Nancy Drew Mystery Stories - Simon & Schuster

Simon & Schuster

In 1979, after a court battle between the Stratemeyer Syndicate and Grosset & Dunlap, the original publishers (in hardback) of the first fifty-six Nancy Drew titles, publication rights to new stories were granted to Simon & Schuster. Titles from #57, The Triple Hoax (1979), were thereafter published primarily in paperback.

Books #57-78 were initially printed under Simon & Schuster's Children's imprint Wanderer as digest sized paperbacks (although some were also later published in the regular paperback format, which was also the format of choice for some foreign editions, especially the UK Armada releases). Limited numbers of hardback editions are also known to have been produced, mostly for libraries.

The titles were initially presented in set cover format referred to as the "Arch" design, with most covers drawn by Ruth Sanderson. The twenty-two titles were also reprinted under the Wanderer imprint in a new "checkerboard" design before the series moved, from #79 on, to the new Minstrel imprint, whereupon they received still newer covers in the "checkerboard" design. The series ultimately moved again to Simon & Schuster's Aladdin Paperbacks imprint, undergoing two further cover revamps, "White" and "Paint".