My Favorite Literary Heroines, Part One

     First of all, let's take the word "literary" with a grain of salt, because I want to include heroines from juvenile books that critics may not put in that rather ambiguous category "literary fiction."

     Undoubtedly, my first heroine was Nancy Drew, and I'm sure she was the same for many a reader, for good reason. She was pretty, smart, quick-witted, resourceful, self-reliant, loyal, dependable, and had a host of wide-ranging talents: golf, tennis, skiing, ballet, tap dancing, piano -- you name it, she could do it. She was 16-18 years old and never seemed to go to school. She also never seemed to go to church. She never had to do chores or cook, because she had Hannah, the faithful housekeeper. She drove a blue convertible (in later editions, that is; in the early editions she drove a "maroon roadster";
the early Nancy also packed a pistol and wore loafers rather than the pumps of later editions). She was the only child of a wealthy, famous, and widowed lawyer who so respected her detective abilities that he often called on her to help him in his work. The police even kow-towed to Nancy. She had a fabulous boyfriend, even if he wasn't quite as smart as she. On top of all that, she must have had a skull of iron, because she was forever being knocked out by a blow on the head from behind (and no one ever suggested she have an X-ray afterward -- what the hell kind of father was Carson Drew, anyway?).

     Along with Nancy there were those other girl detectives created by "Carolyn Keene": the Dana Girls. They certainly never reached the iconic height that Nancy Drew did, but they had and still have a faithful cult following. Jean and Louise Dana are orphans raised by their sea captain Uncle Ned and his sister. They live most of the year in a girls' boarding school run by the kindly Mrs. Crandall. The older sister, Louise, is rather serious (though she isn't above a practical joke once in a while) and a bit more sensible than Jean, who has a tendency to be impulsive and emotional (hmm...they sound a bit like Elinor and Marianne Dashwood, don't they?). Both, of course, have an innate talent for detective work and somehow manage, in their semi-cloistered environment, to get involved in one adventure after another. To add to the shenanigans, they have comical nemeses in the form of the snobbish Lettie Briggs and her toadying shadow Ina Mason, their schoolmates at Starhurst School. Lettie and Ina try constantly to prove they are every bit as capable of solving mysteries as the Dana Girls, and are wont to play rather vicious jokes on them along the way. But, predictably, Louise and Jean always give them their comeuppance.

     I was never a Cherry Ames fan. For me, Sue Barton was the nursing bomb. Helen Dore Boylston, the author of seven "Sue Barton" books, was a nurse in real life; her experiences give her heroine and stories an authentic ring and credibility that the Cherry Ames books just don't have. Boylston also managed to create a lovable character in Sue, accessible, three-dimensional, with all-too-human foibles and fears; her two best chums, Kit and Connie, fellow nurses, are great characters in their own right, as is Sue's boyfriend and eventual husband, Dr. Bill Barry. Sue's journey, from her uncertain days as a student nurse, to her experiences nursing in the slums of Harlem, then a rural community, and finally a big hospital, to her true-to-life marital and maternal problems, is a journey that every young girl can identify with, whether or not she aspires to be a nurse. The fact that the actual medical information and nursing techniques described in the books are dated (they were written between 1936 and 1952) in no way detracts from the stories' appeal.

     Boylston also wrote four "Carol Page" books about an aspiring actress. In writing these, she relied on information given her by the famous stage star Eva Le Gallienne, who was her close friend and neighbor. Unfortunately, the "Carol" books are very hard to find and usually quite expensive due to their scarcity, but they're really wonderful.

    And then there is the irrepressible Trixie Belden. Trixie and her brothers and friends, who comprise the mystery-solving club, "The Bob-Whites of the Glen," provided so much delightful entertainment throughout my childhood and even now in my adulthood. They were funny, wacky, bumbling, and very, very human. They could have been anyone in my junior high school: there was Trixie, the cute, lively, street-smart one; her brother Mart, the brainy but wise-cracking nerd; her older brother Brian, just as brainy as Mart, but more sober and sensible; Honey, Trixie's best friend, pretty, wealthy, loyal, and sweet; their friend Diana, even prettier than Honey and even richer, but very insecure; and Jim, Honey's adopted brother, handsome, intelligent, thoughtful, not without a stubborn streak and temperament, and every girl's dream. Oh, and Dan, who joined the club a little later, a wayward boy with a heart of gold.

     All of these vivid, unforgettable characters and their adventures gave me such reading pleasure as a child and adolescent, I can't help keeping them with me now that I'm middle-aged, and I suspect, if I live that long, they will keep me company into my old age.