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Jules Verne and the Tom Swift books

From: James Keeline <james~at~keeline.com>
Date: Wed, 16 Jun 2010 14:40:46 -0700 (PDT)
To: Jules Verne Forum <jvf~at~gilead.org.il>

While researching the popular American juvenile fiction books with a character named Tom Swift, I have wondered about the inspirations for some of the fantastic inventions in those stories. One of these is his Electric Rifle which was, itself, the named inspiration for the TASER after "Tom Swift and His Electric Rifle" (1911). That device shoots "wireless bullets" of energy to stun or kill a target.

Of course, an obvious inspiration for this is the underwater rifle from Twenty Thousand Leagues. And indeed I wrote about this many years ago in a conference presentation article:

http://www.keeline.com/articles/NAJVS-Electric_Rifle.pdf

A related article deals with the associations between 20K and another story owned by Edward Stratemeyer called the Wizard of the Sea (Mershon, 1900). This story is a copy of a Bracebridge Hemyng story that follows much of the concept and plot of 20K.

http://www.keeline.com/articles/PCA1996-Verne-Stratemeyer.pdf

In many ways, the Tom Swift books bridged the years between Jules Verne and the Gernsback-era pulp magazines of the 1920s and beyond. Indeed they inspired many writers such as Robert Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, Harper Lee, Clive Cussler, and Stan Lee. They also inspired young people to enter fields of science and engineering in ways that parallel the citations of inspirations to enter marine work by 20K, geology by JCE, or astronomy/space travel by the Moon stories.

The first five Tom Swift books were published in July 1910 and were entitled Tom Swift and his Motor Cycle, Motor Boat, Airship, Submarine Boat, and Electric Runabout. These books were advertised with an explicit goal of inspiring youth in their career paths.

Since this year is the 100th anniversary of these popular books (which were followed by four more series and a total of 105 volumes) we considered it important to mark the occasion with an anniversary convention. Details may be found below. I hope some of you may join us for this event.

James D. Keeline
NAJVS

100th Anniversary Tom Swift Convention (July 16-18, San Diego)
http://TomSwiftEnterprises.com http://www.CafePress.com/TS100
Received on Thu 17 Jun 2010 - 00:40:54 IDT

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