The Secret in the Old Attic

The Secret in the Old Attic is the twenty-first volume in the Nancy Drew Mystery Stories series. It was first published in 1944 under the pseudonym Carolyn Keene.[1] The actual author was ghostwriter Mildred Wirt Benson.

The Secret in the Old Attic
Original edition cover
AuthorCarolyn Keene
Cover artistRussell H. Tandy
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
SeriesNancy Drew Mystery Stories
GenreJuvenile literature
PublisherGrosset & Dunlap
Publication date
1944, 1970
Media typePrint (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages180
ISBN0-448-09521-1
Preceded byThe Clue in the Jewel Box 
Followed byThe Clue in the Crumbling Wall 

Plot Summary- 1944 edition

Nancy searches for clues to missing music manuscripts written by soldier Philip March. March's daughter and his father, living together on the family estate, are rapidly running out of money, and believe some of Philip's music is being sold and played on the radio. Nancy goes to the estate to investigate, with the assistance of her good friends, Bess and George. In the meantime, her father's client solicits her aid in his investigation of a rival company, which seems to be manufacturing silk cloth using his patented methods. And what is Bushy Trott, manic scientist, doing at the Dight plant?

Nancy continues trying to solve both mysteries, discovering hidden songs in the process. The resolution of both cases are quite climactic.

1970 revision

The revised version, still in print, is a condensed version of the original story. It is shorter by five chapters, what happens is Mr March is looking for his sons songs that were composed but never published 4 his granddaughter who is poor and is living with him Nancy helps find the missing music and another part introduces that Nancy goes to this Factory in the case is that they think they're copying the exact same ones and they are and at the end Nancy is about to be bitten by a black widow spider but she is saved by Ned Nickerson .and includes Diane Dight, but not the romantic subplot of the original edition.

Artwork

Collectors of the series seem to greatly enjoy the original art by Russell H. Tandy, which depicts Nancy among highly Gothic elements, by candlelight, in the old attic. In 1962, Rudy Nappi gave Nancy a modern flip hairstyle and changed the color to red, and altered her shirtwaist wrap dress to a generic red sailor-style dress for the cover art.[2] In 1970, Nappi updated his art, employing a shadowy apple green color motif and Gothic elements, including the skeletal hand, to showcase Nancy, looking very much like Barbara Eden in a coatfront shift, with a candle.[3] This cover plays heavily on the spooky elements popular during the "Dark Shadows" era.

Television

A reference to the book is made in the pilot episode of the Nancy Drew television series. Nancy searched through her family’s attic to discover a bloody dress inside a trunk. The visual of Nancy opening the trunk to find the dress looks strikingly similar to the cover of the novel.[4]

gollark: oh hey guys
gollark: It can somewhat, but it's nontrivial.
gollark: People respond to economic incentives better than vague "improving mankind" ones.
gollark: Central planning problematic, markets fairly good with management of some sort.
gollark: Yes, greed with actual longtermism instead of just short-sightedness is fine.

References
  1. The Secret in the Old Attic at WorldCat
  2. Red dress cover from Goodreads
  3. Blue dress cover from Presto Images
  4. Bruce, Amanda (November 1, 2020). "Nancy Drew: 10 Details You Missed In The CW Show". ScreenRant.
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