Appleton, Victor

Entry updated 12 September 2022. Tagged: Author, House name.

A House Name of the US Stratemeyer Syndicate, used mainly on the Don Sturdy series, and on the four Tom Swift series, which together constitute a central example of the importance and persistence of the Edisonade in US sf; for a detailed Tom Swift Checklist, see Tom Swift. Howard R Garis wrote the first 35 of the first series, which stopped at #38. The second series, which deals with Tom Swift, Jr, was initially the work of – or supervised by – Harriet Stratemeyer Adams, Edward Stratemeyer's daughter, though most of this sequence was actually written by Jim Lawrence; she generally upgraded the scientific side of the enterprise, though some of the flavour of the early Tom Swifts was lost. A third series began in 1981 and a fourth, with Byron Preiss as packager, in 1991. The first novel of the first series is Tom Swift and His Motor Cycle (1910), which is modest enough; but very soon, as in Tom Swift and His Giant Cannon (1913), the mundane world is left far behind. The second series begins with Tom Swift and His Flying Lab (1954) and mounts to titles like Tom Swift and His Repelatron Skyway (1963), which is by Lawrence. The third series began with The City in the Stars (1981) and ended with #11, The Planet of Nightmares (1984); writers involved included Neal Barrett Jr, Mike McQuay and William Rotsler. The fourth series begins with Tom Swift #1: The Black Dragon (1991) [by Bill McCay]; other writers involved include Debra Doyle and James D Macdonald in collaboration, Steven Grant, F Gwynplaine MacIntyre, Mike McQuay and Mike Sirota. (For further information see Tom Swift.) [JC]

see also: Children's SF.

"Victor Appleton"

works

For Don Sturdy see John William Duffield and Howard R Garis. For an overview of the various Tom Swift series, see Tom Swift; see also Howard R Garis for his contributions.

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