Small House of Everything

Small House of Everything

Friday, May 27, 2016

FORGOTTEN BOOK: TOM SWIFT AND HIS GIANT TELESCOPE (1939)

Tom Swift and His Giant Telescope by "Victor Appleton" (in this case, Thomas Moyston Mitchell)


Tom Swift, young inventor, first arrived in 1910 in Tom Swift and His Motorcycle, or, Fun and Adventure on the Road, which introduced Tom, his chum Ned Newton, and his fathers, cientist Barton Swift.  Although the first two books in the series were mundane juvenile adventures, young Tom soon began to tinker with way in science fiction territory where his inventions were as astounding as his adventures.  Tom wove his way into the hearts of young readers, first with a series of forty novels from 1910 to 1941, then, as "Tom Swift, Jr.," with a series of 33 novels from 1954 to 1971.  Since then there have been an additional 30 books in three additional series, ending in 2007. Over 30,000,000 Tom Swift books have been sold worldwide.

Tom Swift was invented by publisher Edward Stratemeyer, who had developed a syndicate to churn out hundreds of books for young readers.  Most of the Tom Swift books were written by Howard Garis from a brief outline usually written by Stratemeyer.  Statemeyer's daughter, Harriet, wrote the last three book in the series that were published by Grosset & Dunlap.  (Harriet would later produce the Tom Swift, Jr. series.)  The last two books published in the original series were written by Thomas Moyston Mitchell and were published by Whitman as "Better Little Books" (think Big Little Books, but...well, I guess...better).  These two Better Little Books measured bout 3 5/8" by 4 1/2" by 1 1/2" to make it easy for young hands to hold.  The first of these two books, Tom Swift and His Giant Telescope, was heavily (and poorly, IMHO) illustrated by James Gray.  (The second, Tom Swift and His Magnetic Silencer was illustrated by J.R. White.  According to Whitman's BLB internet page, the second was specifically written and illustrated to fit the BLB size requirements.)

Both books measured 432 pages, but when you consider the size of type and the heavy use of whte space and illustrations, each book shrinks down to about an hour's reading time.  One sentence paragraphs.  Little description.  Huge leaps from scene to scene.  And why give the neer-do-wells motivation?

The plot is simple.  In the previous book, 1935's Tom Swift and His Planet Stone (written by Harriet Stratemeyer Adams), Tom investigated a large meteor that had landed in a jungle land.  Tom had the recovered a part of the meteor and brought it to his lab.  Now Tom has extracted a material from the meteor which is either an unknown compound or an unknown element (toss a coin, take your pick).  With this material he has devised a new type of powerful lens.  Tom arranged to have the meteor shipped to him so he can get enough material to make a much larger lens.  Tom, you see, has hypothesized that the meteor was sent by intelligent beings from Mars.  With a larger lens, he can direct the telescope to Mars and prove his theory.  Alas, the ship carrying the meteor encountered a bad storm and had to jettison the cargo at sea.  Plucky Tom races to where he has determined the meteor was dumped in order to raise it (and rescuing two divers from a giant fish at the same time).
Meanwhile, two neer-do-wells (remember them?) steal Tom's formula for the powerful lens.  All
ends well and Tom discovers an advanced Martian civilization although neither he (nor the sereis) does anything with the discovery,

Let me admit than I am a fan of the original Tom Swift series.  I've read about twenty of them and found them all to have a charming innocence and innovation that is appealing.  (I gloss over the inherent racism and xenophobia that is prevelent in books of that time.)  The move to Better Little Books, however, sucked the life out of the series.  

If I had my druthers, the original series would have ended at 38 books, rather than 40.


8 comments:

  1. I occasionally run across this old Tom Swift books and buy them. I didn't know there were 40 volumes in the series. I have a long way to go...

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    1. I've found them to be a decent palate cleanser between much weightier books, George, and they have a charm all their own. I usually read two or three in a row before going on to "more important" stuff.

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    3. When I was growing up in northern Manitoba, the town had no library or bookstore. Our school had a very small library and for some reason all the Tom Swift books were there. I had no interest in science and science fiction and still don't, but I did read them. Despite the time I spend in thrift stores that usually have a vintage book section and used bookstores I haven't seen a Tom Swift for years.

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  2. Jerry, I read Tom Swift years ago and this makes me really nostalgic. I;ll probably have to read them in public domain now that they are available free legally.

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    1. Prashant, thirty of the forty books are readily available in the public domain. Hae fun!

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  3. It's the Tom Swift JR. books that I read and liked a lot when I was a kid. I tried a couple of these earlier books and could barely get through them.

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