Kay tracey

The Kay Tracey Mysteries were produced by the Stratemeyer Syndicate, creators of many popular children's series of the 20th Century. (Secrets of the Stratemeyer Syndicate, 1979). The books were published under the name Frances K. Judd, a house pseudonym of the Syndicate; many were actually written by Mildred Wirt Benson, an Ohio journalist, who was responsible for ghostwriting the bulk of the earliest Nancy Drew series and many titles in The Dana Girls, both series published by the Syndicate.

Premise: Kay Tracey is based on the earlier success of Nancy Drew. Of the three girls mystery series published by the Syndicate in the early 1930s, Kay leads the most middle-class life. Kay has reddish-brown or copper hair, and hazel eyes, and is sixteen, still a student in high school. Her mother, a widow, also boards Cousin Bill Tracey, a handsome, athletic, young attorney. Kay's best friends are twin sisters as contrasting in appearance as they are in personality: Wilma and Betty Worth. Together, they commute by train daily the short distance to a larger town to attend high school. The girls are popular in school, and belong to clubs which are basically high school social-service sororities.

Kay accidentally stumbles onto her first case through coincidental costuming at a Halloween dance, leading to a hunt for a missing heiress, in "The Secret of the Red Scarf." Other cases occur during visits to odd locales during school vacations, or through Cousin Bill's work as an attorney.

Comparison and Contrast: Unlike another Stratemeyer heroine, Nancy Drew, Kay has not graduated from school and many subplots revolve around school events. She also does not have an unlimited amount of funds, an unending wardrobe, or exercise freedom from supervision, all common to Nancy Drew. Kay's family shares one car---and it isn't always readily available for Kay and her friends. Kay has responsibilities, and her family wishes to know her whereabouts. Although popular and fun-loving, Kay doesn't excel at everything she attempts; many critics of Nancy Drew poke fun at her virtually endless perfections and talents.

Unlike Jean and Louise Dana, featured in The Dana Girls; Kay doesn't usually miss, skip, or get excused from classes to go sleuthing. She appears to be a more typical student, and spends more time studying or preparing for school events. Kay and her friends also do not coincidentally find themselves linked to as many persons as do Jean and Louise Dana.

Similarities to Nancy include Kay's frequent use of automobiles, relentlessness in pursuing clues, her fashionable appearance, and the respect given to her from mature adults, as well as some talent for the arts. Her cousin Bill's legal clients often seek her aid; Nancy's father's legal clients are often seeking her assistance. Similarities to the Dana Girls include Kay's athleticism, and the fact that school occasionally gets in the way of mysteries. The Kay Tracey series does feature a rival antagonist, Ethel Eaton. Reminiscent of the Lettie character who bothers Jean and Louise Dana, Ethel is a braggart and show-off, and often tries to get involved in solving the mysteries. Her antics often provide comic relief. Ethel is usually described as attractive in appearance, but like Lettie Briggs, often overdresses or wears inappropriate trends.

The series stopped and started publication repeatedly, in different formats.

The titles in the original series are:

*1. The Secret of the Red Scarf, 1934
*2. The Strange Echo, 1935
*3. The Mystery of the Swaying Curtains, 1935
*4. The Shadow on the Door, 1935
*5. The Six-Fingered Glove Mystery, 1936
*6. The Green Cameo Mystery, 1936
*7. The Secret at the Windmill, 1937
*8. Beneath the Crimson Briar Bush, 1937
*9. The Message in the Sand Dunes, 1938
*10. The Murmuring Portrait, 1938
*11. When the Key Turned, 1939
*12. In the Sunken Garden, 1939
*13. The Forbidden Tower, 1940
*14. The Sacred Feather, 1940
*15. The Lone Footprint, 1941
*16. The Double Disguise, 1941
*17. The Mansion of Secrets, 1942
*18. The Mysterious Neighbors, 1942

These books, published by Cupples and Leon, feature a full-color illustration as a "book-within-a-book," on the cover, and a frontispiece. Earliest books featured yellow backgrounds, but the colors varied during the late 1930s and 40's, to include yellow, red, and blue.

The series was later updated and revised, beginning in the early 1950s. During this time, wrap-around style dust jackets, that is, jackets where the cover art continued over to the spine, in full-color, were introduced. A new frontispiece in pen-and-ink was included. A spine symbol of Kay, apparently "cheering," was introduced, as was a binding symbol on the actual spine, Kay apparently peeking from behind a curtain. The volumes were slightly revised in most cases, mainly to updated slightly outmoded vernacular, and to re-sequence the books, as the order of issue changed. Of the books, "The Forbidden Tower," "The Mystery of the Swaying Curtains," and "The Shadow on the Door," were not reprinted in the reissue, which occurred between 1951-1952. The series originally featured Kay and the Worth Twins on blue endpapers, walking a Collie in the woods. The endpapers were dropped from many production runs.

The series would be further subject to re-sequencing in a paperback format by Dell in the early 1960s, in a digest-sized publication, and return to their 1951-52 sequencing for later printings with nearly identical artwork, in both hard-cover pictorial board editions and in paperbacks. In the 1980s, another digest-sized series was issued. Due to the series wide availability for over 40 years, almost all of the fifteen re-issued and updated titles are readily available on the collector's market, many in 1978-dated books issued by Garden City, a fact noted by series book enthusiasts.