San Diego Space Society

July Program Meeting: Tom Swift in Space

Posted by Jesse Clark in Calendar, Events on June 22, 2010

2:30 pm to 4:30 pm

Location:
Serra Mesa Branch Library (map)
9005 Aero Dr, San Diego, CA

After RocketFest, join us for the July program meeting of the San Diego Space Society. This month’s topic is Tom Swift in Space.

Of the five Tom Swift series about young inventors comprising 105 volumes begun a century ago this year, the first series didn’t have its Tom Swift go to space at all. However, his son, Tom Swift Jr., soon remedied this in his fairly conventional rocket, the Star Spear. Later volumes had more exotic forms of space travel and the theme becomes prevalent in the series. The third series, set in the far future, is almost completely set in space. Each of the final two series have at least some volumes in at least Earth’s orbit.

This presentation is a prequel to the Tom Swift Centennial being held in San Diego on July 16-18.

James Keeline began reading the first Tom Swift series when he was eight. As he was building his collection he worked as manager of the largest antiquarian store specializing in children’s books in San
Diego, the Prince and the Pauper, from 1988-2000. Now he is a full-time open-source web developer with emphasis on PHP and Drupal. However, he is still active in researching and collecting Stratemeyer
Syndicate series books. He is w riting a biography of its founder, Edward Stratemeyer, along with a Series Book Encyclopedia. He is also host of the 100th Anniversary Tom Swift Convention with his wife Kim.

Contact info@sdspace.org to RSVP or if you have any questions.