A popular series of forty boys' novels published by Grosset & Dunlap between 1910 and 1941, the Tom Swift books were mostly published under the pen name "Victor Appleton," though they were produced by the Stratemeyer Syndicate, a book packager that created other popular juvenile literature. Attempts were made to revive the series three times over the years, once in the 1950s with the Tom Swift, Jr. books, and again in the 1980s and 1990s, but they were never as successful as the originals. The hero of the first series was Tom Swift, a young inventor, portrayed as a plucky, ingenious figure who used modern technology and American know-how to create new devices and foil his rivals. An excerpt from an advertisement written by Edward Stratemeyer (1862-1930) for the first Tom Swift books characterizes the scope of this series: "It is the purpose of these spirited tales...