Howard R. GarisCritiques

Tom Swift and His Big Dirigible, book 33 in the original series, was first published in 1930, or seven years before the famous Hindenburg disaster, but our intrepid inventor makes use of a fictionsl less explosive gas Tom invented (safer than nitrogen, but not as safe as helium, we're told), and a fictional metal called 'oralum' to build his huge dirigible. It was commissioned by Mr. Martin Jardine of the Jardine Company. Martin Jardine is not the easiest customer to work with. There's a chapter in which he brings in several impractical ideas and doesn't want to listen to Tom.

The airship in the third book in the orginal series, Tom Swift and His Airship, was named the Red Cloud. The dirigible is named the Silver Cloud.

Tom's father becomes ill early in the book. Mr. Swift, Tom's wife, Mary, and her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Nestor, are spending some time at a lovely hotel on Mount Camon. The fact that the surrounding forest is very dry is mentioned several times.

There are misadventures in the book. Tom takes his family and in-laws to the hotel in the house on wheels from book 32. On the way, they help a couple with a traveling marionette show whose van has overturned. The Notines go on to provide entertainment at the hotel on Mt. Carmon. Not long after that rescue, the house on wheels is caught in a disaster of its own.

The Silver Cloud runs into an interesting problem during one of its test flights, but the climax of the book involves a forest fire. (This is no spoiler. The original title of the book was Tom Swift and His Big Dirigible; or Adventures Over the Forest of Fire.) Tom and his employees have their work cut out for them to save some people who are trapped in that fire.

The only downside to this book is the way some characters are portrayed. Pietro and Maria Notine, the Italian (or Italian-American) marionettists, are merely passionate about their work. The Italian (or Italian-American) hotel gardener, Cosso Tobini, is described as 'evil-faced' as well as being less than sane when it comes to guests picking the roses. (Decades ago I knew a Red Cross volunteer who was retired military and Civil Service. He had been called 'Italian' when he was young, although I think he was born in Connecticut. He used to tell me that when he was young he was Italian, but now he's considered a WASP.) The Swifts' faithful African-American employee, Eradicate, speaks in stereotypical dialect for the era. So does the giant employee Koku. There's a dwarf named James Chock who is treated as a suspicious character. If you can hold your nose for those portrayals, this is an enjoyable read.½

Vintage small hardcover with paste-on cover. Beautiful, detailed illustrations on each page. Binding good. Finger smudges on margins expected on this book from 1922. Great Lang Campbell artwork! Endpapers intact. 12 books listed inside front of this series.

Originally, the stories were serialized in newspapers so parents could read them to children. The stories were popular enough that they were gathered into books and preserved. Each story still ends with "If this improbable situation doesn't happen, I'll tell you the story of" with the title of the next story. Once upon a time, when I was young, my grandmother read these stories (she had them in books) to my brother and me. My mother also shared her books with me when I was old enough to read them on my own.

This collection focuses on Uncle Wiggily and his search to find his fortune. Uncle Wiggily happens to be a rabbit who had served in the Great War (back when there was only one) and now has rheumatism and gets along with a walking stick. Uncle Wiggily makes many friends as he travels and helps those who need them. And those good deeds done unselfishly often result in help when he needs it: not a bad lesson to learn.

Suggested as stories read to children or as a trip down nostalgia lane.

The very first Tom Swift book, from 1910, is a bit of fun, but only a bit. It is a far cry from the science-fictional Tom Swift I read a few adventures of in the 1960s. Those books were from a later, much different second series. This book is very much grounded in 1910, and the setting (New York State) is quite interesting. Not so interesting is the book's casual racism as Tom meets up with a black man named Eradicate Sampson, who is called a "darky" numerous times and refers to himself as a "coon". Each time Tom meets him, he is sitting hopelessly while some machine or another fails to work, which Tom, of course, fixes quickly, leaving Eradicate marveling at how smart he is. Throughout the book, Tom is referred to as "the young inventor" or "our hero". Of course, this is hardly a book for adults. Kids are supposed to admire Tom for his intelligence and his industriousness, although he makes more than one mistake during the book that gets him into trouble (and prolongs the plot.) The plot itself is modern enough. A group of men, working for some unscrupulous lawyers, are trying to steal an invention from Tom's father, inventor Barton Swift. When reading a book like this, one knows it will have a happy ending, but dark clouds still loom ahead, as in the tradition of other books from the same publishing syndicate, the next adventure is introduced on the final pages. I can't say I didn't enjoy reading this, but it is definitely lacking the plotting and characterization of the best Hardy Boys books I remember from my youth.½

Enjoyed reading another Buddy book with Anderson. This one was neat because it recalls concepts of archery that Ander has recently been learning in Cub Scouts. It sort of hurts to rate this 2 stars, since I really love these adventure tales of Buddy & his chums. But I'm well aware that the "Stratemeyer Syndicate"--at which Howard R. Garis was very much right at the heart--never aspired to create serious literature.

Children's books of the Uncle Wiggily series compile stories that appeared in daily newspapers between 1910 and the late 1930s. They star an "elderly gentleman" rabbit with rheumatism who travels around with a crutch and a valise. As kids, my siblings and I had at least two of the Uncle Wiggily series.

In Uncle Wiggily's Travels the lagomorph is out seeking his fortune. In each chapter, he encounters other talking animals as well as talking plants, such as Sammie and Susie Littletail (Uncle Wiggily's young nephew and niece); Lulu, Alice, and Jimmie Wibblewobble (the duck children), and the Skillery Skallery Alligator. In a common theme, he or one of his new friends is hunted by a predator -- fox, bears, and the aforementioned alligator among them. As is common in children's tales, carnivores are wicked, dangerous critters who must be outwitted.

For fun, I picked up a copy of Uncle Wiggily's Travels published in 1939, and frankly, I found it awfully lame. The stories all have similar plots, and the author's attempts at humor are not successful. The rabbit never does find his fortune, and while I expected a trite ending end in which he realized that good friends were worth more than the money he sought, the last story just ended like the others. C'est la vie; it's kid stuff after all.½

Not nearly as polished or nearly as good characters as The Pony Rider book I read recently. Interesting from the aspect of early sci-fi/juvenile/young adult works, but not very satisfying.

Published in 1910, this book is only the second Tom Swift book ever published. It dates to a time when motor- cars were a novelty and airplanes had not been invented. The original dust jacket blurb is worth quoting in full: "It is the purpose of these spirited tales to convey in a realistic way the wonderful advances in land and sea locomotion and to interest the boy of the present in the hope that he may be a factor in aiding the marvelous development that is coming in the future." That description -- written with boys of 100 years ago in mind -- indicates what the modern reader is in for.

Young Tom acquires a motorboat and has various adventures -- he has a boat race with a local bully, rescues a pretty girl, and captures criminals from the "Happy Harry gang" who have stolen inventions from his father's workshop. There is much description of how an outboard motor works, and how Tom adjusts the various features to obtain the maximum speed. Frankly, the action is awfully tame, the dialogue is wooden and stilted, and the characters are one- dimensional. Perhaps choices from the second generation of Tom Swift books might have attributes of interest to today's readers, but as something written for the great- great- grandfathers of today's boys, this one is of historical interest only.

I wanted to like this book, but I could not get through it---too much moralizing and not enough fun or cleverness. Pictures are by an L. Campbell, but he is not listed on the title page or verso.½

Sorry Tom, but I just didn't like your story much. Maybe it's because I'm from a different time? Not sure, but the writing wasn't all that great, and the story didn't thrill me either.

Perhaps some of your other tales are more worthy?

The Tom Swift stories were favorites of my dad when he was a kid and everything from Project Gutenberg is free, so I popped one onto my Kindle. I actually had a ball reading it, though perhaps not in the way that the author intended. It was all just so, "Gosh, Dad, let's go down into the basement and put together a submarine in a couple of weeks." It was fun to watch all the hand-waving at how things worked. Need a submarine that can descend to three miles underwater? No problem, just use a triple steel hull with "layers of secret material between them that can withstand enormous pressure." Want to figure out how to navigate underwater in those days when sonar was cumbersome? Just put in glass windows that are "really strong" (able to withstand over 7050 pounds per square inch, if I remember my calculations from scuba class correctly).

It managed to cross that line separating really bad from amusing. Since it only took an hour to read, I can actually envision picking up another one someday just for fun. ;-)½

I had all the Wiggily books as a kid. This is the only one that has survived. I read it to my daughter and she found it still amusing.

This is one of the most magical Story Books of all time. It thrilled me as a child and still charms my heart to this day. If I could give it a million stars, I certainly would!

Goof condition

The Better Little Book

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