Victor Appleton was a house pseudonym used by the Stratemeyer Syndicate and its successors, most famous for being associated with the Tom Swift series of books. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_...
The character of Tom Swift was conceived in 1910 by Edward Stratemeyer, founder of the Stratemeyer Syndicate, a book-packaging company. Stratemeyer invented the series to capitalize on the market for children's science adventure. The Syndicate's authors created the Tom Swift books by first preparing an outline with all the plot elements, followed by drafting and editing the detailed manuscript. The books were published under the house name of Victor Appleton. Edward Stratemeyer and Howard Garis wrote most of the volumes in the original series; Stratemeyer's daughter, Harriet Stratemeyer Adams, wrote the last three volumes. The first Tom Swift series ended in 1941. In 1954, Harriet Adams created the Tom Swift, Jr., series, which was published under the name "Victor Appleton II". Most titles were outlined and plotted by Adams. The texts were written by various writers, among them William Dougherty, John Almquist, Richard Sklar, James Duncan Lawrence, Tom Mulvey and Richard McKenna. The Tom Swift, Jr., series ended in 1971. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Swift
Perhaps one of the least-plausible in the series, but as far as space opera for the 10-and-under crowd, it excels. The Star Wars influences are strong with a Death Star-esque giant battle planetoid ruled by a ruthless emperor bent on galactic conquest as well as Tom and his friends' adventure to escape and fly off in the Millennium Falcon, er, Exedra. (As a side note, I wonder if General Hux's line about having the Rebel fleet "tied on the end of a string" with regards to their lightspeed tracer was at all inspired by someone who'd read this as a kid--as it refers to the stardrive tracers that appear here.)