Rick Brant, science adventures

A juvenile series that was in counterpoint to Tom Swift Jr. was Rick Brant.

Published by Grosset & Dunlap (like Tom), but owned outright by G&D and not the Stratemeyer Syndicate, the series actually pre-dated Tom, starting in 1947 and lasting until 1968 for 23 volumes. A 24th would be published in 1990.

Credited to “John Blaine,” the series was created and written by Harold Goodwin, who had a technical and scientific background (though he had assistance on the first three). He wrote the series books as a sideline to his work for the government in various scientific roles. In addition, he wrote several popular science works aimed at kids, as well as some other juvenile fiction works. Even for the Rick Brant series he did a non-fiction book on science projects (what would have been a whole series of such works that never happened).

The series focused on Rick Brant, a high-school-age boy (his actual age was not clear), along with his best friend Don “Scotty” Scott (who was said to be a former Marine, which would make him older than Rick. I think later this was dropped). There is also Rick’s younger sister Barbara, as well as her friend, Jan Miller (she showed up about half way through the series). I’m not sure if the four went on dates or not.

Rick lives with his family on Spindrift Island, where he grew up, just off the coast of New Jersey. All the books had end papers showing the map of the island. Spindrift is the location of the Spindrift Foundation, lead by Rick’s scientist father, a leading electronics expert. Here various scientists worked on projects, such as the launch of a rocket from the island in the first volume.

And since the series was published during the Cold War, there was the usual political intrigue with foreign agents and spies wanting to get their hands on the discoveries made, or being stumbled upon in the characters’ travels. Thus, to help protect them we have Steve Ames, who shows up frequently and is an agent of “JANIG,” the fictional Joint Army-Navy Intelligence Group (not quite as cool as U.N.C.L.E.).

The stories take Rick and his friend on adventures around the world, to exotic locations, all dealing with some realistic new invention or device: a rocket, extracting gold and minerals from sea water, laser/satellite communication, an electronic mind reader, and more.

The series was not as fantastical as Tom Swift Jr., and perhaps not as popular. Volumes were still for sale in bookstores after the series ended, as I recalled picking up a couple in the ’70s. But I was more focused on the Tom Jr. series at the time, only later starting to work on completing my Rick Brant series. I still need about a dozen. Sadly, like the Tom Jr. series, the last four volumes are hard to get.

Interestingly, in the ’80s, Grosset & Dunlap transferred the rights to Goodwin. This lead to the 24th novel, The Magic Talisman, being published by a small press. It had been written years before but been rejected by G&D because of elements of ESP in it.

Around 2000 there was some effort to bring the series back in print, with the books now under the control by a family trust. They teamed up with Applewood Books to bring out the last four books (#21-24), plus Rick Brant Science Projects and The Feathered Cape, a standalone juvenile novel set in 1700s Hawaii. Applewood used a new subsidiary called AmericanWeb Books, that was a kind of print-on-demand tied to a “kickstarter” model. If enough people pre-ordered the books, they would be printed. They actually did reprints of a few other juvenile books this way as well. They printed the Science Projects book in hardback (and later in paperback), The Feathered Cape, and volumes #21 and 22 (all of which I was fortunate to get). And then AmericanWeb Books ended without getting to #23 and 24.

I have no idea where things stand now. There used to be a great website on Rick Brant called Spindrift Island. It’s gone. Someone has come out with ebook versions of the earlier books, but I’m not sure if they’ve done so with proper permission (AFAIK they are not public domain, which is too bad).

I think the series is pretty good, in many ways much better than Tom Jr. Why the family trust doesn’t make use of POD to get the books back out in print, or take advantage of Kickstarter itself, I have no idea. Heck, the science project stuff could tie in well with the current STEM/maker community of scientific tinkerers, many whom try to get kids involved. There could be some interesting synergies there.