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I ran into the Dana Girl mysteries almost twenty years ago while browsing in a small library in Michigan with my daughter. We both truly enjoyed the series. However, one does not find them at the used bookstores very often. The Dana Girl mysteries were written in the 1930s by the same syndicate which wrote Nancy Drew and The Hardy Boys, but the Dana Girls never caught on as well as the other two series.
In the series, Louise and Jean, sisters who have been adopted by their uncle and who are now in a boarding school, go about solving mysteries similar to Nancy Drew. However, the writers apparently did not like writing this series because they felt that they were limited by the fact that the girls were in boarding school. The girls' uncle show more is doing well for himself as a captain of a ship, and is well enough off to send the girls to a good school. Such was not the case for many families in the 1930s.
In this book, 'The Secret at Lone Tree Cottage,' the girls work to find their English teacher who has been kidnapped and is being held for ransom. They enlist the aid of both their headmistress and their uncle to find their teacher and solve the mystery. I found this story both delightful and entertaining, though it is a bit dated, as are many children's' mysteries written in this era. show less
In the series, Louise and Jean, sisters who have been adopted by their uncle and who are now in a boarding school, go about solving mysteries similar to Nancy Drew. However, the writers apparently did not like writing this series because they felt that they were limited by the fact that the girls were in boarding school. The girls' uncle show more is doing well for himself as a captain of a ship, and is well enough off to send the girls to a good school. Such was not the case for many families in the 1930s.
In this book, 'The Secret at Lone Tree Cottage,' the girls work to find their English teacher who has been kidnapped and is being held for ransom. They enlist the aid of both their headmistress and their uncle to find their teacher and solve the mystery. I found this story both delightful and entertaining, though it is a bit dated, as are many children's' mysteries written in this era. show less
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Best Books Set in Boarding Schools
160 works; 56 members
In or About the 1930s
198 works; 27 members
1930s
262 works; 5 members
Books Read in 2020
4,379 works; 123 members
The Stratemeyer Syndicate
605 works; 1 member
Books Read in 2015
3,299 works; 129 members
1970s
657 works; 23 members
Kidnapping -- children's/young adult fiction
598 works; 3 members
Author Information
926+ Works 201,421 Members
Carolyn Keene was the pseudonym that Mildred Wirt Benson and Walter Karig used to write Nancy Drew books. The idea of Nancy Drew came from Edward Stratemeyer in 1929. He also had other series, that included the Hardy Boys, but he died in 1930 before the Nancy Drew series became famous. His daughters, Harriet and Edna, inherited his company and show more maintained Nancy Drew having Mildred Wirt Benson, the original Carolyn Keene, as the principal ghostwriter. During the Depression, they asked Benson to take a pay cut and she refused, which is when Karig wrote the books. Karig's Nancy Drew books were Nancy's Mysterious Letter, The Sign of the Twisted Candles, and Password to Larkspur Lane. He was fired from writing more books because of his refusal to honor the request that he keep his work as Carolyn Keene a secret. He allowed the Library of Congress to learn of his authorship and his name appeared on their catalog cards. Afterwards, they rehired Benson and she wrote until her last Nancy Drew book (#30) was written in 1953, Clue of the Velvet Mask. Harriet and Edna Stratemeyer also contributed to the Nancy Drew series. Edna wrote plot outlines for several of the early books and Harriet, who claimed to be the sole author, had actually outlined and edited nearly all the volumes written by Benson. The Stratemeyer Syndicate had begun to make its writers sign contracts that prohibited them from claiming any credit for their works, but Benson never denied her writing books for the series. After Harriet's death in 1982, Simon and Schuster became the owners of the Stratemeyer Syndicate properties and in 1994, publicly recognized Benson for her work at a Nancy Drew conference at her alma mater, the University of Iowa. Now, Nancy Drew has several ghostwriters and artists that have contributed to her more recent incarnations. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Series
Work Relationships
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- The Secret at Lone Tree Cottage
- Original publication date
- 1934
- People/Characters
- Jean Dana; Louise Dana; Miss Tisdale
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 212
- Popularity
- 153,541
- Reviews
- 1
- Rating
- (4.02)
- Languages
- English, German, Swedish
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 1
- ASINs
- 21
