![]() “That doesn’t add up,” said Tom nonplussed. “Watch what you’re doing with that paddle,” said Tom, awestruck. “This tooth extraction could take forever,” said Tom with infinite wisdom. “I just dropped the toothpaste,” said Tom crestfallenly. “Don’t try to pull the wool over my eyes,” Tom said sheepishly. “I lost my trousers,” said Tom expansively. “Let’s trap that sick bird,” Tom said illegally. “Don’t you love sleeping outdoors,” Tom said intently. “I can’t find the oranges,” said Tom fruitlessly. “Welcome to my tomb,” said Tom cryptically. “The lemon is too sour,” Tom said bitterly. “My favorite authors are Slaughter and Hemingway,” Tom said frankly and earnestly. This type of sentence became known as a “Tom Swifty.” For example, “I can’t find the box of oranges,” said Tom fruitlessly or “Put that knife down,” said Tom sharply. ![]() A popular word game that began in the 1950’s was the adverbial pun, a type of Wellerism (introduced by Charles Dickens’ character Sam Weller in The Pickwick Papers), to satirize Statemeyer’s overused sentence construction. Stratemeyer, and the writers that followed him, tended to over-use adverbs to modify the verb “said.” For example, “Let’s run to the field,” said Tom excitedly or “Hand me the keys!” Tom said emphatically. As of 2009, the Tom Swift book series has sold more than 30 million books (compare that to the Hardy Boys series, another successful Stratemeyer creation, that has sold more than 70 million books since 1927).Īnother impact of the Tom Swift books was the rise of a clever word game. ![]() Swift’s Electric Rifle.” The Tom Swift canon influenced many notable science fiction writers like Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, and Ray Kurzweil. Over the several decades, different writers have continued writing Tom Swift adventures for new generations of children. In fact the word TASER is an acronym of “Thomas A. Many of Swift’s inventions, like a fax machine, hand-held movie camera and taser, predated the actual invention by several decades. In some ways, Swift was the early 20th-century version of Jimmy Newtron, or a Tesla for teens. The protagonist, Tom Swift, is portrayed as a hero and scientific genius (modeled after famous inventors of the time - Thomas Edison and Henry Ford). The very popular adventures of Tom Swift appeared in a series of books (40 volumes), published from 1910 to 1941. ![]() Stratemeyer wrote under the pseudonym of Victor Appleton. More than a century ago, Edward Stratemeyer, the founder of a book-packaging company, created the character of Tom Swift. ![]()
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