Rick Brant is the hero of a series of science oriented mystery/adventure books published by Grosset and Dunlap, Inc. The books are similar to the more popular Hardy Boys and Tom Swift, Jr.

The adventures take place all over the world, from New Jersey to Nevada to the Philippines to Egypt to Tibet. The books usually have some kind of science theme to them. Unlike Tom Swift, the "inventions" and "discoveries" are not pure imagination but were grounded in the science of the day.

From a dust jacket:
"Rick Brant and his pal, Scotty, have the kind of adventures all boys would like to have. They live on an island called Spindrift where Rick's father heads a group of scientists working in the field of electronics. Here and abroad, the boys encounter many thrilling adventures and solve many baffling mysteries."

From the back cover:
"Rick Brant is the boy who with his pal Scotty lives on an island called Spindrift and takes part in so many thrilling adventures and baffling mysteries involving science and electronics."

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The books were written John Blaine. John Blaine was a pseudonym for Peter J. Harkins and Harold Leland Goodwin. Peter Harkins co-authored the first 3 books and Hal Goodwin wrote the rest by himself.

Goodwin and Harkins were boyhood friends in Springfield, MA. The partnership ended when Harkins moved to Arkansas. In 1947 long-distance collaboration was not very feasible so Goodwin continued on his own. Harkins later wrote four books in the Biff Brewster series.

Goodwin had a long and varied career with the US government. He worked for the Federal Civil Defense Administration, NASA, the United States Information Agency, served as a Sergeant in the Marines in WWII and the National Sea Grant program. Goodwin died on February 18, 1990 at age 75.

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• A Microphone for David (1942)
• Aerial Warfare (1943)
• The Feathered Cape (1947)
• The Real Book About Stars (1951)
• Rip Foster Rides the Gray Planet (1952) by Blake Savage

  Reissued as Assignment in Space with Rip Foster and Rip Foster in Ride the Gray Planet

• The Science Book of Space Travel (1954)
• The Real Book About Space Travel (1956)
• Space: Frontier Unlimited (1962)
• All About Rockets and Space Flight (1964) Revised 1970
• The Images of Space (1965)
• Challenge of the Seven Seas (1966) with Senator Claiborne Pell
• Divers Down! (1971) by Hal Gordon
• The Aquaculture of Freshwater Prawns (Macrobachium species) (1975)
  Shrimp and prawn farming in the Western Hemisphere: state-of-the-art-reviews and status assessments. (1977)
• Seafaring (1985)

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There are 24 books in the series plus one additional non-story book Rick Brant's Science Projects.

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Book #24 The Magic Talisman was not published until 1990. The following is from the Afterword of The Magic Talisman:

"This Rick Brant story was written as the 1960's came to a close. At that time the publisher, Grosset and Dunlap, lost interest in the series, indeed, in any series except those of the Stratemeyer Syndicate. They did not publish The Magic Talisman, but allowed the series to break off with Volume 23, Danger Below, in 1968, after sales of close to two million copies.

A decade and a half later, series book readers and collectors who are now grown to maturity revived interest in several series and authors, sparked by Fred Woodworth's Mystery and Adventure Series Review, and Gil O'Gara's Yellowback Library. It was in the Review that the existence of the unpublished manuscript for The Magic Talisman was first disclosed, and the result was continuing nudges from Rick Brant readers with whom I corresponded and some I met, to get busy and publish.

It took several years to become convinced that publishing the story would be a good and final finish to the Rick Brant Science Adventure tales after so long a time, and conviction came only after strong and continuing pushes from fan letters, and personal pushes from those established series mavens, Ernie Kelly, Bill Gresens, Fred Woodworth, and, finally Rick Norwood, who became the publisher at his Manuscript Press.

My thanks go to them and to my wife, Libby, who added her own encouragement. Credit for turning a sometimes unreadable manuscript into a clean word-processed tale suitable for publication belongs to Carolanne Watson. And thanks, too, to those, who in their day, enjoyed some of Rick's adventures as much as I enjoyed writing them."

Hal Goodwin
aka John Blaine
Bethesda, Maryland

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The books were published between 1947 and 1990.

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Maybe. #1 - 17 are relatively easy to get in a variety of formats, conditions and prices. #18, #19, #20 are a little more difficult to get but are available. #21, #22, #23 and #24 are very difficult to find. Science Projects is also difficult to find. Reprints are in the works, see Question 15 below.

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There are a variety of methods and sources.

• eBay (http://www.ebay.com/) has become the one of best sources for finding series books. Be sure to investigate previous sales to see what kind of bids win. You don't want to just bid on the first item you see to later find out that you could have easily gotten the same item for far less.
• Check out used books stores. Depending on the book store you might find some good bargains.
• Yard/Garage Sales, Flea markets and library books sales are a lot more time consuming but the prices are generally better. And you never know where you are going to stumble across a copy of Danger Below!
• The Yellowback Library is a monthly series book magazine that has some ads selling books. The address for the Yellowback Library is P.O. Box 36172, Des Moines, IA, 50315. The subscription price is $36 a year.
• Post your want list on Internet newsgroups such as alt.marketplace.books or rec.arts.books.marketplace. Occasionally series books are posted for sale there.
• On-line book sites such as BiblioFind (http://www.bibliofind.com) and ABEBooks (http://www.abebooks.com)
• Reprints of some of the books can be found at AmericanWebBooks.com (http://www.americanwebbooks.com)

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The later books of most series are usually the rarest. This is because as the popularity of a series starts to wane, fewer and fewer books are published.

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Books 1 through 16 were printed with dust jackets and were later printed with pictures covers. 17 through 24 were printed only with picture covers. Science Projects was printed in dust jacket only.

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Who knows? There are similarities:

• Live on island.
• World famous scientist father.
• Indian friend
• Have a dog

Hugh Ashlock contributed the following simularities:

1. The JQ episode "The Fraudulent Volcano" is a direct rip off of #17 The Flaming Mountain,
2. The Diving bell/Sub Invention of Dr. Quest in "The Dreadful Doll " and "Pirates From Below" looks exactly like the one on the cover of #4 100 Fathoms Under
3. The episode "Skull & Double Crossbones" has a Mini-Sub identical to the "Phantom Shark" in #6 The Phantom Shark.
4. The episode "Calcutta Adventure" has a scene where the Quests meet Hadji that parrots the scene where the Spindrifters meet Chada from #2 The Lost City.

Unfortunately Doug Wildey, the creator of Jonny Quest, is deceased so we may never know. If you would like to find a good reference try The Jonny Quest Episode Guide at http://www.classicjq.com/

I am still investigating and if anyone has definitive information on this please e-mail me.

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Who knows? There are some interesting co-incidences that are fun to speculate about.

• In the old TV series "Land of the Giants", the spaceship was named the Spindrift.
• In the movie "Contact", there is a character named Rick Stringfellow.

If you have any other co-incidences, please let me know.

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The Mystery & Adventure Series Review is published at irregular intervals from 0 to 4 times a year. There is no set subscription fee, although donations are requested. Despite the erratic nature of new issues the content is well worth the wait when an issue comes out.

The address is M & A Review, P. O. Box 3012, Tucson, AZ  85702. Send Money Orders payable to Fred Woodworth or cash only. Do not attempt to telephone Fred, he does not have a phone.

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The Rick Brant series was originally owned by Grosset & Dunlap, Inc. Starting in the 1980's G&D began transferring the copyrights to Hal Goodwin. The rights to the books are now held by the John Blaine/Rick Brant Trust. The rights include the text and the artwork.

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YES! After many years the hard-to-find Rick Brant books are being reprinted. The first reprint was Rick Brant's Science Projects which was done in January of 2003. AmericanWebBooks.com did the reprint. Orders were taken first and when they reached the minimum threshold of 250 books the book was send to the printer. Approximately 267 books were sold. A second printing of Science Projects can now be ordered.

Orders are also being taken for 21 - Rocket Jumper and 22 - The Deadly Dutchman. They should be ready for shipping in early 2004.

23 - Danger Below! and 24 - The Magic Talisman should be available for order sometime in 2004 with deliver by the end of 2004.

Register with the Rick Brant Yahoo Group and you will be kept abreast of reprint information.

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No. The location of the island would approximately be in the Sea Bright area of New Jersey, but there is no such island.

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Yes! It seems to be spelled slightly differently now. It is spelled "chaudah" and pronounced like a New England seafood soup: "Chowdah". Here is how it looks in Hindi:

Click on the image to hear it pronounced

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