Author. Born Mildred Augustine the daughter of Lillian and J. L. Augustine in Ladora, Iowa. At age 13, her piece, "The Courtesy," was published in St. Nicholas children's magazine earning her a Silver Badge. After earning a degree in journalism at the University of Iowa in 1925, she worked for a year at a newspaper in Clinton, Iowa. She then married Asa Wirt of the the Associated Press. She traveled to New York City, where she left a writing sample with Edward Stratemeyer who employed a stable of ghost writers in his Stratemeyer Syndicate where they mass produced novels, which he would then sell to publishers. She returned to the University of Iowa for graduate work, becoming the first person to earn a master's in journalism from the school. Stratemeyer offered her a position as writer for his syndicate's ''Ruth Fielding'' series, she signed on for a salary of $125 a book, and the relinquishment of all rights to royalties and personal recognition. She completed "Ruth Fielding and Her Great Scenario" under the pen name Alice B. Emerson. Stratemeyer then conceived of the character of Nancy Drew and provided a title, a brief character sketch, and a minimal outline to his new ghost writer who then created the novel "The Secret of the Old Clock," while also working full time as a newspaper columnist. "The Hidden Staircase" and "The Bungalow Mystery" followed, published in 1930. All three novels became among the best selling of the syndicates offerings, and by 1934 Nancy Drew titles were outselling the Hardy Boys. Twenty-three of the first 30 Nancy Drew novels were her work; volumes 1-7, 11-25 and 30, “The Clue of the Velvet Mask.” She was responsible for defining the character, effectively blueprinting Nancy Drew. She also wrote other titles for the syndicate, including titles in such series as the Dana Girls, Kay Tracey, Doris Force, and Honey Bunch. She also wrote a quartet of Ruth Darrow, aviatrix novels between 1930 and 1931 under her own name. In 1939, she began the Penny Parker series outside the syndicate with “Tale of the Witch Doll,” and always considered them better the Nancy Drew series. The Parker series concluded in 1947 with “The Cry at Midnight” after the death of her first husband. In 1944, she took a position with The Toledo "Times." She remarried in 1950 to George Benson, her editor. She moved to The Toledo "Blade" where she worked for more than fifty years while continuing to produce children's novels such as “Dot and Dash,” “The Brownie Scouts,” “Flash Evens,” and “The Hollow Wall Mystery” under such pseudonyms as Julia K. Duncan, Frank Bell, Dorothy West, and Ann Wirt as well as her own name, publishing 135 books over all. In 1963, she earned her pilot's license, thirty years after writing about aviatrix Ruth Darrow. In 1980, she was called as a witness in a court case between the Syndicate, Simon and Schuster and Grosset & Dunlap, and her identity as the first Carolyn Keene was revealed. In 1993, she attended the University of Iowa symposium on the importance of Nancy Drew. She was diagnosed with lung cancer in 1997, but never accepted more than semi-retirement, she collapsed at her desk at age 96, and succumbed later that day.