{"id":5457,"date":"2016-08-05T10:00:38","date_gmt":"2016-08-05T14:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/?p=5457"},"modified":"2017-12-18T12:29:34","modified_gmt":"2017-12-18T17:29:34","slug":"tom-swift-boy-inventors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/2016\/08\/05\/tom-swift-boy-inventors\/","title":{"rendered":"Tom Swift: boy inventor(s)"},"content":{"rendered":"
\""Tom
Tom Swift and His Motorcycle<\/em> (1910)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The main boy inventor\/adventure juvenile series is that of Tom Swift<\/strong>. Of which there have been five series over the years, with at least two different Tom Swifts (depending on how you look at them). Created by the Stratemeyer Syndicate<\/strong>, it’s one of their more successful ones, but owing to the changes in science and technology, they basically had to relaunch the character rather then just do minor tweaks to the stories like their mystery series Hardy Boys<\/strong> and Nancy Drew<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

As a boy, I got many of the Tom Swift Jr.<\/strong> books. They were in hardcover, with what is known as “picture covers,” where the artwork is incorporated into the cover rather than on a dust jacket. The spines were an orange\/yellow, contrasting with the blue of the Hardy Boys and the yellow of Nancy Drew. I found the science a bit over the top, more fantastical than realistic, but enjoyed them, and have been working to complete my collection of them. I soon found out that my dad had read the original Tom Swift series, and have been trying to collect those stories, either original or reprints.<\/p>\n

As noted, over the years there have been five Tom Swift series.<\/p>\n

The first series launched in 1910 and ran for 38 volumes through 1935, then later two “Better Little Books” in 1938 and 1941, which aren’t proper novels, being half prose, half comic. They starred young inventor Tom Swift, son of Barton Swift<\/strong> who ran the Swift Construction Co. in Shopton, N.Y. His mother had passed away years prior. His main pal is Ned Newton<\/strong>, and he dated (and later married) Mary Nestor,\u00a0<\/strong>in the series (so wasn’t a “boy inventor” for long).<\/p>\n

Most of his inventions at first were not that amazing. A better motorcycle, a motor boat, but soon we would get airships, television detectors, electric rifles, and such.<\/p>\n

As best we know, the novels were written by Howard Garis<\/strong> at first, but the last few were written by Harriet Stratemeyer Adams<\/strong>. All were published under the Syndicate housename of “Victor Appleton<\/strong>.”<\/p>\n

In the ’50s they launched the next series, which is the classic Tom Swift Jr.<\/strong> series, for 33 volumes from 1954-71. Yes, the son of the first Tom Swift, who now runs Swift Enterprises in Shopton. Bud Barclay<\/strong> is his pal. He has a younger sister, Sandra<\/strong>, who is about his age (17), and a pilot. His usual date is Phyllis Newton<\/strong>, daughter of Ned Newton from the original series who is head of finance for the company. \u00a0There are several other employees of the company around from the original series.<\/p>\n

Here, while the science is supposed to be more accurate, apparently having the stories vetted by scientific experts, as I noted they are more fantastical than the original, what with spectromarine selectors, aquatomic trackers, triphibian atomicars, repelatron skyways, and the like. The contemporary Rick Brant<\/strong> series, also published by Grosset & Dunlap, had more realistic science adventures.<\/p>\n

\""Tom
Tom Swift and His Giant Robot<\/em> (1954)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There were also a couple of background story elements that ran through the series. There were the mysterious “Space Friends” from Planet X that Tom Jr. contacted. But that storyline was never fully resolved. And owing to the Cold War period, there were the two sinister Eastern European countries of Kranjovia and Brungaria that were trying to steal Tom’s inventions.<\/p>\n

“Victor Appleton II<\/strong>” was the apparent author, but Harriet Stratemeyer Adams oversaw the series with 6 authors. \u00a0Jim Lawrence<\/strong> wrote the bulk: #5-7, 9-29.<\/p>\n

The books originally were hardback with dust jackets, like most juvenile series. In 1961, they went with picture covers (artwork incorporated into the covers themselves), first with blue spines, then switched to orange in 1962, and all books in the series would be reprinted in this style.\u00a0 This happened with all of G&D series, and other publishers followed. \u00a0The last two or three volumes are hard to find (I’m still looking for those). \u00a0I saw Tom Swift\u00a0hardbacks for sale in bookstores into the 70s. Later, 4 would be reprinted in trade paperback and another 6 in mass-market paperback. An interesting update in the paperbacks is how Tom Jr. was depicted. In the original he had a blond crew cut, but in the newer editions, he had a more current, long hair look.<\/p>\n

As noted in my previous posting, after the series ended, the Syndicate sold the rights to Tom Swift to Simon & Schuster. They would go on an create three more series with other packagers.<\/p>\n

The next Tom Swift series came in the ’80s, with 11 volumes from 1981-84, plus two unpublished stories. It was hard to figure out if this was Tom Swift III or just Junior revamped. He was the son of the “great Tom Swift,” but which one? Swift Enterprises was now in New Mexico, but the series was mainly set in space. Tom now had two other associates: Benjamin Franklin Walking Eagle<\/strong>, his best friend, and former rival now friend (but not girlfriend) Anita Thorwald<\/strong>. (Frankly this seemed to me an attempt at being inclusive and “P.C.”)<\/p>\n

The ’90s brought us the fourth Tom Swift series, who is clearly Tom Swift Jr., son of Tom and Mary. This series is set on Earth, and Swift Enterprises is now in California (though I recall of hints that the original Swift Enterprises location in Shopton still exists, but is now used by the main bad guy of the series). A change is that Tom’s inventions can be dangerous and destructive. The series ran for 13 volumes in 1991-93, with two additional volumes having a team-up between Tom and the Hardy Boys.<\/p>\n

And the 2000s brought us the fifth Tom Swift series, called “Tom Swift, Young Inventor.” Again, Tom Swift Jr., son of Tom and Mary. Swift Enterprises is back in Shopton, N.Y. Pals are Bud Barclay, but now adding Puerto Rican Yolanda “Yo” Aponte<\/strong> for diversity, as well as noting that both his mother and sister are scientists in their own right (something that was not so in the earlier series). This one lasted but six volumes in 2006-07, with an apparent unpublished seventh.<\/p>\n

As noted, Tom Swift Jr. was a series I grew up on. I haven’t been too happy with the succeeding series, and they don’t seem to have been very successful. Grosset & Dunlap keep reprinting their Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew volumes. Wish someone would reprint the whole Tom Jr. series, but doubt it will happen. Just too dated in terms of technology. \u00a0It is interesting that there are some creating NEW Tom Jr stories as an extension to the original one. \u00a0But will we see an official sixth series? Who knows?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The main boy inventor\/adventure juvenile series is that of Tom Swift. Of which there have been five series over the years, with at least two different Tom Swifts (depending on how you look at them). Created by the Stratemeyer Syndicate, it’s one of their more successful ones, but owing to the changes in science and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":5464,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_has_post_settings":[],"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"The Pulp Super-Fan looks at Tom Swift: boy inventor(s). #YA","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_wp_rev_ctl_limit":""},"categories":[141,14],"tags":[],"hashtags":[],"class_list":["post-5457","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-juvenile-fiction","category-review"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/files\/2016\/08\/tom-swift-and-his-giant-robot.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3eLo8-1q1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5457","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5457"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5457\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7094,"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5457\/revisions\/7094"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5457"},{"taxonomy":"hashtags","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtags?post=5457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}