I have not had the opportunity to read any Swift books yet, but they are legendary in boys' series book history. Tom continued the Horatio Alger style of a hero working his way up to prominence. He was never considered wealthy, but worked his way out of poverty in the first book and was definitely well off. Since his father was an inventor, the books dealt a lot with technology of the time. Early books were career oriented, some were adventure and later ones were science fiction, including discovering life on Mars.
(David Edward has provided the following information.)
Tom Swift was an early Stratemeyer Syndicate series which ran from 1910 to 1941 under the byline of Victor Appleton and published by Grosset & Dunlap (vol. 1-38) and Whitman Publishing Company (vols. 39, 40 reprints of 29-38, and maybe 6) Edward Stratemeyer created the series while Howard Garis wrote the first 36. Harriet Adams wrote the last three.
All of the books came with Dust Jackets and the books were yellow with black and red picture covers. As a side note for a while a red ink was used that was more orange then red or perhaps faded more over the years. Some dealers charge extra for these because they are rarer.
The first use of the name Tom Swift was in a book called, "Shorthand Tom, The Reporter; or The Exploits of a Bright Boy," which was first seen in series in the magazine "Good News", Feb 3 - April 21, 1894 and was later included in the series sets called "Bound to Win", Working Upward" and "Stratemeyer Popular Series." This Tom is not related in any way to the later Tom Swift books that came out 16 years later.
1 TOM SWIFT AND HIS MOTORCYCLE 1910
2 TOM SWIFT AND
HIS MOTOR BOAT 1910
3 TOM SWIFT AND HIS AIRSHIP
1910
4 TOM SWIFT AND HIS SUBMARINE BOAT 1910
5 TOM SWIFT
AND HIS ELECTRIC RUNABOUT 1910
6 TOM SWIFT AND HIS WIRELESS MESSAGE
1911
7 TOM SWIFT AMONG THE DIAMOND MAKERS 1911
8 TOM
SWIFT IN THE CAVES OF ICE 1911
9 TOM SWIFT AND HIS SKY RACER
1911
10 TOM SWIFT AND HIS ELECTRIC RIFLE 1911
11
TOM SWIFT IN THE CITY OF GOLD 1912
12 TOM SWIFT AND HIS AIR
GLIDER 1912
13 TOM SWIFT IN CAPTIVITY 1912
14
TOM SWIFT AND HIS WIZARD CAMERA 1912
15 TOM SWIFT AND HIS GREAT
SEARCHLIGHT 1912
16 TOM SWIFT AND HIS GIANT CANNON 1913
17
TOM SWIFT AND HIS PHOTO TELEPHONE 1914
18 TOM SWIFT AND HIS AERIAL
WARSHIP 1915
19 TOM SWIFT AND HIS BIG TUNNEL 1916
20
TOM SWIFT IN THE LAND OF WONDERS 1917
21 TOM SWIFT AND HIS WAR
TANK 1918
22 TOM SWIFT AND HIS AIR SCOUT 1919
23
TOM SWIFT AND HIS UNDERSEA SEARCH 1920
24 TOM SWIFT AMONG THE FIRE
FIGHTERS 1921
25 TOM SWIFT AND HIS ELECTRIC LOCOMOTIVE 1922
26
TOM SWIFT AND HIS FLYING BOAT 1923
27 TOM SWIFT AND HIS GREAT
OIL GUSHER 1924
28 TOM SWIFT AND HIS CHEST OF SECRETS 1925
29
TOM SWIFT AND HIS AIRLINE EXPRESS 1926
30 TOM SWIFT CIRCLING THE
GLOBE 1927
31 TOM SWIFT AND HIS TALKING PICTURES 1928
32
TOM SWIFT AND HIS HOUSE ON WHEELS 1929
33 TOM SWIFT AND HIS BIG
DIRIGIBLE 1930
34 TOM SWIFT AND HIS SKY TRAIN 1931
35
TOM SWIFT AND HIS GIANT MAGNET 1932
36 TOM SWIFT AND HIS TELEVISION
DETECTOR 1933
37 TOM SWIFT AND HIS OCEAN AIRPORT 1934
38
TOM SWIFT AND HIS PLANET STONE 1935
39 TOM SWIFT AND HIS GIANT
TELESCOPE 1939 Better Little Book
40 TOM SWIFT AND HIS MAGNETIC
SILENCE 1941 Better Little Book
Whitman reprints changed the order to ....
36 = 1 30 = 4 31 = 7
32 = 2 37 = 5 33 = 8
34 = 3 29 = 6 35
= 9
Tom Swift Jr By Victor Appleton II 1954 - 1982
More titles
may have followed Volumes 36 This is as of 1982.
Grosset & Dunlap Vol 1 - 33
Reprint Under Tempo Paperbacks 1
- 4, 6, 8 14 - 17 during 1973 - 1977
Simon & Schuster, Wanderer
Books Vol 34 - 36. (Paperback)
1. Tom Swift and His Flying Lab 1954, 1977
2. Tom Swift and His
Jetmarine 1954, 1977
3. Tom Swift and His Rocket Ship 1954, 1977
4. Tom Swift and His Giant Robot 1954, 1977
5. Tom Swift and His
Atomic Earth Blaster 1954
6. Tom Swift and His Outpost in Space 1955,
1977
7. Tom Swift and His Diving Seacopter 1956
8. Tom Swift in
the Caves of Nuclear Fire 1956, 1977
9. Tom Swift on the Phantom Satellite
1957
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 1958
13. Tom Swift and His Space Solartron 1958
14. Tom
Swift and His Electronic Retroscope 1959 Tom Swift in the Jungle of the
Mayas 1973
15. Tom Swift and His Spectromarine Selector 1960 Tom
Swift and the City of Gold 1973
16. Tom Swift and the Cosmic
Astronauts 1960, 1973
17. Tom Swift and the Visitor From Planet X 1961,
1973
18. Tom Swift and the Electronic Hydrolung 1961
19. Tom Swift
and his Triphibian Atomicar 1962
20. Tom Swift and his Megascope Space
Prober 1962
21. Tom Swift and the Asteroid Pirates 1963
22. Tom
Swift and his Repelatron Skyway 1963
23. Tom Swift and his Aquatomic
Tracker 1964
24. Tom Swift and his 3-D Telejector 1964
25. Tom
Swift and his Polar-Ray Dynasphere 1965
26. Tom Swift and his Sonic
Boom Trap 1965
27. Tom Swift and his Subocean Geotron 1966
28.
Tom Swift and the Mystery Comet 1966
29. Tom Swift and the Captive
Planetoid 1967
30. Tom Swift and his G-Force Inverter 1968
31.
Tom Swift and his Dyna-4 Capsule 1969
32. Tom Swift and his Cosmotron
Express 1970
33. Tom Swift and the Galaxy Ghosts 1971
34. Tom
Swift: The City in the Stars 1981
35. Tom Swift: Terror on the Moons
of Jupitor 1981
36. Tom Swift: The Alien Probe 1981
Another Tom Swift series was started and featured the son of Tom Swift Jr. also called Tom Swift, of course. The first one picks-up from the last book #36 as years later and continues the theme of that story.
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