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The Archive · Author dossier

Victor Appleton

Active
1910 – 1939
Works held
15

‘Victor Appleton’ was never a real author: it was a house pseudonym owned by the Stratemeyer Syndicate, the fiction factory behind the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew. Under this shared byline a rotating team of ghostwriters produced the Tom Swift series of boy-inventor adventures, an enormously popular early strand of American science fiction whose gadget-driven optimism shaped generations of young readers. (A later ‘Victor Appleton II’ byline covered the 1950s–60s Tom Swift Jr. books.) The name credits a franchise, not an individual.

The works

  1. 1939
    Cover of Tom Swift and His Giant Telescope Tom Swift and His Giant Telescope
  2. 1928
    Cover of Tom Swift and his talking pictures Tom Swift and his talking pictures
  3. 1926
    Cover of Tom Swift and his airline express Tom Swift and his airline express
  4. 1925
    Cover of Tom Swift and his chest of secrets Tom Swift and his chest of secrets
  5. 1923
    Cover of Tom Swift and his flying boat; Tom Swift and his flying boat;
  6. 1922
    Cover of Tom Swift and His Electric Locomotive; Or, Two Miles a Minute on the Rails Tom Swift and His Electric Locomotive; Or, Two Miles a Minute on the Rails
  7. 1921
    Cover of Tom Swift Among the Fire Fighters; Or, Battling with Flames from the Air Tom Swift Among the Fire Fighters; Or, Battling with Flames from the Air
  8. 1919
    Cover of Tom Swift and His Air Scout; Or, Uncle Sam's Mastery of the Sky Tom Swift and His Air Scout; Or, Uncle Sam's Mastery of the Sky
  9. 1918
    Cover of Tom Swift and His War Tank; Or, Doing His Bit for Uncle Sam Tom Swift and His War Tank; Or, Doing His Bit for Uncle Sam
  10. 1916
    Cover of Tom Swift and His Big Tunnel; Or, The Hidden City of the Andes Tom Swift and His Big Tunnel; Or, The Hidden City of the Andes
  11. 1915
    Cover of Tom Swift and His Aerial Warship; Or, The Naval Terror of the Seas Tom Swift and His Aerial Warship; Or, The Naval Terror of the Seas
  12. 1914
    Cover of Tom Swift and His Photo Telephone or the Picture That Saved a Fortune Tom Swift and His Photo Telephone or the Picture That Saved a Fortune
  13. 1912
    Cover of Tom Swift and His Air Glider; Or, Seeking the Platinum Treasure Tom Swift and His Air Glider; Or, Seeking the Platinum Treasure Cover of Tom Swift in Captivity, Or, A Daring Escape By Airship Tom Swift in Captivity, Or, A Daring Escape By Airship
  14. 1910
    Cover of Tom Swift and His Electric Runabout; Or, The Speediest Car on the Road Tom Swift and His Electric Runabout; Or, The Speediest Car on the Road

Wrote across

1910s1920s1930s

Recurring themes

JuvenileAdventureHard SF

Kindred authors shared themes

Frank Belknap LongFrank R. StocktonLuis SenarensAlan Edward NourseAlbert DaiberAlfred CoppelAnonymousArthur Conan Doyle

Contemporaries writing in the same era

VariousEdgar Rice BurroughsRobert E. HowardL. Frank BaumH. P. LovecraftEdmond HamiltonRay CummingsRuth Plumly ThompsonLord DunsanyH. G. Wells

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