Tom Swift and His Rocket Ship

Cover of my copy of
TOM SWIFT and His Rocket Ship (1954).

Today I finished reading the third (#3) book  of The New TOM SWIFT Jr. Adventures, TOM SWIFT and His Rocket Ship. Last month I read #2.

The copy pictured above is a "yellow spine" edition  or "gold printed" (i.e., third version, published after 1961). I have a another copy of this book which is a first printing with a blue tweed cover and a dust jacket. I read the copy pictured above since it is less rare.

Frontispiece:
"He could easily be spun off into space!"

The book opens with: "Somebody's flying into our restricted area!" Tom Swift cried as an alarm bell broke the midnight stillness of his rocket laboratory on Fearing Island.

The plot summary from the dust jacket says:

The third volume of the new TOM SWIFT JR. series takes the brilliant young inventor into outer space in a rocket ship of his own design. 

On Fearing Island just off the Atlantic Coast, Tom's space craft project attracts the attention of the spies and agents of a foreign scientist whose plan is to rule the world and space. 

Tom Swift's advantage over his competitors is that he has perfected a rocket fuel which can carry his ship into and out of orbital flight. But it takes all of Tom and Bud's ingenuity to outwit the ruthless efforts of the foreign scientist and his desperate gang of henchmen. 

The flight through space makes thrilling reading-the more exciting because you know the details of the flight are scientifically accurate. 

Readers of the TOM SWIFT JR. AND HIS FLYING LAB, the first book of this new series, will recall the message that came in the shape of a meteor-like object falling into the Swift plane enclosure. In this story, another message from the same mysterious source proves very valuable to Tom as he is flying through space.

Sample of the illustrations in the book.

The New Tom Swift Jr. Adventures #3, TOM SWIFT and His Rocket Ship by Victor Appleton II, Illustrated by Graham Kaye was published by Grosset & Dunlap, Inc., Publishers, New York, NY © 1954. Twenty-five chapters are spread over 208 pages with 10 illustrations (see sample above).

Each book in the series is filled with fanciful inventions, many of which later came to fruition.

I'm reading these books because they are fun, mind candy. I like the covers and the illustrations. The writing is obviously pretty corny but enjoyable. A guilty pleasure.

------------------------------------

Links:

http://ricketwrite.blogspot.com/2019/10/tom-swift-and-his-jetmarine.html

http://ricketwrite.blogspot.com/2017/11/tom-swift-and-his-flying-lab.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Swift_Jr.
http://www.tomswift.info/homepage/rocket2.html
------------------------------------
Written Thanksgiving 28 November 2019.