Another language added to the lexicon: Farsi!

I've been sitting on an exciting announcement about another language that we can add to the lexicon of foreign edition Nancy Drews: Farsi (or Persian as it is often called) - this brings our count to 30 (or 31 if you count the Queen's English as a "translation").  I did not want to broadcast my findings until I had some editions in my possession to confirm their identity as Nancys, and I finally received some this week.  The copyright page does definitively state the original title of Old Clock and the author as Carolyn Keene - yippeeeeee!

When I first saw an image of these editions (on Instagram of all places) I initially thought they were Arabic based on the lettering.  But after trying to get a coherent translation of the book's title from Google, the site helpfully "detected" that the phrases were in Farsi, not Arabic.  Suddenly the titles such as Black Key Riddle and Curved Chimney began to make sense.  

Crumbling Wall, published by Vida

Once I had unlocked the mystery of the Farsi titles I was able to explore deeper into what editions were available.  Currently there appear to be 2 publishers that have Nancy titles on the market: 6 from Vida and 16 from Hermes.  So far I have only been able to get copies of the Vida titles, so if anyone has any Iranian friends who would like to help in acquiring the Hermes books, please contact me.  There are also some miscellaneous older editions that appear to be "one off" printings but I don't know much about them at this time.

Twisted Candles, published by Hermes

It's been a little difficult to determine when exactly these were printed as there appears to be a different calendar system in Iran.  My best guess is that the Vida books were released around 2014 and I am just not sure about the Hermes books.

It's so exciting to know that there are still foreign edition Nancys to discover ... and acquire!

1990s Vietnamese edition

By some kind of dumb luck I stumbled across a Facebook post where a nice person in Vietnam posted the 4 covers of the series called "Nữ thám tư nghiệp dư" (female amateur private detective).  I immediately recognized the Albert Chazelle covers from the French Hachette "Alice" books, which was then confirmed by the author's name on the books of Caroline Quine.  Since Vietnam was a French colony until the 1950s it is not too strange that these editions call Nancy by her French name.

The stories released by this publisher from1998-9 are Crumbling Wall (picture attached), Old Attic, Red Gate Farm and Leaning Chimney.  I think they are probably paperbacks since I note some folds to the covers but don't know for sure.  Is anybody out there in Vietnam who wants to help me acquire some of these editions?

Holy Grail: vintage Korean Nancy!

It's a red letter day here as I have finally acquired a Korean Nancy Drew from the classic series!  I only include that caveat because I was previously able to get some of the recent Nancy Drew Crew Clue books in translation (and brand new), but that's not really the same thing.

I have known of the existence of this format since 2010 but it has been very difficult to obtain any copies because of the scarcity of the books and the formidable language barrier.  I was finally able to identify an agency in Korea that could play the middleman for me to acquire this volume.  Ultimately I paid 1500% of the used book price to get it to me here in the States, but it was totally worth it!

The book appears to have been printed in 1984 and it is a large size paperback, surprisingly thick at about 3/4".  I believe the publisher is called Saesonyeon Four. It is very clearly stated on the back as The Ghost of Blackwood Hall (see second photo) and it has a little promo teaser on the back which mimics the dust jacket wrapper featuring Pamela Sue Martin from the Japanese Yomiuri books of the 1970s.  The book designates Blackwood Hall as #2, using a whole new numbering system  (in US it would be #25, UK would be #11 and in Japan it would be #8).  There is a back flap to the paperback cover which seems to list 5 titles.  I believe some of the other titles are Crossword Cipher, Swami's Ring and Kachina Doll as I have seen covers that appear to correlate with those titles.  The 5th story is still a mystery!

The artwork is original and if an illustrator is credited, it's in Korean so I can't share that information with you.  It is similar to the UK "C" format in that there are disparate elements from the story that are placed in a montage with a giant Nancy figure at the center.

There are 4 internal illustrations which do not look familiar to me, i.e., I'm pretty sure they were created for this edition.  They are nicely executed line drawings - I am including the one where Lola almost drowns while Ned and Nancy are out canoeing.

As I have conducted my research on Nancy Drew in Korean, these are the editions which seem to pop up most frequently.  There appear to be other "one off" translations here and there from a variety of publishers.  I am hoping someday to get some more Korean editions and will share my discoveries when/if I am successful.

Editions from Sri Lanka

I have gotten my hands on some Nancy Drew stories that have been translated into Sinhala, a language I wasn't even familiar with before now.  A little research reveals that the language is spoken in Sri Lanka and has about 16 million native speakers (thanks Wikipedia!).

The covers mimic the later Minstrel format of the giant silhouette head with Frank Sofo's artwork (except for Black Cat which uses a mash up of Nancy from the Files with a generic castle background; this is probably because Sofo did not do a cover for this title).  It looks like Vanishing Veil, Black Cat, Twin Teddy Bears, Fenley Place and maybe Mother Wolf were produced.

The Nancy Drew logo looks like the girl you see on an 18 wheeler's mud flaps, but with a cloche hat and a magnifying glass.  It's kind of a weird posture for sleuthing!  The Nancy Drew brand and title are in a futuristic font - maybe to bring in some Trekkie type fans?

Anyway, I decided to so a little research to learn about the pretty curlicue Sinhala alphabet since it was new to me.  The alphabet is written from left to right (similar to English) and it is derived from the ancient Brahmi script, which is also related to Tibetan, Javanese, Khmer and the Burmese "mon" scripts.  Generally speaking the characters mostly represent consonant sounds and vowels are expressed by accents or added curls (collectively called diacritics).  This is kind of like a didactic lesson I would normally get from reading a Nancy Drew story!

Bande Desinée?

This appears to be some kind of proto graphic novel for the French market of Alice à Paris (99 Steps) - not sure if this is a promo only or if the book was actually put into production.  I've never encountered an actual copy of this edition - does anyone out there know what this is, or when it is from?

Fargoes (Malaysian) reboot 2014

Siri Salma titles 1-8 (in the Malaysian numbering system) appear to have been re-released by Fargoes with new cover art.  The new covers look like they are computer generated and sometimes seem to have no relation to the story.  The one pictured here is Missing Map and at least it has a map and a treasure chest.  This company has re-vamped the series many times over the years; I can think of at least 6 different formats just off the top of my head.

Spanish internals

I finally received delivery of my new Spanish PC - there were delays caused by the holidays.  So, there are some really weird internals in these books.  The internal line drawings are very awkward and check out the one of Nancy persuading(?) Carson on some point or other.  And then there's the one of Nancy removing her garden gloves - not the usual action packed scene depicted in the internal illustrations.