The Complete Tom Swift Jr. Home Page

Last Updated: 1/17/2007

New! The Tom Swift Discussion Group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/tom-swift/

"These are the books about a young scientist whose amazing inventions promise to be the great achievements of the future."

Hi! Welcome to the Complete Tom Swift Jr. Home Page. Tom Swift Jr., in case you didn't know, is the name of one of the most fantastic scientific inventors of all juvenile literature. The series that he starred in appeared in 1954 and lasted for 33 books, finally ending in 1971. The series, however, didn't die there; some of the older Tom Swift books are still in print today.

The reason I created this page is mainly to discuss and ponder over the incredible machines of Tom Swift. Tom, in his day, dreamed up some incredible inventions -- inventions such as a telescope with no maximum range; a beam that can repel anything; a machine that can create matter from sunlight; and a device that can "photograph" what an old, worn object looked like when it was first created (just to name a few). Many of these inventions have no equivalent counterpart in the mainstream science fiction books of today.

As I thought this over, I began to wonder why this was the case. Are any of Tom's inventions actually possible? What would their impact be if they were put into use today? How might life be different? As I thought things over, I decided to put up a page that was dedicated to just such speculation, and here it is! Also, if you ever get curious and want some detailed information on the series, I've provided a list of links to sites that can fulfill just such curiosity.

Here is how this works. Following is a complete list of all the Tom Swift Jr. books ever written. Each item on the list is actually a link; click on the book that you want information for. The dates listed by the names, by the way, are the years in which the books were published.

 

  1. Tom Swift and his Flying Lab (1954)
  2. Tom Swift and his Jetmarine (1954)
  3. Tom Swift and his Rocket Ship (1954)
  4. Tom Swift and his Giant Robot (1954)
  5. Tom Swift and his Atomic Earth Blaster (1954)
  6. Tom Swift and his Outpost in Space (1955)
  7. Tom Swift and his Diving Seacopter (1956)
  8. Tom Swift in the Caves of Nuclear Fire (1956)
  9. Tom Swift on the Phantom Satellite (1956)
  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)
  15. Tom Swift and his Spectromarine Selector (1960)
  16. Tom Swift and the Cosmic Astronauts (1960)
  17. Tom Swift and the Visitor from Planet X (1961)
  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 3D 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)

 

Other Tom Swift Jr. Books and Items:

Tom Swift Lives! - An amazing source of Tom Swift fan fiction. Someone has rewritten many Tom Swift Jr books and posted several entirely new stories. These books are written in the classic style of Victor Appleton II and should not be missed!

New! The Tom Swift Discussion Group - Want to talk Tom Swift? Then this is the place to be! This is a free e-mail-based discussion group, home to a large collection of Tom Swift fans. Come on in and join!

The Tom Swift/Linda Craig Mystery Hour -- Did you know that there was a Tom Swift TV show? 

The Fold-Out Ad in Tom Swift and his Aquatomic Tracker -- Did you know about the rare fold-out ad in the back of Tom Swift Jr. #23?

The TIME Tom Swift article -- Did you ever see the article in TIME announcing the debut of the new Tom Swift Jr series? If not, now's your chance! (Courtesy of JP Karenko - thanks!)

The Tom Swift Game (1966) -- Did you know about the ultra-rare Tom Swift game?

The Tom Swift Activity Book (1978) -- Did you know that there is a Tom Swift Activity Book?

The British Tom Swift Books -- Had you heard about the Tom Swift books reprinted by Collins in Great Britain?

Tom Swift Jr. Handbook of Science Experiments -- Did you know that a book of science experiments, starring Tom Swift himself, was planned by the Stratemeyer Syndicate? I've done an article on it, complete with scans of some of the documents.

 

A ranking of all the Tom Swift Jr. books, from best to worst, complete with an explanation. Be sure to check this out!

 

Questions?

 

Questions? Comments? Please e-mail me! My e-mail address can be found on this webpage.

 

 

Links to Other Articles:

Errors and Inconsistencies in the Tom Swift series -- by James D. Keeline

Advice for collecting Tom Swift Jr. books -- What I have learned, from experience, on how to find Tom Swift Jr. books, how much to pay for them and what to look for.

Advice for collecting old Tom Swift books -- Same as above, only this one's on the old Tom Swift series.

The Inter-Library Exchange Program -- Want to read that Tom Swift book that you've never managed to find? Read this to find out how you can read a copy of that book for free.

Looking for Books on The Internet -- Want to get together a complete set of Tom Swift books within a few months? Read this to find out how.

Should Tom Swift and the Galaxy Ghosts be rewritten? -- My thoughts on what has to be the worst book in the entire series.

Copyright Information -- This site -- all of it -- was created solely for educational purposes. Tom SwiftÆ is a trademark of Simon & Schuster, Inc. This sight has nothing to do with Simon and Schuster and is not affiliated with them in any way.

 

The Complete Tom Swift Sr. Home Page -- some information (it's just barely started) on the Tom Swift Sr. series

The Complete Ted Scott Home Page -- some information (well, almost none, actually) on the Ted Scott Aviation series.

The Dig Allen Space Explorers Home Page -- if you want information on this old but great series, this is the place to go.

The Starman Series Home Page -- information on a new series of books, hot off the presses, that attempts to bring the same qualities and excitement of all our old favorite series books to the current generation.

The Great Series Book Links Page -- an ever-expanding page filled with links to all sorts of sites that discuss and/or sell various series books

  All documents on this site are Copyright © 2007 by Jonathan K. Cooper. All rights reserved.