The Tom Swift Series by Victor Appleton
The Tom Swift Series is a collection of juvenile adventure books centered around the character Tom Swift, a young inventor and explorer. Originally produced by the Stratemeyer Syndicate from 1910 to 1941, the series showcases Tom's innovative creations, which often mirror real-life technological advancements. The first series focuses on a variety of vehicles and devices, with plotlines that typically involve adventure and mild mysteries, such as theft or kidnapping.
Following the initial success, the "Tom Swift Jr. Adventures" series was launched, featuring a new Tom Swift character with even more grandiose inventions, such as an atomic-powered flying laboratory. A third series, set in a futuristic context, shifted the focus to space adventures, while a fourth series incorporated contemporary themes like virtual reality and alien encounters. The series has seen contributions from multiple authors, maintaining a legacy that continues to capture the imagination of readers. The books are notable for their influence on later children's literature, illustrating the evolution of the adventure genre for young audiences.
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The Tom Swift Series
First published: First series, thirty-eight volumes by Grosset and Dunlap (1910-1935) plus two Whitman Better Little Books (1939-1941); second series, thirty-three volumes by Grosset and Dunlap (1954-1971); third series, eleven volumes by Wanderer Books (Simon and Schuster, 1981-1984); fourth series, thirteen volumes by Archway Books (Simon and Schuster, 1991-1993) plus two longer stories combining adventures with the Hardy Boys (1992-1993)
Type of work: Novels
Type of plot: Science fiction—technocratic
Time of work: Primarily the present; the third series is set in the distant future
Locale: New York State, California, elsewhere on Earth, and in space
The Plot
The first three Tom Swift series were produced by the Stratemeyer Syndicate, a book packager that hired writers to complete manuscripts based on a title, story outline, and cast of characters. Edward Stratemeyer (1862-1930) established this literary agency around 1904 to purchase existing stories and create new stories to be completed by hired writers. Many of the policies he used were similar to the “story paper” industry, in which Stratemeyer had been a writer and editor, including the use of pseudonyms, continuing characters, and a flat fee paid to writers for all rights to a story.
One of Stratemeyer’s close friends was Howard Garis (1873-1962), a newspaper reporter for the Newark Evening News and author of the Uncle Wiggily stories about a rheumatic gentleman rabbit. Garis had written many volumes in the Motor Boys series, the Baseball Joe series, the Bobbsey Twins series, and the Great Marvel series for Stratemeyer before he wrote nearly all the first thirty-five or thirty-six Tom Swift stories. He was paid $75 to write each of the first two volumes in the series. Garis continued to work with the syndicate after Stratemeyer’s death but apparently left by early 1933 because of disagreements with Stratemeyer’s daughters Harriet Stratemeyer Adams (1892-1982) and Edna C. Squier (1895-1974).
Harriet and Edna began to run the syndicate after Stratemeyer’s death, at the request of the publishers. Harriet, who was graduated from Wellesley, became the head of the syndicate. She wrote many of the later volumes in the Nancy Drew series. The remaining employees of the syndicate sold the organization and its literary properties to Simon and Schuster in 1984. Anne Greenberg, the senior editor of the juvenile division of Simon and Schuster Pocket Books, supervised the fourth Tom Swift series.
The first series (1910-1941) describes how Tom Swift invented or improved a wide range of vehicles and devices, many of which were preceded or followed by a real invention with a similar function. In the first five books (all published in 1910), Tom purchases a motorcycle and a motorboat and makes minor improvements to them. The third and fourth books show how Tom helps an adult with an airship and a submarine. It is not until the fifth book that Tom invents something new, a battery for an electric car.
Most of the stories are adventures in which Tom and his friends, Ned Newton and Mr. Wakefield Damon, travel to some remote location in his latest vehicle. Some of the stories contain a slight mystery element, such as stolen plans or a kidnapping. This foreshadows Stratemeyer’s development of the Hardy Boys series of mystery stories.
The “Tom Swift Jr. Adventures” series was written by “Victor Appleton II.” Readers were expected to make a connection to the author of the first series. Several writers contributed to this series. Most volumes (5-7 and 9-29) were written by James Duncan Lawrence. Other writers contributed only one or two volumes. The inventions described in the second series are on a far grander scale than those of the first series. For example, Tom Swift, Jr.’s first invention is a 747-sized atomic-powered flying laboratory with vertical takeoff capability and the ability to launch and retrieve a small one-man jet and a one-man helicopter. The third book in the series describes how Tom Swift, Jr., and his chum, Bud Barclay, enter a race to become the first humans in space. In this story, Swift Enterprises accomplishes a feat that entire nations had difficulty with a few years later.
The third Tom Swift series was published by Wanderer Books, a division of Simon and Schuster. These stories make little or no mention of the first and second series and are set far in the future. The eleven published volumes (a twelfth volume, Chaos on Earth, was not published) were written by established science-fiction writers under contract with the Stratemeyer Syndicate. The first six volumes, all published in 1981, were cowritten by William Rotsler and Sharman DiVono. Neal Barrett, Jr., wrote two published volumes (7 and 10) and worked on one unpublished title (The Microworld). Mike McQuay wrote two published volumes (8 and 11), and Robert E. Vardeman wrote one volume (9). The series was discontinued when the Stratemeyer Syndicate was sold to Simon and Schuster in 1984. These books virtually ignore the theme of invention and become a series of space adventures with corporate giants competing against one another. Tom has two friends in this series, Benjamin Franklin Walking Eagle and Anita Thorwald.
Unlike the first three series, the fourth Tom Swift series was produced by Byron Preiss Visual Productions for Simon and Schuster under the supervision of senior editor Anne Greenberg. The inventions in this series again use stories in popular science magazines as a basis. Some of the technologies include superconductivity, virtual reality, alien encounters, and parallel universes. One topic not present was low-temperature nuclear fusion. In retrospect, this omission was fortunate. This Tom Swift appears to be the son of Tom Swift, Jr., although that is not explicitly stated. Two stories were published as “Hardy Boys and Tom Swift Ultra Thrillers.” As the name implies, these stories introduced Tom Swift to the famous sleuths of Bayport.
The authors for some of the volumes in the series have been identified. William McCay wrote two volumes (1-2) in the series, and Steven Grant wrote one volume (3). Science-fiction poet F. Gwynplaine MacIntyre wrote one volume (4). James D. Macdonald and his wife, Debra Doyle, wrote two volumes (5-6). Bruce Holland Rogers wrote one volume (10). The authorship for the remaining volumes has not been determined.