E.E. Smith

E.E. Smith (born May 2, 1890, Sheboygan, Wisconsin, U.S.—died August 31, 1965, Seaside, Oregon) was an American science-fiction author who is credited with creating in the Skylark series (1928–65) and the Lensman series (1934–50) the subgenre of “space opera,” action-adventure set on a vast intergalactic scale involving faster-than-light spaceships, powerful weapons, and fantastic technology.

Smith received a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from the University of Idaho, Moscow, in 1914 and became a chemist at the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Washington, D.C. During 1915 Smith began writing what would become the novel The Skylark of Space with his neighbour, Lee Hawkins Garby, who wrote the romantic parts of the story that Smith felt he could not write. Smith continued to write while completing (1919) a doctoral degree in chemistry from George Washington University, Washington, D.C.

In 1919 Smith became a chemist at the milling company F.W. Stock and Sons in Hillsdale, Michigan, and, aside from a period of one year during World War II when he was an ordnance inspector, he specialized in doughnut mixes for the remainder of his chemistry career. In 1920 Smith and Garby completed the novel; however, Smith was unable to find a publisher until 1928, when the novel was serialized in Amazing Stories.

In The Skylark of Space science fiction escaped the solar system and was unleashed on the rest of the universe. The book relates how chemist Richard Seaton finds that a new metal, X, liberates the “intra-atomic energy of copper” and thus serves as fuel for the Skylark, a spaceship that can travel faster than light. His rival, chemist Marc DuQuesne, kidnaps Seaton’s fiancée in his own X-powered ship to get exclusive control of X. Seaton chases DuQuesne across the galaxy, and they encounter exotic alien races, terrifying monsters, and many other dangers. Response to The Skylark of Space was extremely positive, and Smith immediately began work on a sequel, Skylark Three (1930). When it too was published in Amazing Stories, Smith was credited as Edward E. Smith, Ph.D., earning him the nickname among science-fiction fans of “Doc” Smith. The conflict between Seaton and DuQuesne continued in Skylark of Valeron (1934–35), but they united to fight an alien threat in Skylark DuQuesne (1965).

Smith originally conceived of his next series as a single gigantic novel, but it was published from 1937 to 1948 as four separate books, the Lensman series, in Astounding Stories (after 1938, Astounding Science-Fiction): Galactic Patrol (1937–38), Gray Lensman (1939–40), Second Stage Lensmen (1941–42), and Children of the Lens (1947–48). The first three books present the adventures of Kimball Kinnison, who graduates first in his class at the Galactic Patrol Academy and is fitted with a Lens, a device of the benevolent Arisians that endows the wearer with immense psychic powers. Kinnison must grow in mastery of the Lens to defeat the increasingly powerful attacks on Earth and its allies by the interplanetary empire of Boskone. In Second Stage Lensmen Kinnison’s wife, Clarissa MacDougall, becomes the first female Lensman. In Children of the Lens, their five children, revealed as the culmination of millennia of Arisian genetic manipulation of humanity, band together to defeat the aliens behind Boskone, the evil Eddorians. Smith revised an earlier novel, Triplanetary (1934; revised 1948), to fit into the Lensman series by presenting the beginning of Earth’s involvement in the conflict between the Arisians and Eddorians. Another prequel, First Lensman (1950), is about the first human Lensman, and another novel, The Vortex Blaster (1941–42; also called Masters of the Vortex), is set in the Lensman universe but does not follow the narrative threads of the other Lensman books.

Smith’s works were criticized for having many of the faults of pulp writing, such as wooden dialogue and clichéd characters. However, his groundbreaking adventures, with their breathless action and cosmic scale, were an enormous influence on the science fiction that followed.