List of Tom Swift books

Last updated

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.

Contents

The original Tom Swift 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, authorship, publication date, and source text (when available)
#TitlePublic domain sourcePub.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
26Tom Swift and His Flying Boat
Or, Castaways of the Giant Iceberg
Project Gutenberg
Faded Page
1923
27Tom Swift and His Great Oil Gusher
Or, The Treasure of Goby Farm
Project Gutenberg
Faded Page
1924
28Tom Swift and His Chest of Secrets
Or, Tracing the Stolen Inventions
Project Gutenberg
Faded Page
1925
29Tom Swift and His Airline Express
Or, From Ocean to Ocean by Daylight
Project Gutenberg
Faded Page
1926
30Tom Swift Circling the Globe
Or, The Daring Cruise of the Air Monarch
Project Gutenberg
Faded Page
1927
31Tom Swift and His Talking Pictures
Or, The Greatest Invention on Record
Project Gutenberg
Faded Page
1928
32Tom Swift and His House on Wheels
Or, A Trip around the Mountain of Mystery
1929
33Tom Swift and His Big Dirigible
Or, Adventures Over the Forest of Fire
1930
34Tom Swift and His Sky Train
Or, Overland Through the Clouds
1931
35Tom Swift and His Giant Magnet
Or, Bringing Up the Lost Submarine
1932
36Tom Swift and His Television Detector
Or, Trailing the Secret Plotters
1933 Harriet Adams
37Tom Swift and His Ocean Airport
Or, Foiling the Haargolanders
1934
38Tom Swift and His Planet Stone
Or, Discovering the Secret of Another World
1935
39Tom Swift and His Giant Telescope [note 1] Wikisource
Project Gutenberg
1939Thomas Moyston Mitchell
40Tom Swift and His Magnetic Silencer [note 1] 1941

Tom Swift Jr.

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.

Titles, authorship, and publication dates
#TitlePub.Ghostwriter
1Tom Swift and His Flying Lab1954William Dougherty
2Tom Swift and His JetmarineJohn Almquist
3Tom Swift and His Rocket Ship
4Tom Swift and His Giant RobotRichard Sklar
5Tom Swift and His Atomic Earth Blaster James Duncan Lawrence
6Tom Swift and His Outpost in Space1955
7Tom Swift and His Diving Seacopter1956
8Tom Swift in the Caves of Nuclear FireThomas Mulvey
9Tom Swift on the Phantom SatelliteJames Duncan Lawrence
10Tom Swift and His Ultrasonic Cycloplane1957
11Tom Swift and His Deep-Sea Hydrodome1958
12Tom Swift in the Race to the Moon
13Tom Swift and His Space Solartron
14Tom Swift and His Electronic Retroscope1959
15Tom Swift and His Spectromarine Selector1960
16Tom Swift and the Cosmic Astronauts
17Tom Swift and the Visitor from Planet X1961
18Tom Swift and the Electronic Hydrolung
19Tom Swift and His Triphibian Atomicar1962
20Tom Swift and His Megascope Space Prober
21Tom Swift and the Asteroid Pirates1963
22Tom Swift and His Repelatron Skyway
23Tom Swift and His Aquatomic Tracker1964
24Tom Swift and His 3-D Telejector
25Tom Swift and His Polar-Ray Dynasphere1965
26Tom Swift and His Sonic Boom Trap
27Tom Swift and His Subocean Geotron1966
28Tom Swift and the Mystery Comet
29Tom Swift and the Captive Planetoid1967
30Tom Swift and His G-Force Inverter1968Thomas Mulvey
31Tom Swift and His Dyna-4 Capsule1969Richard McKenna
32Tom Swift and His Cosmotron Express1970
33Tom Swift and the Galaxy Ghosts1971Vincent Buranelli

Tom Swift (1981)

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.

Titles, authorship, and publication dates
#TitlePub.Ghostwriter
1The City in the Stars1981 William Rotsler & Sharmon Divono [3]
2Terror on the Moons of Jupiter
3The Alien Probe
4The War in Outer Space
5The Astral Fortress
6The Rescue Mission1982
7Ark Two Neal Barrett, Jr.
8Crater of Mystery1983 Mike McQuay [4]
9Gateway to DoomBob Vardeman
10The Invisible ForceNeal Barrett, Jr.
11Planet of Nightmares1984Mike MacQuay

Tom Swift (1991)

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 ThrillersTime Bomb (August 1992) and The Alien Factor (June 1993).

Titles, authorship, and publication dates
#TitlePub.Ghostwriter
1The Black DragonApril 1991 Bill McCay
2The Negative Zone
3Cyborg KickboxerJune 1991 Steven Grant
4The DNA DisasterAugust 1991F. Gwynplaine MacIntrye
5Monster MachineOctober 1991 Debra Doyle & James D. Macdonald
6Aquatech WarriorsDecember 1991
7MoonstalkerFebruary 1992
8The MicrobotsApril 1992 Robert E. Vardeman
9Fire BikerJune 1992
10Mind GamesOctober 1992 Bruce Holland Rogers
11Mutant BeachDecember 1992Robert E. Vardeman
12Death QuakeFebruary 1993Bridget McKenna
13Quantum ForceApril 1993

Tom Swift: Young Inventor

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.

Titles and publication dates
#TitleReleasedGhostwriter
1Into the AbyssJune 1, 2006
2The Robot OlympicsGreg Cox [5]
3The Space HotelOctober 10, 2006
4Rocket RacersJanuary 23, 2007
5On Top of the WorldMay 22, 2007
6Under the RadarOctober 2, 2007

Tom Swift Inventors' Academy

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.

Titles and publication dates
#TitleReleasedGhostwriter
1The Drone PursuitJuly 2, 2019Michael Anthony Steele
2The Sonic BreachMichael Anthony Steele
3Restricted AccessOctober 22, 2019Michael Anthony Steele
4The Virtual VandalMarch 17, 2020Michael Anthony Steele
5The Spybot InvasionJuly 28, 2020Michael Anthony Steele
6Augmented RealityMarch 16, 2021Michael Anthony Steele
7The Blurred BloggerJune 15, 2021Michael Anthony Steele
8Depth PerceptionMarch 15, 2022Michael Anthony Steele

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tom Swift</span> Fictional literary character

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nancy Drew</span> Fictional character in a juvenile mystery series

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mildred Benson</span> American writer (1905–2002)

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.

<i>Tom Swift Jr.</i> Fictional character in boys adventure books

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Hardy Boys</span> Fictional detectives and book 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Franklin W. Dixon</span> House pseudonym used by the Stratemeyer Syndicate

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rover Boys</span> Juvenile book series

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.

<i>The House on the Cliff</i> 1927 book by Franklin W. Dixon

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.

<i>The Ghost at Skeleton Rock</i> 1958 book by Franklin W. Dixon

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.

References

  1. "The Complete Tom Swift Sr. Home Page" . Retrieved 2 April 2011.
  2. "The Complete Tom Swift Jr. Home Page" . Retrieved 28 April 2011.
  3. "News archive". Locus. November 1997. Retrieved June 10, 2008.
  4. "SFE: McQuay, Mike".
  5. "Summary Bibliography: Greg Cox". Internet Speculative Fiction Database. Retrieved January 26, 2021.

Notes

  1. 1 2 This title was published by Better Little Book.