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Originally Posted by Hamlet53
I found the discussion of how the Nancy Drew novels were edited from as first published interesting. I believe that the Mary Poppins novels went through that as well and for some of the same reasons. It's always a question if or how to alter any work that contains language or depictions that were current when the book was written, but now are recognized as offensive. There are people that would like to do the same to even great works like Huckleberry Finn. To my mind unless it is the original author doing the edit it should just not be done. I'd correct you slightly on the Nancy Drew edits. Done in response to public opinion, but I don't believe that the "bureaucracy" [government] would have mandated it. Not in the US at least.
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Well, in a sense the Nancy Drew revisions were done by the author. The original books were the product of the Stratemeyer Syndicate, headed by Edward Stratemeyer, which conceived the stories and hired the ghostwriters behind the Carolyn Keene name under which the books were published. Mildred Wirt Benson wrote most of the Nancys for the first 20 or so years of the series as works for hire, along with other ghostwriters, who were contractually bound not to reveal their names.
When Edward's daughter, Harriet Stratemeyer Adams, took over the operation, she spearheaded the revisions. The Syndicate was the original author, and the Syndicate did the updating. The ghostwriters never had any rights to the material, and indeed their names stayed hidden for a very long time.
Stratemeyer was behind many other series (Bobbsey Twins, Hardy Boys, Dana Girls, Tom Swift, Rover Boys, Kay Tracey, etc.).