Algumas vezes referido como Tom Swift, Jr., ele foi o personagem central em cinco séries que totalizaram 100 livros. As séries, escrita para jovens, dão ênfase a ciência, invenções e tecnologia. O personagem foi criado por Edward Stratemeyer, fundador do Stratemeyer Syndicate, uma empresa de livros por encomendas. As histórias foram escritas por vários "escritores-fantasmas", que usavam o pseudônimo coletivo de Victor Appleton (algumas vezes, “Victor Appleton II”).
A estréia do personagem foi em 1910 e suas aventuras continuaram até 2007. A maior parte das várias séries tinham as invenções de Tom como a trama central. Os personagens foram apresentados de diferentes jeitos durante os anos mas no geral os livros mostravam a ciência e a tecnologia como benéficas e os inventores causavam admiração na sociedade, além de também serem vistos como heróis.
Bibliografia
Appleton, Victor (1981). The City in the Stars. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN978-0-671-41115-2
Appleton II, Victor (1965). Tom Swift and His Polar-Ray Dynasphere. New York: Grosset & Dunlap
Bleiler, Everett Franklin; Richard Bleiler (1990). Science-fiction, the early years: a full description of more than 3,000 science-fiction stories from earliest times to the appearance of the genre magazines in 1930 : with author, title, and motif indexes. Ohio: Kent State University Press. ISBN978-0-87338-416-2
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Erardi, Glenn (13 December 2008). "Porcelains are 'Piano Babies'". The Berkshire Eagle (Pittsfield, MA). Accessed through Access World News on 23 May 2009.
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Gurko, Leo (1953). Heroes, highbrows, and the popular mind. New Hampshire: Ayer Publishing. ISBN978-0-8369-2160-1
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Kurzweil, Ray (2005). The singularity is near: when humans transcend biology. New York: Viking. ISBN978-0-670-03384-3
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Molson, Francis J (verão de 1985). «Three Generations of Tom Swift». Children's Literature Association Quarterly. 10 (2): 60–63. ISSN0885-0429. doi:10.1353/chq.0.0612
Nitrozac, Snaggy (2003). The Best of the Joy of Tech. California: O'Reilly. ISBN978-0-596-00578-8
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Prager, Arthur (dezembro de 1976). «Bless my collar button, if it isn't Tom Swift, the world's greatest inventor». American Heritage. 28 (1): 64
Prager, Arthur (1971). Rascals at Large, or, The Clue in the Old Nostalgia. New York: Doubleday. ISBN99974-860-7-2. OCLC200980
Pyle, Richard (16 August 1991). "Tom Swift tries to reinvent appeal". The Tampa Tribune, p. 1. Accessed through Access World News on 23 May 2009.
Sullivan, Charles William (1999). Sullivan, Charles William, ed. "American Young Adult Science Fiction Since 1947" in Young Adult Science Fiction. California: Greenwood Press. ISBN978-0-313-28940-8
Turner, Fred (2006). From counterculture to cyberculture: Stewart Brand, the Whole Earth Network, and the rise of digital utopianism. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN978-0-226-81741-5
Von der Osten, Robert (abril de 2004). «Four Generations of Tom Swift: Ideology in Juvenile Science Fiction». The Lion and the Unicorn. 28 (2): 268–283. doi:10.1353/uni.2004.0023