James Duncan Lawrence (author)
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James Duncan Lawrence ( – ), best known as Jim Lawrence, was an American author best known for authoring most of the
Tom Swift Tom Swift is the main character of six series of American juvenile science fiction and adventure novels that emphasize science, invention, and technology. Inaugurated in 1910, the sequence of series comprises more than 100 volumes. The fi ...
Jr. series of books (under the pseudonym Victor Appleton II) and the " Friday Foster" comic strip, as well as the James Bond newspaper strip.


Biography

Lawrence was born in
Detroit, Michigan Detroit ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the bank of the Detroit River across from Windsor, Ontario. It had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 United State ...
in 1918. He fought in the
International Brigades The International Brigades () were soldiers recruited and organized by the Communist International to assist the Popular Front (Spain), Popular Front government of the Second Spanish Republic during the Spanish Civil War. The International Bri ...
in the
Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War () was a military conflict fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republican faction (Spanish Civil War), Republicans and the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalists. Republicans were loyal to the Left-wing p ...
. As a freelance writer in the late 1940s and early 1950s, he wrote scripts for a number of radio shows, including ''
The Green Hornet The Green Hornet is a superhero created in 1936 by George W. Trendle and Fran Striker, with input from radio director James Jewell (director), James Jewell. Since his 1930s radio debut, the character has appeared in numerous serialized dramas i ...
'' and ''
Sergeant Preston of the Yukon ''Challenge of the Yukon'' is an American radio adventure series that began on Detroit, Michigan, Detroit's WXYT (AM), WXYZ and is an example of a Northern (genre), Northern genre story. The series was first heard on January 3, 1939. The title ...
''. In the 1950s and 1960s, he worked for the
Stratemeyer Syndicate The Stratemeyer Syndicate was an American publishing company that produced a number of mystery book series for children, including Nancy Drew, The Hardy Boys, the various Tom Swift series, the Bobbsey Twins, the Rover Boys, and others. It pu ...
on a number of series (listed in the Bibliography). In the 1970s, he worked for the Chicago Tribune and the New York News Syndicate with illustrator Jordi Longarón on the "Friday Foster" comic strip. Later in his career, Lawrence co-wrote two
Infocom Infocom, Inc., was an American software company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, that produced numerous works of interactive fiction. They also produced a business application, a relational database called ''Cornerstone (software), Cornerston ...
interactive fiction games with Stu Galley:
Seastalker ''Seastalker'' is an interactive fiction game written by Stu Galley and Jim Lawrence and published by Infocom in 1984. It was released simultaneously for several popular computer platforms of the time, such as the Commodore 64, Apple II, and IBM ...
(1984) and
Moonmist ''Moonmist'' is an interactive fiction game written by Stu Galley and Jim Lawrence and published by Infocom in 1986. The game was released simultaneously for the Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Apple II, Atari 8-bit computers, Atari ST, Commodore 64, MS-DOS, ...
(1986). Lawrence died in
Summit, New Jersey Summit is the northernmost City (New Jersey), city of Union County, New Jersey, Union County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, located within the New York metropolitan area. Situated on a ridge in north Jersey, northern–central Jersey, centra ...
in 1994.


Bibliography


Tom Swift Jr. series

He wrote the following books in the Tom Swift Jr. series under the Stratemeyer Syndicate house pseudonym Victor Appleton II: * ''Tom Swift and His Atomic Earth Blaster'' (1954) * ''Tom Swift and His Outpost in Space'' (1955)/1977 reissue title: ''…And His Sky Wheel'' * ''Tom Swift and His Diving Seacopter'' (1956) * ''Tom Swift on the Phantom Satellite'' (1956) * ''Tom Swift and His Ultrasonic Cycloplane'' (1957) * ''Tom Swift and His Deep Sea Hydrodome'' (1958) * ''Tom Swift in the Race to the Moon'' (1958) * ''Tom Swift and Space Solartron'' (1958) * ''Tom Swift and His Electronic Retroscope'' (1959)/1972 Reissue Title: ''…In The Jungle of the Mayas'' * ''Tom Swift and His Spectromarine Selector'' (1960) * ''Tom Swift and the Cosmic Astronauts'' (1960) * ''Tom Swift and the Visitor from Planet X'' (1961) * ''Tom Swift and the Electronic Hydrolung'' (1961) * ''Tom Swift and His Triphibian Atomicar'' (1962) * ''Tom Swift and His Megascope Space Prober'' (1962) * ''Tom Swift and the Asteroid Pirates'' (1963) * ''Tom Swift and His Repelatron Skyway'' (1963) * ''Tom Swift and His Aquatomic Tracker'' (1964) * ''Tom Swift and His 3-D Telejector'' (1964) * ''Tom Swift and His Polar-Ray Dynasphere'' (1965) * ''Tom Swift and His Sonic Boom Trap'' (1965) * ''Tom Swift and His Subocean Geotron'' (1966) * ''Tom Swift and the Mystery Comet'' (1966) * ''Tom Swift and the Captive Planetoid'' (1967)


Hardy Boys series

He revised the following books in the
Hardy Boys The Hardy Boys, brothers Frank and Joe Hardy, are fictional characters who appear in a series of mystery novels for young readers. The series revolves around teenage amateur sleuths, solving cases that often stumped their adult counterparts. ...
series under the Stratemeyer Syndicate house pseudonym Franklin W. Dixon: * '' The Mystery at Devil's Paw'' (1959) * '' A Figure in Hiding'' (1965) * ''
The Secret Warning ''The Secret Warning'' is Volume 17 in the original The Hardy Boys List of Hardy Boys books#stories, Mystery Stories published by Grosset & Dunlap. This book was written for the Stratemeyer Syndicate in collaboration by John Button and Leslie M ...
'' (1966) * '' The Disappearing Floor'' (1964) * '' The Sting of the Scorpion'' (1979)


Nancy Drew series

He wrote the following books in the
Nancy Drew Nancy Drew is a fictional character appearing in several mystery book series, movies, video games, and TV shows as a teenage amateur sleuth. The books are ghostwriter, ghostwritten by a number of authors and published under the collective pseudo ...
series under the Stratemeyer Syndicate house pseudonym
Carolyn Keene Carolyn Keene is the pseudonym of the authors of the Nancy Drew mystery stories and ''The Dana Girls'' mystery stories, both produced by the Stratemeyer Syndicate. In addition, the Keene pen name is credited with the Nancy Drew spin-off, ''Riv ...
: * '' Race Against Time'' (1982) * ''Clue of the Ancient Disguise'' (1982) * ''The Silver Cobweb'' (1983) * ''The Haunted Carousel'' (1983) * ''Enemy Match'' (1984) * ''The Mysterious Image'' (1984) * ''The Bluebeard Room'' (1985) * ''The Phantom of Venice'' (1985)


Christopher Cool series

He wrote the following books in the Christopher Cool series under the Stratemeyer Syndicate house pseudonym Jack Lancer: * ''X Marks the Spy'' (1967) * ''Mission: Moonfire'' (1967) * ''Department of Danger'' (1967) * ''Ace of Shadows'' (1967) * ''Heads You Lose'' (1968) * ''Trial by Fury'' (1969)


Binky Brothers series

Along with Leonard P. Kessler, he wrote the following books in the Binky Brothers series: * ''Binky Brothers, Detectives'' (1968) * ''Binky Brothers and the Fearless Four'' (1970)


Man From Planet X series

Writing as Hunter Adams, he wrote the following books in the Man From Planet X series: * ''Man From Planet X: The She-Beast'' (1975) * ''Man From Planet X: Tiger by the Tail'' (1975) * ''Man From Planet X: The Devil to Pay'' (1975)


Dark Angel series

The Dark Angel books all featured cover art by Lawrence's Friday Foster collaborator, Jordi Longarón. * ''The Dream Girl Caper'' (1975) * ''The Emerald Oil Caper'' (1975) * ''The Gilded Snatch Caper'' (1975) * ''The Godmother Caper'' (1975)


Mission: Impossible series

Lawrence wrote two original novels based on
TV series A television show, TV program (), or simply a TV show, is the general reference to any content produced for viewing on a television set that is broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, and cable, or distributed digitally on streaming platf ...
, both under the pseudonym Max Walker: * ''Mission: Impossible'' #2: ''Code Name: Judas'' (1968) * ''Mission: Impossible'' #3: ''Code Name: Rapier'' (1968)


James Bond comic strip

In 1969, he took over as the writer for the James Bond syndicated comic strip. Among the titles were: * ''The Man with the Golden Gun'' (1966) * ''Octopussy'' (1966) * ''The Spy Who Loved Me'' (1967) The complete list is given in James Bond comic strips.


References


External links

*
Victor Appleton, II
at LC Authorities, with 35 records, an
at WorldCat

Jack Lancer
at LC Authorities, 6 records, an
at WorldCat
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lawrence, James Duncan 1918 births 1994 deaths American children's writers Stratemeyer Syndicate Writers from Detroit 20th-century American writers 20th-century American male writers