![]() All the Victor Appletons are, of course, house names disguiising a variety of authors. Those high-tech books with names like “Tom Swift and his Gravitational AeroBathySphere” by “Victor Appleton III” date from the 1950s, and are in imitation of the original circa 1910 series with much less ambitious titles like “Tom Swift and his Electric Bicycle” by “Victor Appleton”, the putative grandfather of V.A. Just so’s you know, by the way, the “Tom Swift” books most of us are familiar with isn’t the original series. ![]() Swift, as it were, although the frequent use of adverbs in the Tom Swift books (if that was the case – I never read them) would’ve helped it along. I always assumed that they were called “Tom Swiftys” because they were very brief. Perhaps the Wikipedia contributor is only meant to say that the series wasn’t full of puns? Two instances of “said Tom quickly” in one brief exchange seems particularly awkward. Damon exclaimed: “Bless my liver–that is, if I have one. “I’ll give you fifty dollars,” said Tom quickly, and Mr. But if you are in earnest I will let you have the machine for fifty dollars, and then I fear that I will be taking advantage of you.” That is at the rate of two dollars and a half a mile–pretty expensive riding. Damon, “I paid two hundred and fifty dollars last week. ![]() “I can easily fix it though, of course,” he added prudently, “it will cost something. ![]() “It isn’t all junk,” went on the young inventor. “Bless my finger rings! Sell you that mass of junk?” Damon,” said Tom quickly, “will you sell me that motor-cycle?” They don’t hit you in the eye, but if you look at the oldest books, adjectivized ejaculations are used a little more than they ought to be, ideally. ![]()
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