Tom Swift and His Giant Telescope

Tom Swift Sr. #39

by Victor Appleton

This book is part of the TREDITION CLASSICS. It contains classical literature works from over two thousand years. Most of these titles have been out of print and off the bookstore shelves for decades. The book series is intended to preserve the cultural legacy and to promote the timeless works of classical literature. Readers of a TREDITION CLASSICS book support the mission to save many of the amazing works of world literature from oblivion. With this series, tredition intends to make thousands of international literature classics available in printed format again - worldwide.

Genres: Science Fiction, Childrens, Fiction

216 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1939

About the author

Victor Appleton was a house pseudonym used by the Stratemeyer Syndicate and its successors, most famous for being associated with the Tom Swift series of books.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_...

The character of Tom Swift was conceived in 1910 by Edward Stratemeyer, founder of the Stratemeyer Syndicate, a book-packaging company. Stratemeyer invented the series to capitalize on the market for children's science adventure. The Syndicate's authors created the Tom Swift books by first preparing an outline with all the plot elements, followed by drafting and editing the detailed manuscript. The books were published under the house name of Victor Appleton. Edward Stratemeyer and Howard Garis wrote most of the volumes in the original series; Stratemeyer's daughter, Harriet Stratemeyer Adams, wrote the last three volumes. The first Tom Swift series ended in 1941.
In 1954, Harriet Adams created the Tom Swift, Jr., series, which was published under the name "Victor Appleton II". Most titles were outlined and plotted by Adams. The texts were written by various writers, among them William Dougherty, John Almquist, Richard Sklar, James Duncan Lawrence, Tom Mulvey and Richard McKenna. The Tom Swift, Jr., series ended in 1971.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Swift

Reviews

[Rex Libris · Rating 3 out of 5]

In this installment creates a super telescope lens from a mystery substance that was found on a meteorite. In the process of building his giant telescope he invents bendable glass, battles intellectual property thieves, and does a deep sea dive to recover more meteorite.

Once he builds his telescope, he discovers a thriving civilization of aliens on Mars.

Alas, this was the last of the freebies of the Tom Swift books I was able to find on Gutenberg. I hope they convert the rest some time soon.

[Matthew Quirk · Rating 2 out of 5]

The early Tom Swift series is hardly a place to look for racial equality and well written minority characters, but this book is almost physically painful to read. It's a perfect storm of "comic" dialect, physical prowess with infantilized intellect and cringeworthy interaction between the extremely white main characters and their uniformly minority sidekicks and servants.

[David Ivester]

Nice illustrations.