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Tom Swift

Tom Swift is the protagonist in a series of children's adventure novels from the early twentieth century. The stories featured technology (especially transport technology) as the real star.

The books were written quickly under the pseudonym Victor Appleton, who was really Howard Garis for most of the novels, and W. Bert Foster, John Duffield, and Thomas M. Mitchell for some others. The pseudonym was created by Edward Stratemeyer as part of his Stratemeyer Syndicate.

Another 33 books were written in the Tom Swift, Jr series.

A Tom Swifty is a type of pun. However, this sentence structure is not actually used in the text of the series volumes.

Books in The Original Tom Swift Series

  1. Tom Swift and His Motor Cycle: Fun and Adventure on the Road 1910
  2. Tom Swift and His Motor Boat: The Rivals of Lake Carlopa 1910
  3. Tom Swift and His Airship: The Stirring Cruise of the Red Cloud 1910
  4. Tom Swift and His Submarine Boat: Under the Ocean for Sunken Treasure 1910
  5. Tom Swift and His Electric Runabout: The Speediest Car on the Road 1910
  6. Tom Swift and His Wireless Message: The Castaways of Earthquake Island 1911
  7. Tom Swift Among the Diamond Makers: The Secret of Phantom Mountain 1911
  8. Tom Swift in the Caves of Ice: The Wreck of the Airship 1911
  9. Tom Swift and His Sky Racer: The Quickest Flight on Record 1911
  10. Tom Swift and His Electric Rifle: Daring Adventures on Elephant Island 1911
  11. Tom Swift in the City of Gold: Marvelous Adventures Underground 1912
  12. Tom Swift and His Air Glider: Seeking the Platinum Treasure 1912
  13. Tom Swift in Captivity: A Daring Escape by Airship 1912
  14. Tom Swift and His Wizard Camera: Thrilling Adventures While Taking Moving Pictures 1912
  15. Tom Swift and His Great Search Light: On the Border for Uncle Sam 1912
  16. Tom Swift and His Giant Cannon: The Longest Shots on Record 1913
  17. Tom Swift and His Photo Telephone: The Picture That Saved a Fortune 1914
  18. Tom Swift and His Aerial Warship: The Naval Terror of the Seas 1915
  19. Tom Swift and His Big Tunnel: The Hidden City of the Andes 1916
  20. Tom Swift in the Land of Wonders: The Underground Search for the Idol of Gold 1917
  21. Tom Swift and His War Tank: Doing His Bit for Uncle Sam 1918
  22. Tom Swift and His Air Scout: Uncle Sam's Mastery of the Sky 1919
  23. Tom Swift and His Undersea Search: The Treasure on the Floor of the Atlantic 1920
  24. Tom Swift Among the Fire Fighters: Battling with Flames in the Air (1921)
  25. Tom Swift and His Electric Locomotive: Two Miles a Minute on the Rails 1922
  26. Tom Swift and His Flying Boat: Castaways of the Giant Iceberg 1923
  27. Tom Swift and His Great Oil Gusher: The Treasure of Goby Farm 1924
  28. Tom Swift and His Chest of Secrets: Tracing the Stolen Inventions 1925
  29. Tom Swift and His Airline Express: From Ocean to Ocean by Daylight 1926
  30. Tom Swift Circling the Globe: The Daring Cruise of the Air Monarch 1927
  31. Tom Swift and His Talking Pictures: The Greatest Invention on Record 1928
  32. Tom Swift and His House on Wheels: A Trip around the Mountain of Mystery 1929
  33. Tom Swift and His Big Dirigible: Adventures Over the Forest of Fire 1930
  34. Tom Swift and His Sky Train: Overland Through the Clouds 1931
  35. Tom Swift and His Giant Magnet: Bringing Up the Lost Submarine 1932
  36. Tom Swift and His Television Detector: Trailing the Secret Plotters 1933
  37. Tom Swift and His Ocean Airport: Foiling the Haargolanders 1934
  38. Tom Swift and His Planet Stone: Discovering the Secret of Another World 1935
  39. Tom Swift and His Giant Telescope 1939
  40. Tom Swift and His Magnetic Silencer 1941

As of October 2002, 22 of the Tom Swift books are available as downloadable texts from Project Gutenberg