All books in the various Tom Swift book series. All books are credited to the pseudonym Victor Appleton (or, in the case of the Tom Swift Jr. series, Victor Appleton II), while the character was created by Edward Stratemeyer for his book packaging house, the Stratemeyer Syndicate. Counterparts to the Tom Swift character and series are later Stratemeyer creations, The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew, the former of which Swift crossed over with in the fourth series.
The first novels to feature the Tom Swift character were released in 1910 by Grosset & Dunlap. The series was created by Edward Stratemeyer, and written by several ghostwriters in its duration.
The first 38 titles were published by Grosset & Dunlap, with two ghostwriters: Howard Garis wrote the first thirty-five titles, while Harriet Adams wrote the final three. Two more titles were published as a part of the Big Little Book series (by rival Western Publishing), and were ghostwritten by Thomas Moyston Mitchell. [1]
# | Title | Public domain source | Pub. | Ghostwriter |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Tom Swift and His Motor Cycle Or, Fun and Adventure on the Road | Wikisource Project Gutenberg | 1910 | Howard Garis |
2 | Tom Swift and His Motor Boat Or, The Rivals of Lake Carlopa | Wikisource Project Gutenberg | ||
3 | Tom Swift and His Airship Or, The Stirring Cruise of the Red Cloud | Wikisource Project Gutenberg | ||
4 | Tom Swift and His Submarine Boat Or, Under the Ocean for Sunken Treasure | Wikisource Project Gutenberg | ||
5 | Tom Swift and His Electric Runabout Or, The Speediest Car on the Road | Wikisource Project Gutenberg | ||
6 | Tom Swift and His Wireless Message Or, The Castaways of Earthquake Island | Wikisource Project Gutenberg | 1911 | |
7 | Tom Swift Among the Diamond Makers Or, The Secret of Phantom Mountain | Wikisource Project Gutenberg | ||
8 | Tom Swift in the Caves of Ice Or, The Wreck of the Airship | Wikisource Project Gutenberg | ||
9 | Tom Swift and His Sky Racer Or, The Quickest Flight on Record | Wikisource Project Gutenberg | ||
10 | Tom Swift and His Electric Rifle Or, Daring Adventures on Elephant Island | Wikisource Project Gutenberg | ||
11 | Tom Swift in the City of Gold Or, Marvelous Adventures Underground | Wikisource Project Gutenberg | 1912 | |
12 | Tom Swift and His Air Glider Or, Seeking the Platinum Treasure | Wikisource Project Gutenberg | ||
13 | Tom Swift in Captivity Or, A Daring Escape by Airship | Wikisource Project Gutenberg | ||
14 | Tom Swift and His Wizard Camera Or, Thrilling Adventures While Taking Moving Pictures | Wikisource Project Gutenberg | ||
15 | Tom Swift and His Great Searchlight Or, On the Border for Uncle Sam | Wikisource Project Gutenberg | ||
16 | Tom Swift and His Giant Cannon Or, The Longest Shots on Record | Wikisource Project Gutenberg | 1913 | |
17 | Tom Swift and His Photo Telephone Or, The Picture That Saved a Fortune | Wikisource Project Gutenberg | 1914 | |
18 | Tom Swift and His Aerial Warship Or, The Naval Terror of the Seas | Project Gutenberg | 1915 | |
19 | Tom Swift and His Big Tunnel Or, The Hidden City of the Andes | Project Gutenberg | 1916 | |
20 | Tom Swift in the Land of Wonders Or, The Underground Search for the Idol of Gold | Project Gutenberg | 1917 | |
21 | Tom Swift and His War Tank Or, Doing His Bit for Uncle Sam | Project Gutenberg | 1918 | |
22 | Tom Swift and His Air Scout Or, Uncle Sam's Mastery of the Sky | Project Gutenberg | 1919 | |
23 | Tom Swift and His Undersea Search Or, The Treasure on the Floor of the Atlantic | Project Gutenberg | 1920 | |
24 | Tom Swift Among the Fire Fighters Or, Battling with Flames in the Air | Project Gutenberg | 1921 | |
25 | Tom Swift and His Electric Locomotive Or, Two Miles a Minute on the Rails | Project Gutenberg | 1922 | |
26 | Tom Swift and His Flying Boat Or, Castaways of the Giant Iceberg | Project Gutenberg Faded Page | 1923 | |
27 | Tom Swift and His Great Oil Gusher Or, The Treasure of Goby Farm | Project Gutenberg Faded Page | 1924 | |
28 | Tom Swift and His Chest of Secrets Or, Tracing the Stolen Inventions | Project Gutenberg Faded Page | 1925 | |
29 | Tom Swift and His Airline Express Or, From Ocean to Ocean by Daylight | Project Gutenberg Faded Page | 1926 | |
30 | Tom Swift Circling the Globe Or, The Daring Cruise of the Air Monarch | Project Gutenberg Faded Page | 1927 | |
31 | Tom Swift and His Talking Pictures Or, The Greatest Invention on Record | Project Gutenberg Faded Page | 1928 | |
32 | Tom Swift and His House on Wheels Or, A Trip around the Mountain of Mystery | 1929 | ||
33 | Tom Swift and His Big Dirigible Or, Adventures Over the Forest of Fire | 1930 | ||
34 | Tom Swift and His Sky Train Or, Overland Through the Clouds | 1931 | ||
35 | Tom Swift and His Giant Magnet Or, Bringing Up the Lost Submarine | 1932 | ||
36 | Tom Swift and His Television Detector Or, Trailing the Secret Plotters | 1933 | Harriet Adams | |
37 | Tom Swift and His Ocean Airport Or, Foiling the Haargolanders | 1934 | ||
38 | Tom Swift and His Planet Stone Or, Discovering the Secret of Another World | 1935 | ||
39 | Tom Swift and His Giant Telescope [note 1] | Wikisource Project Gutenberg | 1939 | Thomas Moyston Mitchell |
40 | Tom Swift and His Magnetic Silencer [note 1] | 1941 | ||
Officially titled Tom Swift Jr., the second series was published by Grosset & Dunlap from 1954 to 1971. [2] Tom Swift and the Visitor from Planet X and Tom Swift and the Electronic Hydrolung are in the public domain, and are available as downloadable texts from Project Gutenberg.
# | Title | Pub. | Ghostwriter |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Tom Swift and His Flying Lab | 1954 | William Dougherty |
2 | Tom Swift and His Jetmarine | John Almquist | |
3 | Tom Swift and His Rocket Ship | ||
4 | Tom Swift and His Giant Robot | Richard Sklar | |
5 | Tom Swift and His Atomic Earth Blaster | James Duncan Lawrence | |
6 | Tom Swift and His Outpost in Space | 1955 | |
7 | Tom Swift and His Diving Seacopter | 1956 | |
8 | Tom Swift in the Caves of Nuclear Fire | Thomas Mulvey | |
9 | Tom Swift on the Phantom Satellite | James Duncan Lawrence | |
10 | Tom Swift and His Ultrasonic Cycloplane | 1957 | |
11 | Tom Swift and His Deep-Sea Hydrodome | 1958 | |
12 | Tom Swift in the Race to the Moon | ||
13 | Tom Swift and His Space Solartron | ||
14 | Tom Swift and His Electronic Retroscope | 1959 | |
15 | Tom Swift and His Spectromarine Selector | 1960 | |
16 | Tom Swift and the Cosmic Astronauts | ||
17 | Tom Swift and the Visitor from Planet X | 1961 | |
18 | Tom Swift and the Electronic Hydrolung | ||
19 | Tom Swift and His Triphibian Atomicar | 1962 | |
20 | Tom Swift and His Megascope Space Prober | ||
21 | Tom Swift and the Asteroid Pirates | 1963 | |
22 | Tom Swift and His Repelatron Skyway | ||
23 | Tom Swift and His Aquatomic Tracker | 1964 | |
24 | Tom Swift and His 3-D Telejector | ||
25 | Tom Swift and His Polar-Ray Dynasphere | 1965 | |
26 | Tom Swift and His Sonic Boom Trap | ||
27 | Tom Swift and His Subocean Geotron | 1966 | |
28 | Tom Swift and the Mystery Comet | ||
29 | Tom Swift and the Captive Planetoid | 1967 | |
30 | Tom Swift and His G-Force Inverter | 1968 | Thomas Mulvey |
31 | Tom Swift and His Dyna-4 Capsule | 1969 | Richard McKenna |
32 | Tom Swift and His Cosmotron Express | 1970 | |
33 | Tom Swift and the Galaxy Ghosts | 1971 | Vincent Buranelli |
The third Tom Swift series was launched following the Stratemeyer Syndicate moving publishers to Simon & Schuster. The series was published under the publisher's Wanderer imprint (as were the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys books at the time), and lasted from 1981 to 1984. This series took place in outer space and featured fan-favorite character Aristotle the Robot, who was introduced in the second volume.
The series was cancelled in 1984, when Simon & Schuster bought the Syndicate. Two titles — Chaos on Earth and The Micro World — were written by Neal Barrett, but not published before its cancellation. The manuscripts of the two titles are in the Syndicate's archives, which are held at the New York Public Library.
# | Title | Pub. | Ghostwriter |
---|---|---|---|
1 | The City in the Stars | 1981 | William Rotsler & Sharmon Divono [3] |
2 | Terror on the Moons of Jupiter | ||
3 | The Alien Probe | ||
4 | The War in Outer Space | ||
5 | The Astral Fortress | ||
6 | The Rescue Mission | 1982 | |
7 | Ark Two | Neal Barrett, Jr. | |
8 | Crater of Mystery | 1983 | Mike McQuay [4] |
9 | Gateway to Doom | Bob Vardeman | |
10 | The Invisible Force | Neal Barrett, Jr. | |
11 | Planet of Nightmares | 1984 | Mike MacQuay |
The fourth Tom Swift series was created as a counterpart to The Nancy Drew Files and The Hardy Boys Casefiles spin-offs, and was published by Archway from 1991 to 1993. The series had two books which crossed over with the Hardy Boys, a sub-series titled Hardy Boys and Tom Swift Ultra Thrillers — Time Bomb (August 1992) and The Alien Factor (June 1993).
# | Title | Pub. | Ghostwriter |
---|---|---|---|
1 | The Black Dragon | April 1991 | Bill McCay |
2 | The Negative Zone | ||
3 | Cyborg Kickboxer | June 1991 | Steven Grant |
4 | The DNA Disaster | August 1991 | F. Gwynplaine MacIntrye |
5 | Monster Machine | October 1991 | Debra Doyle & James D. Macdonald |
6 | Aquatech Warriors | December 1991 | |
7 | Moonstalker | February 1992 | |
8 | The Microbots | April 1992 | Robert E. Vardeman |
9 | Fire Biker | June 1992 | |
10 | Mind Games | October 1992 | Bruce Holland Rogers |
11 | Mutant Beach | December 1992 | Robert E. Vardeman |
12 | Death Quake | February 1993 | Bridget McKenna |
13 | Quantum Force | April 1993 |
The fifth series to feature the Tom Swift character was published by Aladdin from 2006 to 2007. The series served as a counterpart to Nancy Drew: Girl Detective and The Hardy Boys: Undercover Brothers series, both of which were reboots of their original series. Like its counterparts, a big part of the reboot was that titles were now written in first-person narration.
The series was cancelled in late 2007, while its counterparts were rebooted into trilogies. A seventh title, Extraterrestrial Highway, was planned for publication in February 2008; however, it ultimately remained unpublished. There are ISBN's registered for volumes 8-11 in this series, but the titles and status of the manuscripts are unknown.
# | Title | Released | Ghostwriter |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Into the Abyss | June 1, 2006 | |
2 | The Robot Olympics | Greg Cox [5] | |
3 | The Space Hotel | October 10, 2006 | |
4 | Rocket Racers | January 23, 2007 | |
5 | On Top of the World | May 22, 2007 | |
6 | Under the Radar | October 2, 2007 | |
The sixth series to feature the Tom Swift character was launched by Aladdin in July 2019. It features a young Swift, age is around thirteen, who attends a school for young inventors and scientists. This series, a counterpart to the Hardy Boys Adventures and Nancy Drew Diaries series, is told in first-person narration, and published in eBook, paperback, and hardcover. Audiobooks of the first five titles released on CD narrated by Timothy Andres Pabon. A boxed set of the first four paperbacks was also published using cover art from the first book.
# | Title | Released | Ghostwriter |
---|---|---|---|
1 | The Drone Pursuit | July 2, 2019 | Michael Anthony Steele |
2 | The Sonic Breach | Michael Anthony Steele | |
3 | Restricted Access | October 22, 2019 | Michael Anthony Steele |
4 | The Virtual Vandal | March 17, 2020 | Michael Anthony Steele |
5 | The Spybot Invasion | July 28, 2020 | Michael Anthony Steele |
6 | Augmented Reality | March 16, 2021 | Michael Anthony Steele |
7 | The Blurred Blogger | June 15, 2021 | Michael Anthony Steele |
8 | Depth Perception | March 15, 2022 | Michael Anthony Steele |
Tom Swift is the main character of six series of American juvenile science fiction and adventure novels that emphasize science, invention, and technology. Inaugurated in 1910, the sequence of series comprises more than 100 volumes. The first Tom Swift – later, Tom Swift Sr. – was created by Edward Stratemeyer, the founder of the Stratemeyer Syndicate, a book packaging firm. Tom's adventures have been written by various ghostwriters, beginning with Howard Garis. Most of the books are credited to the collective pseudonym "Victor Appleton". The 33 volumes of the second series use the pseudonym Victor Appleton II for the author. For this series, and some later ones, the main character is "Tom Swift Jr." New titles have been published again from 2019 after a gap of about ten years, roughly the time that has passed before every resumption. Most of the series emphasized Tom's inventions. The books generally describe the effects of science and technology as wholly beneficial, and the role of the inventor in society as admirable and heroic.
Nancy Drew is a fictional character appearing in several mystery book series, movies, video games, and a TV show as a teenage amateur sleuth. The books are ghostwritten by a number of authors and published under the collective pseudonym Carolyn Keene. Created by the publisher Edward Stratemeyer as the female counterpart to his Hardy Boys series, the character first appeared in 1930 in the Nancy Drew Mystery Stories series, which lasted until 2003 and consisted of 175 novels.
Mildred Augustine Wirt Benson was an American journalist and writer of children's books. She wrote some of the earliest Nancy Drew mysteries and created the detective's adventurous personality. Benson wrote under the Stratemeyer Syndicate pen name, Carolyn Keene, from 1929 to 1947 and contributed to 23 of the first 30 Nancy Drew mysteries, which were bestsellers.
Carolyn Keene is the pseudonym of the authors of the Nancy Drew mystery stories and The Dana Girls mystery stories, both produced by the Stratemeyer Syndicate. In addition, the Keene pen name is credited with the Nancy Drew spin-off, River Heights, and the Nancy Drew Notebooks.
The Stratemeyer Syndicate was a publishing company that produced a number of mystery book series for children, including Nancy Drew, The Hardy Boys, the various Tom Swift series, the Bobbsey Twins, the Rover Boys, and others. They published and contracted the many pseudonymous authors doing the writing of the series from 1899 through 1987, when the syndicate partners sold the company to Simon & Schuster.
Tom Swift Jr. is the central character in a series of 33 science fiction adventure novels for male adolescents, following in the tradition of the earlier Tom Swift ("Senior") novels. The series was titled The New Tom Swift Jr. Adventures. Unlike the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys titles that were also products of the prolific Stratemeyer Syndicate, the original Tom Swift stories were not rewritten in the 1950s to modernize them. It was decided that the protagonist of the new series would be the son of the earlier Tom Swift and his wife, Mary Nestor Swift; the original hero continued as a series regular, as did his pal Ned Newton. The covers were created by illustrator J. Graham Kaye. Covers in the later half of the series were mostly by Charles Brey. A total of 33 volumes were eventually published.
The Dana Girls was a series of young adult mystery novels produced by the Stratemeyer Syndicate. The title heroines, Jean and Louise Dana, are teenage sisters and amateur detectives who solve mysteries while at boarding school. The series was created in 1934 in an attempt to capitalize on the popularity of both the Nancy Drew Mystery Stories and the Hardy Boys series, but was less successful than either. The series was written by a number of ghostwriters and, despite going out-of-print twice, lasted from 1934 to 1979; the books have also been translated into a number of other languages. While subject to less critical attention than either Nancy Drew or the Hardy Boys, a number of critics have written about the series, most arguing that the Dana Girls' relative lack of success was due to the more dated nature of the series.
The Hardy Boys, brothers Frank and Joe Hardy, are fictional characters who appear in several mystery series for children and teens. The series revolves around teenagers who are amateur sleuths, solving cases that stumped their adult counterparts. The characters were created by American writer Edward Stratemeyer, the founder of book packaging firm Stratemeyer Syndicate. The books were written by several ghostwriters, most notably Leslie McFarlane, under the collective pseudonym Franklin W. Dixon.
Franklin W. Dixon is the pen name used by a variety of different authors who were part of a team that wrote The Hardy Boys novels for the Stratemeyer Syndicate. Dixon was also the writer attributed for the Ted Scott Flying Stories series, published by Grosset & Dunlap.
The Rover Boys, or The Rover Boys Series for Young Americans, was a popular juvenile series written by Arthur M. Winfield, a pseudonym for Edward Stratemeyer. Thirty titles were published between 1899 and 1926 and the books remained in print for years afterward.
Tom Swift IV is the unofficial name of a series of juvenile science fiction adventure novels, the fourth to feature a protagonist named Tom Swift. The series ran for thirteen titles from 1991 to 1993, and were published by Simon & Schuster imprint Archway Paperbacks; like the previous three series, the series was written under the pseudonym Victor Appleton. Unlike the previous series, it was not created by the Stratemeyer Syndicate; by this time, the Syndicate had been sold to Simon & Schuster, who created the series in response to the successful, more mature spin-offs of Syndicate properties Nancy Drew and The Hardy Boys.
The House On The Cliff is the second book in the original Hardy Boys series published by Grosset & Dunlap. The book ranks 72nd on the Publishers Weekly's All-Time Bestselling Children's Book List in the United States with 1,712,433 copies sold as of 2001. This book is one of the "Original 10" Hardy Boys books and is an excellent example of the writing style used by the Stratemeyer Syndicate's writers. This style influenced many other "youth adventure series" books that the Stratemeyer Syndicate also published, including the Nancy Drew series, the Tom Swift adventure series, the Bobbsey Twins and other lesser known series. All of them used a unique writing style that made them very recognizable as Stratemeyer product.
Grosset & Dunlap is a New York City-based publishing house founded in 1898.
The Ghost at Skeleton Rock is Volume 37 in the original The Hardy Boys Mystery Stories published by Grosset & Dunlap.
Russell Haviland Tandy was an American illustrator, best known for his cover art for early editions of the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys series.
The Nancy Drew Mystery Stories is the long-running "main" series of the Nancy Drew franchise, which was published under the pseudonym Carolyn Keene. There are 175 novels — plus 34 revised stories — that were published between 1930 and 2003 under the banner; Grosset & Dunlap published the first 56, and 34 revised stories, while Simon & Schuster published the series beginning with volume 57.
The Honey Bunch series of books were part of the Stratemeyer Syndicate's production of 20th century children's books featuring adventurous youngsters, which included the series Nancy Drew, the Hardy Boys and the Bobbsey Twins. This series was written under the pseudonym Helen Louise Thorndyke, and published for most of its duration by Grosset & Dunlap. The series began in 1923 and chronicled a young girl named Honey Bunch on her various trips and adventures. Along with Laura Lee Hope's series Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue, it was one of their most famous series for younger children.