remember Tom Swift books?
Toronto. As a youth, I had a neighbour who had a collection of the old Tom Swift books (original series) which he offered to let me read. I was only allowed one book at a time and had to return it for another. I only read two or three … .
Tom Swift was a juvenile book series that predated the Nancy Drew series and the Hardy Boys series. Young Tom was an inventor and tinkerer. Many of the books covered recent inventions or things talked about but not yet a reality.
What made the Tom Swift books more interesting were the puns buried in the text (readers began seeking them out). Many years later a pun phrase in the series became known as a “Tom Swifty” or “Swifty”.
In the books, “Tom” invented many popular devices including a portable movie camera – in this case in the 1912 book titled, “Tom Swift and his Wizard Camera“. Such a gadget wasn’t practical at the time. This seems to be as close as young Tom ever came to any camera as still photography was ‘old hat’ by the beginning of the book series in the early 1900s.
The Wizard Camera book and others can be easily read electronically today. For example, here is a text version of ‘Wizard Camera”readable with most computers or smartphones. When the book was published, movies were rising in popularity in America and books about movies and movie cameras were popular.
Check out the links shown above and enjoy the adventures of young Tom Swift once again against the background of today.
