The Tom Swift series included more than forty novels for boys published by the Grosset & Dunlap Company between 1910 and 1941. Although most of the books in the series were published under the pen name "Victor Appleton," they were really written by writers working for the Stratemeyer Syndicate. The Stratemeyer Syndicate was a book packager that created juvenile literature under the supervision of its founder, Edward Stratemeyer (1862–1930). The writer responsible for most of the Tom Swift series was Howard Roger Garis (1873–1962). Over the years, the Tom Swift series sold some six million copies.

Tom Swift, the hero of the series, was an ingenious, plucky lad who used modern technology like electricity or steam power to outwit his rivals by creating new devices. In so doing, Tom Swift became a symbol of American creativity in an era that admired scientists and inventors like Thomas Edison (1847–1931) or the...