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Tom Swift Sr. #33
Tom Swift and His Big Dirigible, or, Adventures Over the Forest of Fire
"Tom Swift and his Big Dirigible, or, Adventures Over the Forest of Fire" by Howard R. Garis. Published by Good Press. Good Press publishes a wide range of titles that encompasses every genre. From well-known classics & literary fiction and non-fiction to forgotten−or yet undiscovered gems−of world literature, we issue the books that need to be read. Each Good Press edition has been meticulously edited and formatted to boost readability for all e-readers and devices. Our goal is to produce eBooks that are user-friendly and accessible to everyone in a high-quality digital format.
214 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1930
37 people want to read
About the author
Victor Appleton
350 books44 followersVictor 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
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
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
August 30, 2018
It had been many years since I read this Tom Swift book that my dad had when he was a kid in the 1930s. It was fun to read about Tom's amazing adventures building and flying his big dirgible.
February 8, 2020
It's what you'd expect. Giving allowances for the time it was written, or comparing it with what other science fiction juveniles were available & typical, might bump it up to 4, 4-1/2 stars.
April 18, 2020
Tom constructs a giant dirigible for a crazy man and the uses it to save people from a forest fire.
November 4, 2013
My edition leaves out the subtitle and is just called "Tom Swift and His Big Dirigible," but since everyone natters on about how damn dry the forest is the word go, the subtitle isn't really much of a spoiler. I have a small collection of hard-cover Tom Swifts, probably first editions. They seemed impossibly ancient when I first read them, although this one was only 45 years old at the time. Now it's pushing 85, which doesn't seem so old. It must have been printed on the most acidic paper available, though, because the pages are browned and brittle; it SEEMS like a much older book than it actually is.
How does the writing hold up? Not as bad as I expected! "Victor Appleton," if that was a real person, was clearly a very capable writer! And, I'm guessing he cranked this stuff out at least a chapter a day, basically sending first drafts in to the publisher, where a red pencil was ceremonially waved over the manuscript before it was set to type. The plotting, characterization, and dialog are all perfectly wooden, but no worse than in most mass-produced genre fiction down the ages.
The two servants of color who hate each other because they compete for the love of Master or "Massa" Swift are a bit much to swallow, and should have been in 1930, and the dialect writing for the Swift family's faithful "Negro" is a national embarrassment. Points to the Appleton machine, I guess, for including two sympathetic Italian characters to counterbalance the evil Italian character. And, it is interesting in a young adult serial novel to see the author make gestures towards explaining how things work -- you actually come out of "Big Dirigible" with a sense of young Mr. Swift's management style, credit standing, and ability to weigh immediate profit against the possibility for publicity and relationship-building when putting together a contract.
Three stars was just sentimental -- these books are from my childhood. This book "was OK": two stars it is.
How does the writing hold up? Not as bad as I expected! "Victor Appleton," if that was a real person, was clearly a very capable writer! And, I'm guessing he cranked this stuff out at least a chapter a day, basically sending first drafts in to the publisher, where a red pencil was ceremonially waved over the manuscript before it was set to type. The plotting, characterization, and dialog are all perfectly wooden, but no worse than in most mass-produced genre fiction down the ages.
The two servants of color who hate each other because they compete for the love of Master or "Massa" Swift are a bit much to swallow, and should have been in 1930, and the dialect writing for the Swift family's faithful "Negro" is a national embarrassment. Points to the Appleton machine, I guess, for including two sympathetic Italian characters to counterbalance the evil Italian character. And, it is interesting in a young adult serial novel to see the author make gestures towards explaining how things work -- you actually come out of "Big Dirigible" with a sense of young Mr. Swift's management style, credit standing, and ability to weigh immediate profit against the possibility for publicity and relationship-building when putting together a contract.
Three stars was just sentimental -- these books are from my childhood. This book "was OK": two stars it is.
April 29, 2017
Like all of the books in the original “Tom Swift” series, the modern reader should read this one with the historical context firmly in mind. It was first published in 1930, so some of the more blatant racist dialog and settings that appear in the earlier episodes are not present. The two black men of Koko and Eradicate are in the story, but their dialog and actions are subdued. The story is much better with that change.
As the title suggests, in this episode Tom Swift is commissioned to construct a very large dirigible that will be the fastest and most luxurious ship in the sky. A major scientific blunder is made on page 25, where the author clearly has their gases confused.
“The greater part of the oralum envelope, of course, was filled with a new and powerful lifting gas, perfected by Tom Swift and his father. It was not as explosive as nitrogen, but not quite as safe as helium.”
It seems clear that the author should have written “hydrogen” rather than the very unreactive “nitrogen,” the most plentiful gas in the atmosphere.
The invention featured in this episode is not a revolutionary one, by the end of the 1920s dirigibles had been around for some time, including being used as bombers in the Great War. The only significant difference is the size of the ship and the plan to use it as a luxury form of travel.
The writing is typical of the early Tom Swift books, there are attempts to generate tension, but the author does not always succeed. However, if you read the book after putting your mind into the proper decade, then it can be entertaining. If nothing else it is a flashback to how much of juvenile science fiction was written in the twenties and thirties.
As the title suggests, in this episode Tom Swift is commissioned to construct a very large dirigible that will be the fastest and most luxurious ship in the sky. A major scientific blunder is made on page 25, where the author clearly has their gases confused.
“The greater part of the oralum envelope, of course, was filled with a new and powerful lifting gas, perfected by Tom Swift and his father. It was not as explosive as nitrogen, but not quite as safe as helium.”
It seems clear that the author should have written “hydrogen” rather than the very unreactive “nitrogen,” the most plentiful gas in the atmosphere.
The invention featured in this episode is not a revolutionary one, by the end of the 1920s dirigibles had been around for some time, including being used as bombers in the Great War. The only significant difference is the size of the ship and the plan to use it as a luxury form of travel.
The writing is typical of the early Tom Swift books, there are attempts to generate tension, but the author does not always succeed. However, if you read the book after putting your mind into the proper decade, then it can be entertaining. If nothing else it is a flashback to how much of juvenile science fiction was written in the twenties and thirties.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews