Victor Appleton

Victor Appleton is the house pen name that was used by the production house of Stratemeyer Syndicate as well as its successors. This name is most famously associated with the books of the Tom Swift series. Under the pseudonym, a number of Tom Swift books and its sequel have been written and published. The ghostwriters included for writing these books were Howard Garis, Debra Doyle, Robert Vardeman, James Lawrence, James Macdonald, Bert Foster, Gwynplaine MacIntyre, etc. One among these writers is the American author named Howard R. Garis. He was particularly popular for writing the Uncle Wiggly series. This series typically featured the gentleman rabbit that had long floppy ears and wore a hat and a top coat. Author Howard Garis also penned down a number of the Tom Swift stories under the pen name of Victor Appleton. Tom Swift’s character was first conceived under this pseudonym by Edward Stratemeyer in the year 1910. He was the founder of the production house called the Stratemeyer Syndicate. This book packing company started the children’s series in order to become the leader in the market of the science adventure for children. Subsequently, the Syndicate gathered a few popular authors of that time and asked them to develop the series. The company gave the guidelines to the authors to first prepare the outlines of all the plot elements and then draft and edit the manuscript in detail. It was also directed to the authors that they should not use their original names for writing the books. Rather, all of them were asked to write under the Victor Appleton’s house name. Most of the volumes of the original Tom Swift series were written by Howard Garis and Edward Stratemeyer. The last 3 volumes of the popular series were written by the daughter of Edward Stratemeyer named Harriet Stratemeyer Adams. With the contribution of the various authors working for the company, the initial Tom Swift series was completed in the year 1941. Due to the tremendous response that the series received from all over the world, the company decided to develop a sequel of the series.