Friday, February 14, 2014

Nancy Drew End Papers




I recently pulled out some of my ancient Nancy Drew's from the 40s and 50s to take a look at the illustrations and wound up focusing on the fabulous end papers. The end papers above come from a 1954 edition of The Scarlett Slipper Mystery.

The end papers below are from a copy of The Hidden Staircase from 1930. The scan is a little blurry but since the book is so old (some pages are crumbing) I didn't want to press it down too hard on the scanner. According to NancyDrewSleuth.com there are earlier Nancy Drew's that have this design here but in an orange color. 



The papers below came from the 1943 edition of The Clue in the Jewel Box. Again, I didn't want to press too hard on the scanner. 




These are the end papers that I remember most in my Nancy Drew books from childhood. This comes from the 1974 edition of the Mystery of the Glowing Eye. My grandfather gave me this book. You can see the binding is separating a little. It was put to good use by my friends and me. 




Last but not least, well maybe they are least, they have always been my least favorite of all the end papers because Nancy seems to have lost her look of steely eyed determination that you can see in the drawings above. And her pupils are so dilated they look like she's just gotten back from the eye-doctor. These end papers came from the 1979 edition of The Thirteenth Pearl. Which end papers are your favorite? 




6 comments:

  1. The 1st and the 3rd are the ones that sing in my memory. (Your least is my least fave, too.)

    I see these and it's a non-stop trip in the Wayback machine. Later, I'd bore holes in album covers for hours, but that's how I stared at the illustrations of these books. The endpapers are meant to hint at something without telling it--so I was always looking to see whether I'd finally glimpse around that corner, up those stairs, or into the darkness beyond. I'd be sorely tempted to make them into office wallpaper. Toile for the girl detectives!

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    1. Clare - what a fabulous idea. That would be really fun. Or you could do the illustrations...

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  2. The Hidden Staircase--most of the Nancy Drew books that I read in the 50s belonged to my aunt who read them in the 1930s, so I remember those end pages.

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    1. We all remember different ones. The Hidden Staircase one is really fun.

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  3. Oh, yes, I remember these. I devoured these books.

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