I just found out that <a href=” http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=91753085&ft=1&f=1032 /”_blank”>this</a>, which I recorded weeks ago, has finally run.
One thing that’s not in the interview – Renee Montagne uncovered an important Nancy Drew-Tess Monaghan link. She asked me how I came to start reading the books and I suddenly remembered that my family did not own any Nancy Drew books – we borrowed them from the Monaghans, who lived two doors away. (My sister later verified this.)
I chose Monaghan for Tess’s surname because it seemed to me the quintessential Baltimore name. Not only was it our neighbors’ name, but it also was on a tavern in Woodlawn, near our favorite bakery. But I had never, until that moment in the studio, stopped to think about the Monaghan-Nancy Drew connection.
I have been critical of Nancy over the years – she’s a bit perfect for me, and I don’t like the way Bess and George trumpet her fabulousness at every opportunity – but she is a good role model. As for my views on why the best books are essentially parent-less – well those ideas will be available soon, and I’ll alert you to the where and when as appropriate.
Laura, coincidence? We think not. no joke, we are doing a major clean-up chez Roscoe to make room for my brand hew (sigh) power wheelchair and one of the items that showed up in a stack of papers was the article you wrote several years ago about how you didn’t like Nancy Drew. I saved it because it stated, so eloquently, why I never liked ND and found her little friends/beau/daddy/housekeeper so annoying.
Serendipity is so cool. I swear i haven’t seen that article in ages, but poof, there it was.
Did anyone else read the Trixie Belden series? Thanks to inheriting books from my mother’s childhood, I discovered Trixie before Nancy. . .
In terms of articles, you haven’t mentioned the nice article in the Wall Street Journal on you and your art collection. I’m surprised you’re not giving tours!
I didn’t think to link to the WSJ article because I assumed (wrongly) it wouldn’t be available. Tours? I don’t see that happening any time soon.
Hey, Laura, I peg you as a “Harriet the Spy” type!
Absolutely, but you take what you can get when NPR comes calling.
I also liked The Great Brain.