The Marjorie Dean High School Series and College Series

Josephine Chase wrote the Marjorie Dean books under the pseudonym of Pauline Lester.  The books were published by A. L. Burt.  The Marjorie Dean series is split into three smaller sets of books:  the High School Series, the College Series, and the Post-Graduate Series.

The Marjorie Dean High School series consists of the following four books.

1.  Marjorie Dean, High School Freshman, 1917
2.  Marjorie Dean, High School Sophomore, 1917
3.  Marjorie Dean, High School Junior, 1917
4.  Marjorie Dean, High School Senior, 1917

I do not care to try to write summaries of the individual books, so instead, this is an overview of the set.

Marjorie Dean moves to a new city.  She begins high school and becomes close friends with Jerry, Connie, and several other girls.  Mignon is the class bully, and she hates Marjorie.  Mignon causes most of Marjorie's problems throughout the four-book set.

Mignon is bitter and awful all the way through the set until near the end of the fourth book, when she has a sudden awakening.  The awakening is sudden, forced, and not realistic at all.

These books are overall interesting, but they do have some boring parts.  Marjorie Dean, Sophomore is really good, but then the last one-third of the book drags.  Marjorie Dean, Junior is extremely boring at the start due to an unnecessarily lengthy farewell to a visitor.  The story then gets good.

I enjoyed all four books, except for the boring parts which I just skipped over.

The Marjorie Dean College Series consists of the following books.

1.  Marjorie Dean, College Freshman, 1922
2.  Marjorie Dean, College Sophomore, 1922
3.  Marjorie Dean, College Junior, 1922
4.  Marjorie Dean, College Senior, 1922

In these books, Marjorie and her friends attend Hamilton College.  Their rival is now Leslie Cairns, who is pretty awful.  Marjorie is known as the beauty of the college, and everyone loves her, except for Leslie and her allies.  Marjorie has a great desire to know more about the founder of Hamilton College, Brooke Hamilton, and she finally becomes friendly with Hamilton's niece, elderly Miss Susanna.

While I really enjoy the parts of the stories that center around Leslie Cairns, I find most of the rest to be a bit boring.  The first 80 pages of Marjorie Dean, College Freshman, bored me due to excessive reminiscing.  A portion of Marjorie Dean, College Junior bored me when I had to endure a party that was described in excruciating detail.

I skipped parts of each of these books.  I enjoyed the portions that I did read.

Review of the Manuscript for Dana Girls #18 Strange Identities

In 1979, the last hardcover Nancy Drew book, #56 The Thirteenth Pearl, was published by Grosset and Dunlap.  The rights to publish new titles went to Simon and Schuster, which continued the numbering with #57, publishing the new titles in softcover Wanderer editions.

The last hardcover Dana Girls book, #17 The Witch's Omen, was published by Grosset and Dunlap in 1979.  Simon and Schuster planned to continue the Dana Girls series in softcover Wanderer editions, but the plan never came to fruition.

In Nancy Drew #58, The Flying Saucer Mystery, the Dana Girls are mentioned.  Nancy doesn't have time to solve a mystery, so she suggests that the Dana Girls solve it.  This was a cross-promotion for the softcover continuation of the Dana Girls series that never came to be.

Strange Identities was the proposed 18th book in the 2nd Dana Girls series, which would have been issued as a Wanderer softcover book.  The draft manuscript of Strange Identities used to be online but appears to have been taken down.  This review is based on a cleaned-up version of the draft manuscript, which I saved from a now-defunct Yahoo! group. 

According to James Keeline, the draft manuscript of Strange Identities was written by Camilla McClave, daughter of Harriet Adams.

In Strange Identities, Brenda Trowbridge wants the Dana Girls to help her locate her missing twin sister.  She originally asked Nancy Drew to solve the case, but Nancy suggested that the Dana Girls take it.  Brenda tells Jean and Louise that her sister, Bonny, was kidnapped when the girls were three years old.  Both girls had matching dolls that were designed to look like them.  Brenda's doll has blonde hair, and Bonny's doll had dark hair.  Brenda still has her doll, and she hopes that her sister still has hers.  During the search, the girls have Brenda wear a dark wig so that she will look like her sister.

An odd statement made by Brenda is that she just wants to find her twin because of a deadline concerning their inheritance.  She has supposedly never before had any desire to find her sister.  I find this rather odd that a twin wouldn't care about finding her missing twin.

A woman named Dame Ryerson has ESP.  She suggests that the girls meditate about their mysteries, and the girls proceed to follow her suggestion.  Jean apparently is clairvoyant and comes up with quite a few clues through meditation.  The girls conclude that Jean is indeed psychic and are enthused that this will really help them solve mysteries.

Jean dreams about the number 17.  The psychic tells the girls to "watch number 17."  The girls learn that a girl who looks like Brenda but is instead a brunette was seen on a parade float with men dressed as the numbers one, seven, seven, and six to make up the date 1776.  This is rather stupid.  Anyway, later in the story, a boat is named "17," and the girls go to Disco 17.

A woman in the town's health department is named Miss Trask.

The girls are warned not to get on a certain boat.  Jean meditates and retrieves the name of the boat.  The girls decide not to go on that boat, which then explodes.  This proves that Jean is clairvoyant.

Louise says, "One little bomb shouldn't scare us off the case."

Uncle Ned tells the girls some stories that have been passed down through the generations.  He relates a story about an encounter with cannibals.

This book has some really stupid plot points, but that did not decrease my enjoyment.  I wish this book had been published.  It would have been a good companion book to The Flying Saucer Mystery, which is a really crazy Nancy Drew book.  Strange Identities is just as crazy.  So long as I am entertained, books do not necessarily have to make sense.

I also don't care that Jean Dana suddenly has psychic ability.  In fact, Jean having psychic ability is logical considering how many psychics appear in the later Dana Girls books of the original set.  Not only that, but the Danas often think in unison without speaking, so they must have psychic ability.  Either that, or the girls are robots.

I love this story and consider it to be very good to excellent.

Thinning Out Impulsive Purchases from Years Ago

I first began collecting series books in 1991.  An old post of mine will explain how and why I began collecting series books.

Where It All Began

In those early days, I acquired books from garage sales, thrift stores, antique stores, and used book stores.  Garage sales were especially fun, since the books were cheap.  A wide variety of old books were available.  I was only interested in finding Nancy Drew and Trixie Belden books, but I was so enamored with the idea of collecting old books that I purchased many cheap old books that I found.  The books I purchased were on all subjects, a little bit of everything. 

As I expanded my series book collection to include many additional series, I gradually let go of most of those books purchased in the early days.  A few of them still linger here and there, scattered around the house out of sight in various places, not shelved with my other books.  I was able to find four of them in the garage on a shelf and photographed them.  These books represent the type of random book that I purchased in the early 1990s.

These particular books date from the late 19th century up to around 1910 to 1915.  I used to have at least 200 to 300 books like these.  I gradually sold them in the late 1990s and early 2000s. 

I expect that many collectors start wide and narrow down their focus as they go much deeper into collecting the books that they like the best.  Most of us have to narrow down our focus since we simply do not have enough room for everything. 

While I did quit acquiring random old books, I rapidly expanded the number of vintage series books that I collected during the 2000s.  Some of the books I decided to acquire were not wise decisions.  Grace Harlowe was one of those unwise decisions.  I'll mention more about Grace Harlowe in a future post.

In 2014, I expanded my collection into boys' series, and I gradually realized that some of the series I collected in the 2000s were probably not sets that I would ever be able to read.  I enjoyed boys' series more than I ever thought I would, and I concluded that some of those girls' series sets would likely be too boring for me.  I continued to hold onto all of those sets, however.  There was always a chance that I just might someday read them.

I also expanded my collection to include nearly 1,000 international edition series books and well over 1,000 library edition series books.  Therefore, I have been very short on space for the last five years.  I have acquired some more shelves, but I filled them very quickly.

When I first started collecting international editions, I bought pretty much every series book that came up for sale.  I have greatly expanded my Nancy Drew international editions in the last five years, so I have begun to thin out the other series.  I have sold all of my boys' series international editions.  I have sold all of my Vicki Barr and Cherry Ames international editions.  I sold most of my Dana Girls French editions in recent months.  I have sold some of my Trixie Belden international editions.

I now have such a large quantity of Nancy Drew international editions that I am content mainly to focus on them.  By selling some of the other international editions, I free up shelf space.

I also have debated back and forth about those series books purchased in the 2000s that I have never read.  I recently listed my Grace Harlowe books for sale.  Last weekend, I listed my Motor Girls and Dorothy Dale books.  I am never going to read them, so why keep them?

Most of these old series will not sell on Etsy, so I must list all of them on eBay.  I am limited in how much I can have for sale at any given time since I only get 250 allotted free listings on eBay each month.  I ran my recent 20% off sale in order to avoid an overage in fees for October.  I estimated that I would have to pay an overage on around 45 listings if the books didn't sell first.

Yesterday morning, I realized that I had avoided the October overage, and that I was actually going to be three listings short of using my 250 free listings.  Right after I made that observation, I saw that eBay had granted me 500 additional free listings good if used within the next few days.  Just when I think I've pulled free of the dreaded overage, eBay pulls me back in!

Of course, I had to use some of the 500 free listings, which will likely cause an overage in November.  I'll worry about that in November.

Since I suddenly had extra listings, I got busy listing some of my books.  I have listed my entire set of Shirley Flight books in individual listings.  I also listed a few of Capwell Wyckoff's books and the last six of my Dana Girls French editions.

I had another set pulled down and was going to list those books.  I'm going to keep those a bit longer and try to read them.  There is also another set, really collectible books in jackets that I do not think I will ever read.  I may sell those sometime soon.  I do not wish to state either series name at this time.

Check out my eBay listings for my Grace Harlowe, Motor Girls, Dorothy Dale, Shirley Flight, and French Dana Girls books.

Jennifer's Series Books on eBay

I also have books on Etsy.

Jennifer's Series Books on Etsy

Dana Girls #17 The Witch's Omen

In Dana Girls #17, The Witch's Omen, two men dressed as a witch and a scarecrow crash Jean and Louise's Halloween party and start a fire in a closet.  The witch warns the girls that he is the keeper of the storm petrel.  Valuable petrels begin disappearing, and the girls work on finding the culprits.

On page 5, Jean and Aunt Harriet look for clues.

On page 6, the guests flee because of the fire in the closet.  I have always loved Louise's response.  "Oh, please don't go.  We have so much to eat."

The kids quit coming to the Danas' house for treats because word of the fire had gotten around to everyone.  I think the opposite would actually be true, at least for any kids not with their parents.  The parents might avoid the house because of the fire, but the kids would love to get in on the action.  In today's social media world, the Danas' house would be swamped with people trying to get video in order to post it online.

On page 7, Aunt Harriet is described as a "lovely, motherly person."  This amuses me, simply because I just know that Harriet Adams was describing herself.

On page 14, Aunt Harriet discovers that Uncle Ned's expensive barometer is missing.  Aunt Harriet is the one who calls the police.

On pages 49 and 50, some birds have been stolen from a bird collector's home.  The girls are told that "someone broke in and left three vicious cats" in the room to maul the birds that were not stolen.  I found that statement kind of amusing.  Cats are just cats.  However, they would by default be vicious if they see something that they want to chase.

On page 51, Jean concludes that the "thief must have had the cats in a bag or container."  A bag?  What a horrifying thought.  It can be near impossible to get the average cat into a cat carrier.  I am picturing a heavy burlap bag, but even so, having a cat in a bag sounds rather scary.  I wouldn't want to be carrying a thrashing cat in a bag.  Yikes.

On page 73, the reader learns that the girls have a break from Starhurst School because the school was flooded.  I'm just glad that the girls didn't go to Europe.

On page 84, Louise notices that a phone is unplugged from the wall.  She is surprised that the phone uses a jack instead of being permanently installed.  During my entire life, every landline phone (aside from pay phones) that I recall seeing has used a jack, so I don't think use of a jack is odd at all.

As I read through the book, I thought about how stupid it was for the men to set the Danas' closet on fire, since the fire alerted them to the mystery.  I had to laugh on page 176 when one of the men agrees that it was stupid to start the fire.  Awesome!

This is an overall good book, but I was bored with most of the second half.  The story has too many culprits, and the business with petrels is a bit stupid.

I consider the final four Dana Girls books to be overall better reading than the final five Trixie Belden books.  The Trixie Belden series has a much more precipitous decline in quality towards the end of the series, since a large portion of the Trixie Belden set is actually pretty good.  Reading the final Trixie Belden books is a rather disappointing and jarring experience as compared to the earlier books. 

The Dana Girls series is a bit odd from start to finish and is a bit mediocre during the entire second half of the set.  The final Dana Girls books provide about the same level of craziness as one expects from the Dana Girls series, and these books are actually overall better than some of the earlier Dana Girls books, such as most of #19-24 in the original set. 

I cautioned in my introductory post for the Dana Girls reviews that my reviews for the later books in the series would be much different from what others think.  I do not find the final Dana Girls books to be anywhere near as bad as most other people say that they are.  Certainly the books have problems and are extremely strange, but I found the final books to be mostly enjoyable to read.

I will close out my Dana Girls reviews with a review of the unpublished manuscript for what would have been Dana Girls #18 Strange Identities.  As far as I know, I am the only person who likes Strange Identities.  I think it's awesome. 

Dana Girls #16 Mountain-Peak Mystery

In Dana Girls #16, Mountain-Peak Mystery, Tammi Hodge has recently lost her grandfather.  She is now alone in her house at the top of the mountain, except for an unfriendly woman who is acting as her guardian.  Tammi is searching for her grandfather's lost manuscript, which is supposed to have value.  Other people who are looking for the manuscript try to harm Tammi and the Danas.

The "Aunt Harriet Mystery Stories" series continues.  Aunt Harriet makes a lot of the decisions in this story.  She helps investigate the house and discovers some of the clues.  On page 101, Louise asks, "What are you going to do next, Aunt Harriet?"

The mountain is somewhere near Oak Falls and is a dormant volcano.  While dormant volcanoes are scattered around in lots of places, I find it funny that a dormant volcano suddenly exists near Oak Falls, Penfield, and Starhurst.  It seems to be in a rural area away from other homes.  For this reason, all the activity around the dormant volcano is a bit strange.

On pages 58 through 61, Jean and Louise are worried about a package that has appeared under a tree near the beginning of the road that leads up the mountain.  The police are called.  When the officers arrive, they ask why the girls are suspicious of the package.  Um, because a package under a tree in the middle of nowhere is not normal.  It turns out that the package contains bottles of acid.

Also rather strange is that young boys come along on foot and head up the road to the house in order to sell cookies for a fundraiser.  Why do a fundraiser on foot in the middle of a rural area?  Wouldn't a housing subdivision near the town be more fruitful?

This is an overall good book, and I enjoyed reading it.

Dana Girls #15 The Hundred-Year Mystery

In Dana Girls #15, The Hundred-Year Mystery, Jean and Louise are asked to solve a mystery at Beacon College.  Their uncle, Phil Kenmore, asks the girls to help him find John Beacon's missing codicil, which states the location of a missing treasure.  Viking lore is important at Beacon College, and the girls follow clues given through Viking symbols.

It's strange how the girls suddenly have this other uncle who has never been mentioned before.

On page 1, Ken Scott tells the girls that they "are always gadding off" to solve a mystery.  Use of "gadding off" or "gadding about" was quite uncommon in the late 20th century and continues to be uncommon.  "Gadding" shows up frequently in old literature, not in books of the late 20th century.  This is a case of Harriet Adams showing her age.

On page 12, the Danas are in a helicopter that appears to be about to crash.  "They hoped the terrific jolt would not knock them unconscious, so they could not swim.  But if they did manage to swim to shore, what about their baggage?  Would all their clothes and jewelry sink to the bottom of the harbor?"

The girls are worried about their clothes and jewelry?  If I were in a helicopter that was about to crash, I would be more concerned about being killed than about my clothing.

On page 19, the girls don't know what a gazebo is.  "Louise and Jean puckered their brows, trying to remember what a gazebo was."  After Deb explains, Jean replies, "I'm glad you explained."  This is awkward and makes the girls look dumb.

Actually, the girls probably are dumb.  After all, in the previous book, they did take a nap face down in a shallow pit on a beach.

That aside, this is another example of Harriet Adams explaining something that probably didn't need to be explained.  Or just in case, the gazebo could have been described quite naturally as part of the text as the girls walk up to it without them asking what it is.  That way, any readers who don't recognize the word would learn what it is.

I found a mistake in the book.  On page 63, Hoppy Canfield is in the hospital.  On page 73, a rock is thrown on the roof of the house in which the girls are staying.  On page 99, Hoppy Canfield is still in the hospital and has not left the hospital at any point.  He admits to the girls that he threw the rock on the roof.  Hmm.

The girls actually climb a rocky cliff while barefoot after they lose their shoes in the water.

This is a very good book.

Dana Girls #14 The Curious Coronation

The Curious Coronation was the first new Dana Girls book after the second hiatus in the publication of the series.  17 books were dropped from the series, and 13 titles were reprinted in the new edition during the 1970s.  The previous title, #30 The Phantom Surfer, was first published eight years before this new book, which became #14 in the new set.

In Dana Girls #14, The Curious Coronation, Jean and Louise receive eight invitations to a teen beauty competition in Newport Beach.  The girls figure out that the duplicate invitations contain a hidden message.  Meanwhile, the crown disappears as well as one of the contestants.  In a seemingly unrelated case, Evelyn Starr gets into a wreck in Newport Beach and is accused of causing it.

With this story, the Dana Girls series enters a bizarre new world in which Aunt Harriet takes a very active role in solving the mysteries.  At times, Aunt Harriet's role is more prominent than the girls'.  In this book, Aunt Harriet makes phone calls to obtain needed information.  She gives suggestions on what the girls should do next.  She finds Franklin Starr for Evelyn.  Aunt Harriet finds the owner of a plane, and she solves the coded message in the invitations.  We might as well begin calling the series the "Aunt Harriet Mystery Stories."

Harriet Adams was well into her eighties when this book was written, and she apparently enjoyed making her namesake the center of the stories.

On page 74, the girls' hands turn green and swell up from a supposed poison that was on the fake crown.  A doctor is called on the telephone, and he says for the girls to douse their hands in gasoline.  This is odd advice in the first place, and even worse, the doctor has no idea what kind of poison is involved since the consultation is by telephone.  Gasoline is then brought inside the house and is poured into a basin.  Gasoline should never be brought inside a house!

Professor Ching has a book with a photograph of a phoenix.  The girls think that they can get some information from the photographer.  They track him down, and he just happens to be staying at their hotel in Newport Beach.  What are the odds?

On pages 93 and 94, the girls decide to take a nap face down on the beach in a shallow pit that somebody had dug.  This is a bit... strange.  Anyway, someone comes along and dumps a load of wet sand on them!  Since this book is not the last book in the Dana Girls series, you can figure out whether the girls survive.  However, this would have been a good opportunity to get rid of the girls and rename the series the "Aunt Harriet Mystery Stories."

From page 131: "The remark gave Aunt Harriet's spine a tingling sensation from top to bottom."  Reading that statement gives me a weird sensation.

The beauty pageant has an Asian ("Asiatic" in the book) theme.  A girl from South Korea is competing, and she is clearly the best contestant after Sally.  Since the theme is Asian, the girl from South Korea ought to win.  However, this would somehow be a disaster.  Sally is missing, and Sally must be located so that she can win instead of the Asian girl.  This seems a bit racist, especially considering the pageant's theme.

This book is of the type that is so bad that it is good.  The book is bizarre but entertaining.  I enjoyed it.

Many Books Listed on eBay + 20% Off Most Books on eBay and Etsy

I have just listed all of the books seen in these photos on eBay.

Some of these books are listed at fire sale prices.  These are books from my collection, and most of them have been in my possession for 10 to 15 years.

I have also placed most of my books on eBay and Etsy at 20% off. 

Jennifer's Series Books on eBay

Jennifer's Series Books on Etsy

The only books not on sale on eBay are the ones I just listed, and some other Grace Harlowe books that I recently listed.  I priced the new listings low, and the previously-listed Grace Harlowe books were reduced in price yesterday.  That's why those books are not on sale. 

All books on Etsy are on sale.

On both sites, orders of $35 or more will receive free shipping to United States addresses.

The sale ends on October 26, 2019.  If you see this post after October 26, 2019, the sale prices will no longer be in effect.