Zane H. Healy wrote:
Tom Swift? Never heard of 'em... It's either way before my time, or
one of
the many things that never managed to get across the Atlantic...
It probably never made it across the Atlantic.
First series 1910-1930's
Second Series 1950's through 1960's (still being sold in very early 80's)
Third Series 1980's
Fourth Series (not sure when this came out or if it's still going).
The best two series are the first two, and the third is set in the
future with really no tie in. The Tom Swift of the first series, is
the father in the second. Basically it's a series of "Scientific"
adventure books for boys. I managed to complete my set of the second
series while I was still in school, and I'm now about two-thirds, to
three-quarters of the way through finishing a set of the First series.
Both of the first two series would probably be considered to be very
dated, and downright humorous by todays youth. Hopefully when the
time comes, my kids will read my collections of Tom Swift, Hardy Boys,
Nancy Drew, Happy Hollisters, and others. I've got over a full sized
bookcase of the genre packed away from when I was a kid (including two
different versions of many of the original Hardy Boys stories).
For what it's worth, Project Gutenberg has a selection of
Tom Swift books if anyone wants to read them.
Go To
http://www.gutenberg.org/catalog/
And enter "Tom Swift" in the title search bar.
Most are available in several formats (HTML, Text, etc...)
there's probably a list of them somewhere in chronological
order, but that is left as an exercise for the student...