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85-941: Harry Sinclair Lewis (February 7, 1885 – January 10, 1951) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and playwright. In 1930 , he became the first author from the United States (and the first from the Americas ) to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature , which was awarded "for his vigorous and graphic art of description and his ability to create, with wit and humor, new types of characters." Lewis wrote six popular novels: Main Street (1920), Babbitt (1922), Arrowsmith (1925), Elmer Gantry (1927), Dodsworth (1929), and It Can't Happen Here (1935). Several of his notable works were critical of American capitalism and materialism during

170-538: A feature film ) was unoriginal and that Dreiser himself was first approached to write it, which was disputed by the wife of Arrowsmith 's subject, microbiologist Dr. Paul de Kruif . The feud carried on for some months. In 1944, Lewis campaigned to have Dreiser recognized by the American Academy of Arts and Letters . After an alcoholic binge in 1937, Lewis checked in for treatment to the Austen Riggs Center ,

255-547: A "white" section of the city. Lewis' creation of the novel was preceded by his introduction to the black community via Edward Francis Murphy , a Josephite priest with whom he had attended school as a child. Kingsblood was a powerful and very early contribution to the civil rights movement . In 1943, Lewis went to Hollywood to work on a script with Dore Schary , who had just resigned as executive head of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer 's low-budget film department to concentrate on writing and producing his own films. The resulting screenplay

340-673: A Gentle Man , appeared in 1914, followed by The Trail of the Hawk: A Comedy of the Seriousness of Life (1915) and The Job (1917). That same year also saw the publication of another potboiler, The Innocents: A Story for Lovers , an expanded version of a serial story that had originally appeared in Woman's Home Companion . Free Air , another refurbished serial story, was published in 1919. Upon moving to Washington, D.C. , Lewis devoted himself to writing. As early as 1916, he began taking notes for

425-501: A U.S. Army lieutenant during World War II , Wells Lewis was killed in action on October 29, 1944 amid Allied efforts to rescue the "Lost Battalion" in France. Dean Acheson , the future Secretary of State , was a neighbor and family friend in Washington, and observed that Sinclair's literary "success was not good for that marriage, or for either of the parties to it, or for Lewis's work" and

510-552: A book by Dorothy Thompson, Lewis's wife, which led to a well-publicized fight, wherein Dreiser repeatedly slapped Lewis. Thompson initially made the accusation in 1928 regarding her work "The New Russia" and Dreiser's "Dreiser Goes to Russia", though The New York Times also linked the dispute to competition between Dreiser and Lewis over the Nobel Prize. Dreiser fired back that Sinclair's 1925 novel Arrowsmith (adapted later that year as

595-516: A competing (and ethically dubious) high-technology company. A sixth series, Tom Swift Inventors' Academy , published by Simon and Schuster, debuted in July 2019 with #1 The Drone Pursuit and #2 The Sonic Breach . A total of eight books were published, concluding with #8 Depth Perception in March 2022. Parker Brothers produced a Tom Swift board game in 1966, although it was never widely distributed, and

680-513: A facility for turning out shallow, popular stories that were purchased by a variety of magazines. He also earned money by selling plots to London, including one for the latter's unfinished novel The Assassination Bureau, Ltd . Lewis's first published book was Hike and the Aeroplane , a Tom Swift -style potboiler that appeared in 1912 under the pseudonym Tom Graham. Sinclair Lewis's first serious novel, Our Mr. Wrenn: The Romantic Adventures of

765-484: A farmhouse and many outbuildings. By 1948, Lewis had created a gentleman's farm consisting of 720 acres (290 ha) of agricultural and forest land. His intended residence in Williamstown was short-lived because of his medical problems. In 1914 Lewis married Grace Livingston Hegger (1887–1981), an editor at Vogue magazine. They had one son, Wells Lewis (1917–1944), named after British author H. G. Wells . Serving as

850-552: A few friends among the students and professors, some of whom recognized his promise as a writer. Lewis's earliest published creative work—romantic poetry and short sketches—appeared in the Yale Courant and the Yale Literary Magazine , of which he became an editor. After graduation Lewis moved from job to job and from place to place in an effort to make ends meet, writing fiction for publication and to chase away boredom. In

935-460: A few years, sales were estimated at two million. Richard Lingeman wrote in 2002, " Main Street made [Lewis] rich—earning him about 3 million current dollars" (almost $ 5 million, as of 2022). Lewis followed up this first great success with Babbitt (1922), a novel that satirized the American commercial culture and boosterism . The story was set in the fictional Midwestern town of Zenith, Winnemac ,

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1020-417: A four-mile-square enclosed facility where inventions are conceived and manufactured. Tom's son, Tom Swift Jr., is now the primary inventive genius of the family. Stratemeyer Syndicate employee Andrew Svenson described the new series as based "on scientific fact and probability, whereas the old Toms were in the main adventure stories mixed with pseudo-science". Three PhDs in science were hired as consultants to

1105-430: A knowledge of theory. The series differs from previous versions of the character, however, in that Tom's inventive genius is portrayed as problematic and sometimes dangerous. As Robert Von der Osten argues, Tom's inventions for this series often have unexpected and negative repercussions. a device to create a miniature black hole which casts him into an alternative universe; a device that trains muscles but also distorts

1190-526: A meeting with the chancellor of the University of Wisconsin–Madison and a tour of the campus. Lewis immediately became enthralled with the university and the city and offered to remain and teach a course in creative writing in the upcoming semester. For a month he was quite enamored of his professorial role. Suddenly, on November 7, after giving only five classes to his select group of 24 students, he announced that he had taught them all that he knew. He left Madison

1275-427: A miniature computer. This series maintains only an occasional and vague continuity with the two previous series. Tom is called the son of "the great Tom Swift" and said to be "already an important and active contributor to the family business, the giant multimillion-dollar scientific-industrial complex known as Swift Enterprises". However, as critic Francis Molson indicates, it is not explained whether this Tom Swift

1360-488: A motel room to escape the authorities. There was a derivative of this series featuring Tom Swift and the Hardy Boys called A Hardy Boys & Tom Swift Ultra Thriller that was published from 1992 to 1993, and only had 2 volumes released. Both books dealt with science fictional topics (time travel and aliens landing on earth). The fifth series, Tom Swift, Young Inventor , returns Tom Swift to Shopton, New York, with Tom as

1445-555: A name for a type of adverbial pun promulgated during the 1950s and 1960s, a type of wellerism known as " Tom Swifties ". Originally this kind of pun was called a "Tom Swiftly" in reference to the adverbial usage. Over time, it has come to be called a "Tom Swifty". Some examples are " 'I lost my crutches,' said Tom lamely", and " 'I'll take the prisoner downstairs', said Tom condescendingly." Tom Swift's fictional inventions have apparently inspired several actual inventions, among them Lee Felsenstein 's "Tom Swift Terminal", which "drove

1530-411: A novelist. Compared to ... Fitzgerald , Hemingway , Dos Passos , and Faulkner  ... Lewis lacked style. Yet his impact on modern American life ... was greater than all of the other four writers together. Compared to his contemporaries, Lewis's reputation suffered a precipitous decline among literary scholars throughout the 20th century. Despite his enormous popularity during the 1920s, by

1615-476: A problem or mystery, or in assisting Tom in feats of exploration or rescue. Often Tom must protect his new invention from villains "intent on stealing Tom's thunder or preventing his success," but Tom is always successful in the end. Many of Tom Swift's fictional inventions describe actual technological developments or predate technologies now considered commonplace. Tom Swift Among the Diamond Makers (1911)

1700-566: A psychiatric hospital in Stockbridge, Massachusetts . His doctors gave him a blunt assessment that he needed to decide "whether he was going to live without alcohol or die by it, one or the other." Lewis checked out after ten days, lacking any "fundamental understanding of his problem", as one of his physicians wrote to a colleague. In the autumn of 1940, Lewis visited his old acquaintance, William Ellery Leonard , in Madison, Wisconsin. Leonard arranged

1785-482: A realistic novel about small-town life. Work on that novel continued through mid-1920, when he completed Main Street , which was published on October 23, 1920. His biographer Mark Schorer wrote in 1961 that the phenomenal success of Main Street "was the most sensational event in twentieth-century American publishing history". Lewis's agent had the most optimistic projection of sales at 25,000 copies. In its first six months, Main Street sold 180,000 copies, and within

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1870-532: A setting to which Lewis returned in future novels, including Arrowsmith , Elmer Gantry , Gideon Planish and Dodsworth . Lewis continued his success in the 1920s with Arrowsmith (1925), a novel about the challenges faced by an idealistic doctor. It was awarded the Pulitzer Prize , which Lewis declined, still upset that Main Street had not won the prize. It was adapted as a 1931 Hollywood film directed by John Ford and starring Ronald Colman which

1955-645: A seven-volume set published in 2007 by Edwin Mellen Press . The first attempt to collect all of Lewis's short stories. 1930 Nobel Prize in Literature Sinclair Lewis was a prolific author having written 24 novels, more than 70 short stories, several plays and poetry collections. He is well known for the satirical novels Main Street (1920), Babbitt (1922), Dodsworth (1929), and It Can't Happen Here (1935) – all of which critical acknowledgments of American capitalism and materialism in

2040-447: A teenager, is inventive and science-minded, "Swift by name and swift by nature." Tom is portrayed as a natural genius. In the earlier series, he is said to have had little formal education, the character modeled originally after such inventors as Henry Ford , Thomas Edison , aviation pioneer Glenn Curtiss and Alberto Santos-Dumont . For most of the six series, each book concerns Tom's latest invention, and its role either in solving

2125-413: A television special, The Tom Swift and Linda Craig Mystery Hour , which was broadcast on July 3. It was a ratings failure. In 2007, digital studio Worldwide Biggies acquired movie rights to Tom Swift and announced plans to release a feature film and video game, followed by a television series. As of 2015, these plans had not come to fruition. Tom Swift appeared in the episode "The Celestial Visitor" from

2210-450: A year were being sold and a 1929 study found the series to be second in popularity only to the Bible for boys in their early teens. By 2009, Tom Swift books had sold more than 30 million copies worldwide. The success of Tom Swift also paved the way for other Stratemeyer creations, such as The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew . The series' writing style, which was sometimes adverb heavy, suggested

2295-399: Is not a glorification of everything American, a glorification of our faults as well as our virtues," and that America is "the most contradictory, the most depressing, the most stirring, of any land in the world today." He also offered a profound criticism of the American literary establishment: "Our American professors like their literature clear and cold and pure and very dead." After winning

2380-508: Is occasionally mentioned. Tom Swift explores the universe in the starship Exedra , using a faster-than-light drive he has reverse-engineered from an alien space probe. He is aided by Benjamin Franklin Walking Eagle, a Native American who is Tom's co-pilot, best friend, and an expert computer technician, and Anita Thorwald, a former rival of Tom's who now works with him as a technician and whose right leg has been rebuilt to contain

2465-751: Is the first, which consists of 40 volumes. Tom's son ( Tom Swift Jr. ) was also the name of the protagonist of the 33 volumes of the Tom Swift Jr. Adventures, the 11 volumes of the third Tom Swift series, the 13 volumes of the fourth, and a half-dozen more for the most recent series, Tom Swift, Young Inventor, for a total of 103 volumes for all the series. In addition to publication in the United States, Tom Swift books have been published extensively in England, and translated into Norwegian , French , Icelandic , and Finnish . "All right, Dad. Go ahead, laugh." "Well, Tom, I'm not exactly laughing at you ... it's more at

2550-400: Is the grandson of the famous Tom Swift of the first series or still the Tom Swift Jr. of the second. The Tom Swift of this third series is less of an inventor than his predecessors, and his inventions are rarely the main feature of the plot. Still, according to Molson, "Tom the inventor is not ignored. Perhaps the most impressive of his inventions and the one essential to the series as a whole

2635-438: Is the robot he designs and builds, Aristotle, which becomes a winning and likeable character in its own right." The books are slower-paced than the Tom Swift Jr. adventures of the second series, and include realistic, colloquial dialogue. Each volume begins where the last one ended, and the technology is plausible and accurate. The fourth series featuring Tom Swift (again a "Jr.") is set mostly on Earth (with occasional voyages to

Sinclair Lewis - Misplaced Pages Continue

2720-506: Is uncharacteristically nonplussed and needs support." However, as the series progresses, Tom's inventions "show an increasingly independent genius as he develops devices, such as an electric rifle and a photo telephone, further removed from the scientific norm". Some of Tom's inventions are improvements of then-current technologies, while other inventions were not in development at the time the books were published, but have since been developed. "Did you have time to learn anything?" Bud asked

2805-567: The Central Railroad of New Jersey began using the first diesel electric locomotive . The house on wheels that Tom invents for 1929's Tom Swift and His House on Wheels pre-dated the first house trailer by a year. Tom Swift and His Diving Seacopter (1952) features a flying submarine similar to one planned by the United States Department of Defense four years later in 1956. Other inventions of Tom's have not happened, such as

2890-553: The interwar period . Lewis is respected for his strong characterizations of modern working women. H. L. Mencken wrote of him, "[If] there was ever a novelist among us with an authentic call to the trade ... it is this red-haired tornado from the Minnesota wilds." Lewis was born February 7, 1885, in the village of Sauk Centre, Minnesota , to Edwin J. Lewis, a physician of Welsh descent, and Emma Kermott Lewis. He had two older siblings, Fred (born 1875) and Claude (born 1878). His father

2975-477: The 21st century most of his works had been eclipsed in prominence by other writers with less commercial success during the same time period, such as F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway . Since the 2010s there has been renewed interest in Lewis's work, in particular his 1935 dystopian satire It Can't Happen Here . In the aftermath of the 2016 United States presidential election , It Can't Happen Here surged to

3060-553: The Moon); Swift Enterprises is now located in California. In the first book, The Black Dragon , it's mentioned that Tom is the son of Tom Swift Sr. and Mary Nestor. The books deal with what Richard Pyle describes as "modern and futuristic concepts" and, as in the third series, feature an ethnically diverse cast of characters. Like the Tom Swift Jr. series, the series portrays Tom as a scientist as well as an inventor whose inventions depend on

3145-632: The Nobel Prize, Lewis wrote eleven more novels, ten of which appeared in his lifetime. The best remembered is It Can't Happen Here (1935), a novel about the election of a fascist to the American presidency. After praising Dreiser as "pioneering", that he "more than any other man, marching alone, usually unappreciated, often hated, has cleared the trail from Victorian and Howellsian timidity and gentility in American fiction to honesty and boldness and passion of life" in his Nobel Lecture in December 1930, in March 1931 Lewis publicly accused Dreiser of plagiarizing

3230-1242: The Swedish Academy's Nobel Committee received 47 nominations for 30 writers. Thirteen of the authors were first-time nominated among them Theodore Dreiser , Edgar Lee Masters , Frans Eemil Sillanpää (awarded in 1939 ), Arvid Järnefelt , Paul Valéry , Lion Feuchtwanger , Rudolf Kassner , and Clotilde Crespo de Arvelo . The highest number of nomination was for the French poet and essayist Paul Valéry with six nominations. There were three female nominees: Concha Espina de la Serna , Clotilde Crespo de Arvelo and Edith Wharton . The authors Arthur St John Adcock , Vladimir Arsenyev , Florence Bell , Edward Bok , Alice Williams Brotherton , Mary Whiton Calkins , Herbert Croly , Georges de Porto-Riche , Arthur Conan Doyle , Florbela Espanca , Mary Eleanor Wilkins Freeman , Thomas Nicoll Hepburn , Pavlos Karolidis , D. H. Lawrence , William John Locke , Vladimir Mayakovsky , Olena Pchilka , Maria Polydouri , Marion Manville Pope , George Haven Putnam , Karam Singh , Arthur Way , Lucien Wolf , Joseph Wright , and Manuel Zeno Gandía died in 1930 without having been nominated for

3315-547: The United States to receive the award, after he had been nominated by Henrik Schück , member of the Swedish Academy . In the academy's presentation speech, special attention was paid to Babbitt . In his Nobel Lecture, Lewis praised Theodore Dreiser , Willa Cather , Ernest Hemingway , and other contemporaries, but also lamented that "in America most of us—not readers alone, but even writers—are still afraid of any literature which

3400-512: The West was finally published in 1963, with a foreword by Schary detailing the work's origins, the authors' creative process, and the screenplay's ultimate fate. Sinclair Lewis had been a frequent visitor to Williamstown, Massachusetts. In 1946, he rented Thorvale Farm on Oblong Road. While working on his novel Kingsblood Royal , he purchased this summer estate and upgraded the Georgian mansion along with

3485-513: The Wind author Margaret Mitchell was also known to have read the first series as a child. Filmmaker George Lucas shows the 16-year-old Indiana Jones reading a Tom Swift novel — and the author Edward Stratemeyer himself appearing as a character — in the episode Spring Break Adventure of the television series Young Indiana Jones . The Tom Swift Jr. series was also a source of inspiration to many. Scientist and television presenter Bill Nye said

Sinclair Lewis - Misplaced Pages Continue

3570-1032: The age of 13, he ran away from home and unsuccessfully tried to become a drummer boy in the Spanish–American War . In late 1902, Lewis left home for a year at Oberlin Academy (the then-preparatory department of Oberlin College ) to qualify for acceptance at Yale University . While at Oberlin, he developed a religious enthusiasm that waxed and waned for much of his remaining teenage years. Lewis later became an atheist. He entered Yale in 1903, but did not receive his bachelor's degree until 1908, taking time off to work at Helicon Home Colony , Upton Sinclair 's cooperative-living colony in Englewood , New Jersey , and to travel to Panama . Lewis's undistinguished looks, country manners and seeming self-importance made it difficult for him to win and keep friends at Oberlin and Yale. He did make

3655-439: The books] is, in fact, understood to be a set of theories that are developed based on experimentation and scientific discussion. Rather than being opposed to technological advances, such a theoretical understanding becomes essential to invention." Tom Swift Jr.'s Cold War -era adventures and inventions are often motivated by patriotism, as Tom repeatedly defeats the evil agents of the fictional nations "Kranjovia" and "Brungaria",

3740-406: The character has appeared in one television show. Various Tom Swift radio programs, television series, and movies were planned and even written, but were either never produced or not released. As early as 1914, Edward Stratemeyer proposed making a Tom Swift movie, but no such movie was made. A Tom Swift radio series was proposed in 1946. Two scripts were written, but, for unknown reasons, the series

3825-453: The circus in search of a better life in the real world, first published in Cosmopolitan magazine. The story was acquired by Walt Disney Pictures in 1940 for a possible feature film. World War II sidetracked those plans until 1947. Disney used the story (now titled "Bongo") as part of its feature Fun and Fancy Free . In 1930 Lewis won the Nobel Prize in Literature, the first writer from

3910-606: The creation of an early personal computer known as the Sol ", and the taser . The name "taser" was originally "TSER", for "Tom Swift Electric Rifle". The invention was named for the central device in the story Tom Swift and His Electric Rifle (1911); according to inventor Jack Cover , "an 'A' was added because we got tired of answering the phone 'TSER'." A number of scientists, inventors, and science fiction writers have also credited Tom Swift with inspiring them, including Ray Kurzweil , Robert A. Heinlein , and Isaac Asimov . Gone with

3995-684: The device for silencing airplane engines that he invents in Tom Swift and His Magnetic Silencer (1941). The character of Tom Swift was conceived about 1910 by Edward Stratemeyer , founder of the Stratemeyer Syndicate , a book-packaging business, although the name "Tom Swift" was first used in 1903 by Stratemeyer in Shorthand Tom the Reporter; Or, the Exploits of a Bright Boy . Stratemeyer invented

4080-415: The earlier series, many of Tom Jr.'s inventions are designed to operate in space, and his "genius is unequivocally original as he constructs nuclear-powered flying labs, establishes outposts in space, or designs ways to sail in space on cosmic rays". Unlike his father, Tom Jr. is not just a tinkerer; he relies on scientific and mathematical theories, and, according to critic Robert Von der Osten, "science [in

4165-493: The early 20th-century conception of inventors. Tom has no formal education after high school; according to critic Robert Von der Osten, Tom's ability to invent is presented as "somehow innate". Tom is not a theorist but a tinkerer and, later, an experimenter who, with his research team, finds practical applications for others' research; Tom does not so much methodically develop and perfect inventions as find them by trial and error. Tom's inventions are not at first innovative. In

4250-497: The family moved out of town. Lewis divorced Grace on April 16, 1925. On May 14, 1928, he married Dorothy Thompson , a political newspaper columnist. Later in 1928, he and Dorothy purchased a second home in rural Vermont. They had a son, Michael Lewis (1930–1975), who became a stage actor. Their marriage had virtually ended by 1937, and they divorced in 1942. Lewis died in Rome from advanced alcoholism, on January 10, 1951, aged 65. His body

4335-411: The first two books of the series, he fixes a motorcycle and a boat, and in the third book he develops an airship, but only with the help of a balloonist. Tom is also at times unsure of himself, asking his elders for help; as Von der Osten puts it, "the early Tom Swift is more dependent on his father and other adults at first and is much more hesitant in his actions. When his airship bangs into a tower, Tom

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4420-401: The idea than anything else. The idea of talking over a wire and, at the same time, having light waves, as well as electrical waves passing over the same conductors!" "All right, Dad. Go ahead and laugh. I don't mind," said Tom, good-naturedly. "Folks laughed at Bell , when he said he could send a human voice over a copper string ..." — Tom Swift and His Photo Telephone (1912) In

4505-595: The interwar period. His 1920 novel became a commercial success but did not win a Pulitzer Prize , which disappointed Lewis much that he declined the Pulitzer Prize when it was awarded to his novel Arrowsmith in 1925. Lewis had not been nominated before for the prize, making him one of the laureates who won on a rare occasion when they have been awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature the same year they were first nominated. He received only one nomination from Swedish Academy member Henrik Schück (1855–1947). In total,

4590-571: 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 using the pseudonym "Victor Appleton II" as author. The main character Tom Swift, Junior, was described as the son of the original Tom Swift. Most of the stories 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. A third series

4675-566: The latter a place that critic Francis Molson describes as "a vaguely Eastern European country, which is strongly opposed to the Swifts and the U.S. Hence, the Swifts' opposition to and competition with the Brungarians is both personal and patriotic." The third Tom Swift series differs from the first two in that the setting is primarily outer space, although Swift Enterprises (located now in New Mexico )

4760-559: The lecture circuit" by Lewis biographer Richard Lingeman. In the early 1940s, Lewis lived in Duluth, Minnesota. During this time, he wrote the novel Kingsblood Royal (1947), set in the fictional city of Grand Republic, Minnesota, an enlarged and updated version of Zenith. It is based on the Sweet Trials in Detroit in which an African-American doctor was denied the chance to purchase a house in

4845-449: The loin cloth, and with their kinky hair stuck full of sticks", and as "wild, savage and ferocious ... like little red apes". The Tom Swift books have been credited with assisting the success of American science fiction and with establishing the edisonade (stories focusing on brilliant scientists and inventors) as a basic cultural myth. Tom Swift's adventures have been popular since the character's inception in 1910: by 1914, 150,000 copies

4930-503: The mind of the user; and a genetic process which, combined with the effect of his black hole, results in a terrifying devolution . Genius here begins to recapitulate earlier myths of the mad scientist whose technological and scientific ambitions are so out of harmony with nature and contemporary science that the results are usually unfortunate. The series features more violence than previous series; in The Negative Zone , Tom blows up

5015-688: The next day. In the 1940s, Lewis and rabbi-turned-popular-author Lewis Browne frequently appeared on the lecture platform together, touring the United States and debating before audiences of as many as 3,000 people, addressing such questions as "Has the Modern Woman Made Good?", "The Country Versus the City", "Is the Machine Age Wrecking Civilization?", and "Can Fascism Happen Here?". The pair were described as "the Gallagher and Shean of

5100-562: The original series, Tom Swift lives in fictional Shopton, New York . He is the son of Barton Swift, the founder of the Swift Construction Company. Tom's mother is deceased, but the housekeeper, Mrs. Baggert, functions as a surrogate mother. Tom usually shares his adventures with close friend Ned Newton, who eventually becomes the Swift Construction Company's financial manager. For most of the series, Tom dates Mary Nestor. It has been suggested that his eventual marriage to Mary led to

5185-604: The pilot are known to exist, though the pilot script is available. In 1977, Glen A. Larson wrote an unproduced television pilot show entitled "TS, I Love You: The Further Adventures of Tom Swift". This series was to be combined with a Nancy Drew series, a Hardy Boys series, and a Dana Girls series. Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys were eventually combined into a one-hour program The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries with alternating episodes. A Tom Swift media project finally came to fruition in 1983 when Willie Aames appeared as Tom Swift along with Lori Loughlin as Linda Craig in

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5270-481: The prize. The choice of Sinclair Lewis received mixed reactions. The British and European press were, in general, favourable. But in the United States reactions among critics and commentators were largely negative, dismissing Lewis' writing artistically and politically. Tom Swift Tom Swift is the main character of six series of American juvenile science fiction and adventure novels that emphasize science, invention, and technology. Inaugurated in 1910,

5355-439: The role of the inventor in society as admirable and heroic. Translated into many languages, the books have sold more than 30 million copies worldwide. Tom Swift has also been the subject of a board game and several attempted adaptations into other media. Tom Swift has been cited as an inspiration by various scientists and inventors, including aircraft designer Kelly Johnson . In his various incarnations , Tom Swift, usually

5440-435: The second season of The CW 's Nancy Drew with Tian Richards portraying the character as a black, gay, billionaire inventor. The episode is a backdoor pilot for a spin-off project titled Tom Swift , in development at The CW. In August 2021, Tom Swift was ordered straight-to-series and premiered on May 31, 2022 on The CW. In February 2022, Ashleigh Murray joined the cast as Zenzi Fullington. Due to poor ratings,

5525-426: The second series use the pseudonym Victor Appleton II for the author. For this series, and some later ones, the main character is " Tom Swift Jr. " New titles have been published again from 2019 after a gap of about ten years, roughly the time that has passed before every resumption. Most of the series emphasized Tom's inventions. The books generally describe the effects of science and technology as wholly beneficial, and

5610-405: The sequence of series comprises more than 100 volumes. The first Tom Swift – later, Tom Swift Sr. – was created by Edward Stratemeyer , the founder of the Stratemeyer Syndicate , a book packaging firm. Tom's adventures have been written by various ghostwriters , beginning with Howard Garis . Most of the books are credited to the collective pseudonym " Victor Appleton ". The 33 volumes of

5695-418: The series increasingly emphasized the extraterrestrial "space friends", as they are termed throughout the series. The beings appear as early as the first volume of the series, Tom Swift and His Flying Lab (1954). The Tom Swift Jr., Adventures were less commercially successful than the first series, selling 6 million copies total, compared with sales of 14 million copies for the first series. In contrast to

5780-491: The series to capitalize on the market for children's science adventures. The Syndicate's authors created the Tom Swift stories by first preparing an outline with the plot elements, followed by drafting and editing the detailed manuscript. The books were published using the house pseudonym " Victor Appleton ". Howard Garis wrote most of the volumes of the original series; Stratemeyer's daughter, Harriet Stratemeyer Adams , wrote

5865-596: The series to ensure scientific accuracy. The younger Tom does not tinker with motorcycles; his inventions and adventures extend from deep within the Earth (in Tom Swift and His Atomic Earth Blaster [1954]) to the bottom of the ocean (in Tom Swift and His Diving Seacopter [1956]) to the Moon (in Tom Swift in the Race to the Moon [1958]) and, eventually, the outer Solar System (in Tom Swift and His Cosmotron Express [1970]). Later volumes of

5950-457: The series was cancelled on June 30 that year. Tom Swift and His Electric Rifle (published 1911) depicts Africans as brutish, uncivilized animals, and the white protagonist as their paternal savior. In the book, as in America today, the black people are rendered as either passive, simple and childlike, or animalistic and capable of unimaginable violence. They are described in the book at various points as "hideous in their savagery, wearing only

6035-461: The series' demise, as young boys found a married man harder to identify with than a young, single one; however, after the 1929 marriage the series continued for 12 more years and eight further volumes. Regularly appearing characters include Wakefield Damon, an older man, whose dialogue is characterized by frequent use of such whimsical expressions as "Bless my brakeshoes!" and "Bless my vest buttons!" The original Tom Swift has been claimed to represent

6120-409: The son of Tom Swift and Mary Nestor, the names of characters of the original Tom Swift series. The series features inventions that are close to current technology "rather than ultra-futuristic". In several of the books, Tom's antagonist is The Road Back (TRB), an anti-technology terrorist organization. Tom's personal nemesis is Andy Foger, teenage son of his father's former business partner who now owns

6205-818: The summer of 1908, Lewis worked as an editorial writer at a newspaper in Waterloo, Iowa . He moved to the Carmel-by-the-Sea writers' colony near Monterey, California , in September 1908, to work for the MacGowan sisters and to meet poet George Sterling in person. He left Carmel after six months, moving to San Francisco where Sterling helped him get a job at the San Francisco Evening Bulletin. Lewis returned to Carmel in spring 1910 and met Jack London . While working for newspapers and publishing houses he developed

6290-489: The title role. The film won two more awards as well. Lewis next published Dodsworth (1929), a novel about the most affluent and successful members of American society. He portrayed them as leading essentially pointless lives in spite of great wealth and advantages. The book was adapted for the Broadway stage in 1934 by Sidney Howard , who also wrote the screenplay for the 1936 film version directed by William Wyler , which

6375-826: The top of Amazon 's list of best-selling books. Scholars have found parallels in his novels to the COVID-19 crisis , and to the rise of Donald Trump . He has been honored by the U.S. Postal Service with a postage stamp in the Great Americans series . In 1960 Polish American sculptor Joseph Kiselewski was commissioned to create a bust of Lewis, now in the Great River Regional public library in Sauk Centre, MN. Babbitt, Mantrap and Cass Timberlane were published as Armed Services Editions during WWII. Samuel J. Rogal edited The Short Stories of Sinclair Lewis (1904–1949) ,

6460-452: The young inventor. Tom shrugged. "A little. I was using my new gadget as a wave trap or antenna to capture light of a single wave length from certain stars so I could study their red shift ." From Tom Swift and His Polar-Ray Dynasphere (1965). In this series, presented as an extension and continuation of the first, the Tom Swift of the original series is now the CEO of Swift Enterprises,

6545-578: Was Storm In the West , "a traditional American western" — except for the fact that it was also an allegory of World War II, with primary villain Hygatt ( Hitler ) and his henchmen Gribbles ( Goebbels ) and Gerrett ( Goering ) plotting to take over the Franson Ranch, the Poling Ranch, and so on. The screenplay was deemed too political by MGM studio executives and was shelved, and the film was never made. Storm In

6630-483: Was a great success at the time. The film is still highly regarded; in 1990, it was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry , and in 2005 Time magazine named it one of the "100 Best Movies" of the past 80 years. During the late 1920s and 1930s, Lewis wrote many short stories for a variety of magazines and publications. " Little Bear Bongo " (1930) is a tale about a bear cub who wants to escape

6715-432: Was a stern disciplinarian, who had difficulty relating to his sensitive, unathletic third son. Lewis's mother died in 1891. The next year Edwin married Isabel Warner, who young Lewis apparently liked. Lewis began reading books while young, and kept a diary. Throughout his lonely boyhood, the ungainly child—tall, extremely thin, stricken with acne and somewhat pop-eyed—had trouble making friends and pined after local girls. At

6800-401: Was based on Charles Parsons 's attempts to synthesize diamonds using electric current. Tom Swift and His Photo Telephone was published in 1912. Sending photographs by telephone was not fully developed until 1925. Tom Swift and His Wizard Camera (1912) features a portable movie camera, not invented until 1923. Tom Swift and His Electric Locomotive (1922) was published two years before

6885-626: Was begun in 1981 and lasted until 1984. The rights to the Tom Swift character, along with the Stratemeyer Syndicate, were sold in 1984 to publishers Simon & Schuster . They hired New York City book packaging business Mega-Books to produce further series. Simon & Schuster has published three more Tom Swift series: one from 1991 to 1993; Tom Swift, Young Inventor from 2006 to 2007; and Tom Swift Inventors Academy from 2019 to present—eight volumes as of Depth Perception (March 2022). The longest-running series of books to feature Tom Swift

6970-643: Was cremated and his remains were buried at Greenwood Cemetery in Sauk Centre, Minnesota . His final novel World So Wide (1951) was published posthumously. William Shirer , a friend and admirer of Lewis, argued that Lewis did not die from alcoholism. He reported that Lewis had a heart attack and that his doctors advised him to stop drinking if he wanted to live. Lewis did not stop, and perhaps could not; he died when his heart stopped. In summarizing Lewis's career, Shirer stated: It has become rather commonplace for so-called literary critics to write off Sinclair Lewis as

7055-437: Was never produced. Twentieth Century Fox planned a Tom Swift feature movie in 1968, to be directed by Gene Kelly . A script was written and approved, and filming was to have begun during 1969. However, the project was canceled owing to the poor reception of the movies Doctor Dolittle and Star! ; a $ 500,000 airship that had been built as a prop was rumored to have been sold to a midwest amusement park. Yet another movie

7140-409: Was nominated for four Academy Awards . Next Lewis published Elmer Gantry (1927), which depicted an evangelical minister as deeply hypocritical. The novel was denounced by many religious leaders and banned in some U.S. cities. It was adapted for the screen more than a generation later as the basis of the 1960 movie starring Burt Lancaster , who earned a Best Actor Oscar for his performance in

7225-413: Was planned in 1974, but, again, was cancelled. Scripts were written for a proposed television series involving both Tom Swift Jr. and his father, the hero of the original book series. A television pilot show for a series to be called The Adventures of Tom Swift was filmed in 1958, featuring Gary Vinson . However, legal problems prevented the pilot's distribution, and it was never broadcast; no copies of

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