Inspirations for the Chums of Chance

[robinlandseadel at comcast.net]

"Am I the only one who thinks TRP may have worked on this novel much
longer than 10 years?.....There was his early letter to his editor speaking of
three ambitious books....one of which was GR, we must presume......"

You're not the only one. Tone shifts throughout "Against the Day"
and it seems like many passages are written in Pynchon's
older styles. I'm sure that the researches that went into V., COL49 
and GR figure heavily into AtD. 

While I have no doubt that "TOM SWIFT AND HIS AERIAL WARSHIP
or The Naval Terror of the Seas" is the primary inspiration for
the Chums of Chance, there's a touch of Harry Potter in there as well.