Tom Swift
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Tom Swift is the young protagonist in several series of juvenile adventure novels, the first of which began in the early twentieth century. Publication of Tom Swift books continues to the present. Each such series stars a hero named Tom Swift who is a genius inventor and whose breakthroughs in technology (especially transport technology) drive the plots of the novels, placing them in a genre sometimes called "invention fiction" or "Edisonade". Some of the later heroes might be considered the same character after a rebooted continuity, but in at least one series, Tom Swift is identified as a relative of the original Tom Swift.
The Tom Swift books have had an influence on science, technology, and popular culture. Asteroid (1941) Tomswift is named in honor of this fictional inventor, and the Taser is an acronym for the "Thomas A. Swift Electric Rifle"[1] (although the character's middle name was never provided). Computer developer Steve Wozniak has stated that he grew up reading the Tom Swift, Jr. series, and regarded the charater as the epitome of creative freedom, scientific knowledge, and the ability to find solutions to problems. For him Tom Swift also represented the potential rewards that invention might bring.[2] Tom Swifties are a type of pun ("'I just invented a better lightbulb,' said Tom brightly.") named after the character.[3]
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[edit] Creation of character
The first books were outlined by Edward Stratemeyer and his Stratemeyer Syndicate, written by ghostwriters hired by the Syndicate, and all credited to the house name of Victor Appleton. Later books were written by Stratemeyer's daughter Harriet Stratemeyer Adams and others under her supervision.
Since the sale of the Stratemeyer Syndicate in 1986 to publishers Simon and Schuster, the Tom Swift books, along with other Stratemeyer Syndicate series, have been written by ghostwriters hired by book packager Mega-Books.[4]
[edit] Overview of the various Tom Swift series
The first and second series are connected directly and constitute one continuous saga, beginning with Tom Swift ("Senior") and proceeding with stories about his son Tom Swift Junior. The original character and others from the first series make frequent appearances in the second. The third series has a young character named Tom Swift, but strict continuity with the preceding series was dropped, the milieu was futuristic and the theme was less "invention" than interstellar exploration. The fourth and fifth series, each independent of its series predecessors, returned to the "young inventor" plotting approach, though, in the case of Tom Swift IV, with a stronger science-fiction element than was usual in the original Tom Swift or Tom Swift Jr. series. The traditional pseudonym of "Victor Appleton" ("Victor Appleton II" in Tom Swift Jr.) was used for all five series by their authors, fleshing out plots and formulae provided by series owners and editors. The later series have had brief runs in comparison to the first two series.
[edit] Original series (1910–1941)
The original Tom Swift has been claimed to represent what Americans of the early 20th century "believed inventors to be."[5] Tom is
not a college-trained scientist or engineer.... He is a better experimenter than anyone else ... very interested in the commercial applications of his inventions.... Tom is not a loner stumbling upon his inventions while working in a solitary lab. Instead, he heads what today would be called a research team whose task, however, is not original research but finding practical applications of someone else's "pure" research.[6]
In comparison to son Tom Jr., Tom Sr.'s aerial, mechanical, and electrical inventions are based on "essentially contemporary technological developments - one book focuses on a motorcycle and another on an air glider"[7] Other inventions were not in development at the time the books were published, but have since been developed, among them the "photo telephones", vertical takeoff aircraft, aerial warships, giant cannons, and "wizard" cameras.
Tom's adventures are also more closely tied to events and public issues of the time than are the later series. Tom used his Electric Runabout to avert a run on a bank. During the Great War, Tom was secretly working on his War Tank and could not enlist, leading to fears that he was a slacker. Several of his inventions related to the war.
The series has been criticized for its anti-Semitism, and Tom Swift and His Talking Pictures singled out in particular as "a compendium of anti-Jewish stereotypes."[8] The series has also been criticized for racism in its portrayal of African-Americans.[9] In Thomas Pynchon's short story "The Secret Integration" (1964), the "boy genius" Grover is tormented by Tom Swift books which constantly appear around his home. Discussing the matter with his friend Tim, he wonders whether his parents are trying to make him into an inventor or a racist (the latter because of the stereotypes applied to African-American character Eradicate Sampson).
Several researchers and authors (most notably John Dizer)[citation needed] have noted a parallel between Tom Swift's early career and that of real-life aviation pioneer Glenn Curtiss.
[edit] Second series (1954–1971)
The first series is continued and extended. Now Tom Sr. is the CEO of a four-mile-square "invention factory" (and private airport) called Swift Enterprises. Though Tom Sr. engages in various kinds of research and still does a bit of inventing, it is now his son who carries on the tradition of the famous name. His inventions poke a bit into science-fiction territory as the series progresses (extraterrestrials named the space friends appear as early as the first volume) but there is still an emphasis on plausible scientific and engineering developments, however doubtful certain of the details. In one way or the other, these adventures extend from the center of the Earth to the bottom of the ocean to the moon and, eventually, the outer solar system, with stops along the way at African antimatter volcanoes, lost New Guinea cities, and various wandering asteroids.
[edit] Third series (1981–1984)
A third Tom Swift series, unofficially called TSIII, differs from all the others. Instead of placing Tom and Swift Enterprises in a contemporary American context on Earth, the setting is primarily outer space. Tom and a troupe of friends of both sexes , a robot named "Aristotle", and several races explore the universe in the starship Excedra, using a faster-than-light drive which Tom has reverse-engineered from an alien space probe. This series maintains only an occasional and loose connection to the continuity of the two previous series. (The title character is specifically stated to be the son of "'the great Tom Swift'" [10] and to be "already an important and active contributor to the family business, the giant multimillion-dollar scientific-industrial complex known as Swift Enterprises." [11].) Strangely, Shopton and Swift Enterprises has mysteriously moved from upstate New York to New Mexico.
[edit] Fourth series (1991–1993)
The fourth series starring the young inventor is entirely set on Earth (with occasional space trips to the Moon) and makes some slight narrative reference not to the third series but rather back to the Tom Swift Jr. series. Characters named Harlan Ames and Phil Radnor make an appearance, and the fourth series sees that Tom's new nemesis, Xavier "the Black Dragon" Mace, has acquired a facility at Lake Carlopa in New York State previously owned by "Swift Enterprises." [12] The location of Swift Enterprise's '4 mile complex' is now outside Los Angeles.
The fourth series is perhaps the most rigorously connected to the science and technology of its time; for example, one of Tom's inventions for improving telescope resolution using a laser has in fact been implemented, and information technology plays as important a role in TSIV as do the super-vehicles the series has always been associated with.
The fourth series engendered two spin-off Ultra Thriller books in which Tom joined forces with another Stratemeyer Syndicate property, the Hardy Boys. This two-volume series was released using the Franklin W. Dixon pseudonym of the Hardy Boys books; however, these titles are generally viewed as being part of the fourth Tom Swift series.[citation needed]
[edit] Fifth series (2006–2007)
The fifth series of books starring Tom Swift is a series of paperback books. Many fans refer to this series as Tom Swift V. The books in this series are written in first person narrative style, which is a break with the style of the previous series, but similar to the Hardy Boys Undercover Brothers and Nancy Drew, Girl Detective paperbacks also being published concurrently. As of January 2008, this is the first Tom Swift series with under 10 publications.
[edit] Cultural impact
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Lists of miscellaneous information should be avoided. Please relocate any relevant information into appropriate sections or articles. (August 2007) |
The impact on contemporary culture that the character and the invention theme of the books have had is indicated by:
Willie Aames appeared as Tom Swift along with Lori Loughlin as Linda Craig in a television special, "The Tom Swift and Linda Craig Mystery Hour", which aired on July 3, 1983. (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0306144/)
A reference to Tom Swift is made in Haruki Murakami's Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World in which the protagonist calls the state-of-the-art elevator he's in a "Tom Swift elevator".
The format of the book titles is also occasionally used humorously or satirically, as for example Tom Swift and His Electrical Girlfriend.
Computer designer Lee Felsenstein was creating the Tom Swift Terminal, as described in chapter 9 of "Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution" to be used in the Community Memory project. Though never finished, the terminal's design influenced the "Sol" computer he created for Processor Technology.
In an episode of the 1980s television series Moonlighting, David refers to Maddie's astronaut boyfriend as "Tom Swift".
In the "Princeton, February 1916" episode of "The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles", young Indiana Jones is seen reading "Tom Swift and his Electric Runabout" at the start of the episode, which seems to be an inspiration for the episode as Indy helps recover Thomas Edison's stolen new invention- an electric car.
[edit] Notes
- ^ Ijames.
- ^ "Spirit of American Innovation: The Personal Computer is Born." http://www.thetech.org/nmot/detail.cfm?ID=17&STORY=2&st=showall&qt=/
- ^ [1]
- ^ Plunkett-Powell, Karen. The Nancy Drew Scrapbook. Page 29.
- ^ Molson, Francis J. "American Technological Fiction for Youth: 1900-1940." In Sullivan, Charles William. Young Adult Science Fiction. Page 9-10.
- ^ Molson, Francis J. "American Technological Fiction for Youth: 1900-1940." In Sullivan, Charles William. Young Adult Science Fiction. Page 10.
- ^ Sullivan, C.W. III. "American Young Adult Science Fiction Since 1947. In Sullivan, Charles William. Young Adult Science Fiction. Page 23.
- ^ Carr, Steven Allan. Hollywood and Anti-Semitism. Page 134.
- ^ Carr, Steven Allan. Hollywood and Anti-Semitism. Page 135.
- ^ Appleton, Victor, pseud. (1981). The City in the Stars, p. 38. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-671-41115-2.
- ^ Appleton, Victor, pseud. (1981). The City in the Stars, p. 10-11. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-671-41115-2.
- ^ Appleton, Victor, pseud. (1991). The Black Dragon. New York: Simon Pulse. ISBN 0-671-67823-X.
[edit] References
- Billman, Carol (1986). The Secret of the Stratemeyer Syndicate. Ungar. ISBN 0804420556.
- Carr, Steven Alan (2001). Hollywood and Anti-Semitism: A cultural history up to World War II. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 052179854X.
- Duntemann, Jeff. "Tom Swift, Jr.: An Appreciation". http://www.duntemann.com/tomswift.htm. Retrieved on 2 May 2009.
- Ijames, Steve (14 May 2005). "TASER today: Controversy, credibility & control considerations". http://www.policeone.com/police-products/less-lethal/taser/articles/100546-TASER-today-Controversy-credibility-control-considerations/. Retrieved on 2 May 2009.
- Molson, Francis J (1999). Sullivan, Charles William. ed. "American Technological Fiction for Youth: 1900–1940" in Young Adult Science Fiction. Greenwood. ISBN 0313289409.
- Molson, Francis (Summer 1985). "Three Generations of Tom Swift". Children's Literature Association Quarterly 10 (2): 60-63. doi:.
- Plunkett-Powell, Karen (1993). The Nancy Drew Scrapbook: 60 years of America's favorite teenage sleuth. St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0312098812.
- Prager, Arthur (December 1976). "Bless my collar button, if it isn't Tom Swift, the world's greatest inventor". http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/ah/1976/1/1976_1_64.shtml. Retrieved on 2 May 2009.
- Prager, Arthur (1971). Rascals at Large, or, The Clue in the Old Nostalgia. Doubleday. ISBN 9997486072.
- Sullivan, Charles William (1999). Sullivan, Charles William. ed. "American Young Adult Science Fiction Since 1947" in Young Adult Science Fiction. Greenwood. ISBN 0313289409.
- Von der Osten, Robert (April 2004). "Four Generations of Tom Swift: Ideology in Juvenile Science Fiction". The Lion and the Unicorn 28 (2): 268-283. doi:.
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