Tom Swift and His Giant Cannon

The Stratemeyer Syndicate is fascinating because of how many well-known series they created under several pen identities, such Victor Appleton. The most well-known series published under the Victor Appleton identity is Tom Swift, and like the other series ""authored"" by Victor Appleton, the plots for this one were created from outlines by ghostwriters. A second series was created because Tom Swift was so well-liked. The Syndicate determined in 1954 that the first series' Tom Swift had a teenage son who emulated his father's inventiveness. Compared to the first series, this second one has more space-related themes (which featured airships and other inventions appropriate to its time period). Victor Appleton II, the author's son who was created in the same way as Tom Swift was, was not a real-life person like the original pen name Victor Appleton.