiddle encyclopedia articles (including the article images and facts) can be freely used under Attribution-ShareAlike license, unless stated otherwise. Cite this article:
Mildred Benson Facts for Kids. Kiddle Encyclopedia.