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When Boys Ruled the Skies
May. 1st, 2007 06:33 pmI am going to have to ask Interlibrary Loan (the next best thing to Santa Claus) for this: Boys’ Books, Boys’ Dreams, and the Mystique of Flight by Fred Erisman.
In this first comprehensive study of the more than forty boys' aviation series, Erisman reveals the part played by the books and their writers in spurring the American nation's fascination with flying. It is a noteworthy piece of social and literary history that sheds new light on how popular art can transform technological progress into cultural idealism and reform.
Some of the titles were written by journalists, others by military officers, and not a few by the pseudonymous ghosts of the Stratemeyer Syndicate (Tom Swift, the Hardy Boys, and Nancy Drew, among others), yet all shared the same goal. Populated with manly heroes in the Tom Swift and (later) Charles A. Lindbergh tradition and drawing upon the almost daily advances in aviation technology, the books communicated a steadfast vision of the liberating, exhilarating world that flying offered every boy. More than that, they conveyed as well a glimpse of the better world that would come as air-mindedness and aviation worked their uplifting influence on the larger community.
Apparently the Flying Machine Boys, the Boy Scouts of the Air, the Air Service Boys, the Bird Boys, the Ted Scott Flying Series, Lucky Terrel Flying Stories, Slim Tyler Air Stories, the Airplane boys and the Aeroplane Boys, the Airship Boys, and the Rocket Riders are represented. Among others.
In this first comprehensive study of the more than forty boys' aviation series, Erisman reveals the part played by the books and their writers in spurring the American nation's fascination with flying. It is a noteworthy piece of social and literary history that sheds new light on how popular art can transform technological progress into cultural idealism and reform.
Some of the titles were written by journalists, others by military officers, and not a few by the pseudonymous ghosts of the Stratemeyer Syndicate (Tom Swift, the Hardy Boys, and Nancy Drew, among others), yet all shared the same goal. Populated with manly heroes in the Tom Swift and (later) Charles A. Lindbergh tradition and drawing upon the almost daily advances in aviation technology, the books communicated a steadfast vision of the liberating, exhilarating world that flying offered every boy. More than that, they conveyed as well a glimpse of the better world that would come as air-mindedness and aviation worked their uplifting influence on the larger community.
Apparently the Flying Machine Boys, the Boy Scouts of the Air, the Air Service Boys, the Bird Boys, the Ted Scott Flying Series, Lucky Terrel Flying Stories, Slim Tyler Air Stories, the Airplane boys and the Aeroplane Boys, the Airship Boys, and the Rocket Riders are represented. Among others.
