Edward Elmer Smith (May 2, 1890 – August 31, 1965) was an American food engineer (specializing in doughnut and pastry mixes) and science-fiction author, best known for the Lensman and Skylark series. He is sometimes called the father of space opera.
Biography
Family and education Edward Elmer Smith was born in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, on May 2, 1890, to Fred Jay Smith and Caroline Mills Smith, both staunch Presbyterians of British ancestry.Moskowitz p. 11. For this and all following dates, see also the timelines in Lucchetti pp. 31–35 and 113–47 and, to a lesser extent, Sanders pp. 1–2. His mother was a teacher born in Michigan in February 1855; his father was a sailor, born in Maine in January 1855 to an English father.1900 Census, House 1515, Residence 438, Family 371, 3rd Ward of Spokane County, Washington, recorded June 13, 1900, accessed via online census images at heritagequest.com They moved to Spokane, Washington, the winter after Edward Elmer was born,Sanders p. 1 & 7. Trestrail p. 2 instead says that the family moved that year to Idaho, but Moskowitz p. 11–12 and Eshbach p. 85 both seem to agree with Sanders. where Mr. Smith was working as a contractor in 1900. In 1902, the family moved to Seneaquoteen,Sanders p. 1. near the Pend Oreille River, in Kootenai County, Idaho.Moskowitz p. 11–12. He had four siblings, Rachel M. born September 1882, Daniel M. born January 1884, Mary Elizabeth born February 1886 (all of whom were born in Michigan), and Walter E. born July 1891 in Washington. In 1910, Fred and Caroline Smith and their son Walter were living in the Markham Precinct of Bonner County, Idaho; Fred is listed in census records as a farmer.1910 Census, Residence 37, Family 37, Markham Precinct, Bonner County, Idaho, recorded April 25, 1910, accessed via heritagequest.com.
Smith worked mainly as a manual laborer until he injured his wrist while fleeing from a fire at the age of 19. He attended the University of Idaho. (Many years later he would be installed in the 1984 Class of the University of Idaho Alumni Hall of Fame.Letter from Flip Kleffner, Director of Alumni Relations, University of Idaho Alumni Association, to Verna Smith Trestrail, dated February 27, 1984.) He entered its prep school in 1907, and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering in 1914; later he got an MS in 1917 and a PhD in 1918 from George Washington University. He was president of the Chemistry Club, the Chess Club, and the Mandolin and Guitar Club, and captain of the Drill and Rifle Team; he also sang the bass lead in Gilbert and Sullivan operettas.Sanders p. 8 His undergraduate thesis was Some Clays of Idaho, co-written with classmate Chester Fowler Smith, who died in California of tuberculosis the following year, after taking a teaching fellowship at Berkeley.Latah County, Idaho Star-Mirror, March 25, 1915 . Whether the two were related is not known.
On October 5, 1915, in Boise, IdahoWestern States Marriage Index Entry 84846 , accessed April 5, 2007 he married Jeanne Craig MacDougall, the sister of his college roommate, Allen Scott (Scotty) MacDougall.Trestrail pp. 3 & 4, Sanders p. 8, Moskowitz p. 13. Trestrail spells the name "Allen." (Her sister was named Clarissa MacLean MacDougall; the heroine of the Lensman novels would later be named Clarrissa MacDougall.) Jeanne MacDougall was born in Glasgow, Scotland; her parents were Donald Scott MacDougall, a violinist, and Jessica Craig MacLean. Her father had moved to Boise when the children were young, and later sent for his family; he died while they were en route in 1905. Jeanne's mother, who remarried businessman and retired politician John F. Kessler in 1914 worked at, and later owned, a boarding house on Ridenbaugh Street.
The Smiths had three children. Roderick N., born June 3, 1918, in the District of Columbia, was employed as a design engineer at Lockheed Aircraft. Verna Jean (later Verna Smith Trestrail), born August 25, 1920, in Michigan, was E. E. Smith's literary executor until her death in 1994. (Her son Kim Trestrail is now the executor.) Robert A. Heinlein in part dedicated his 1982 novel Friday to Verna. Clarissa M. (later Clarissa Wilcox), was born December 13, 1921, in Michigan.Lucchetti p. 32, Warner, Moskowitz p. 22.
Early chemical career and the beginning of Skylark
After college, Smith was a junior chemist for the National Bureau of Standards in Washington, D.C., developing standards for butter and for oysters,Moskowitz p. 13. while studying food chemistry at George Washington University. During World War I, he "wanted to fly a Jenny biplane, but chemists were too scarce. (Or were Jennies too valuable?)" He ended up being sent to the Commission for Relief in Belgium headed by Herbert Hoover.
One evening in 1915, the Smiths were visiting a former classmate from the University of Idaho, Dr. Carl Garby (1890–1928)Proceedings of the American Chemical Society 1928 "Deceased Members" who had also moved to Washington, D.C. He lived nearby in the Seaton Place Apartments with his wife, Lee Hawkins Garby. A long discussion about journeys into outer space ensued, and it was suggested that Smith should write down his ideas and speculations as a story about interstellar travel. Although he was interested, Smith believed after some thought that some romantic elements would be required and he was uncomfortable with that.
Lee Garby offered to take care of the love interest and the romantic dialogue, and Smith decided to give it a try. The sources of inspirations for the main characters in the novel were themselves; the "Seatons" and "Cranes" were based on the Smiths and Garbys, respectively.Sanders pp. 8–9, Moskowitz p. 14. About one third of The Skylark of Space was completed by the end of 1916, when Smith and Garby gradually abandoned work on it.
Smith earned his master's degree in chemistry from the George Washington University in 1917, studying under Dr. Charles E. Munroe,"Doughnut Specialist Smith" says that his M.S. degree was from Harvard University and Johns Hopkins University, which is not consistent with other sources. whom Smith called "probably the greatest high-explosives man yet to live". Smith completed his PhD in chemical engineering in 1918, with a food engineering focus.Sanders, p. 1; Lucchetti, p. 32; Barrett, p. 4, following Sanders. His dissertation, The effect of bleaching with oxides of nitrogen upon the baking quality and commercial value of wheat flour, was published in 1919.The effect of bleaching with oxides of nitrogen upon the baking quality and commercial value of wheat flour, PhD thesis, George Washington University, 1919, approximately 100 pp.
Writing Skylark In 1919, Smith was hired as chief chemist for F. W. Stock & Sons of Hillsdale, Michigan, at one time the largest family-owned mill east of the Mississippi, . Retrieved April 5, 2007. working on doughnut mixes.
One evening late in 1919, after moving to Michigan, Smith was looking after his child (presumably Roderick) while his wife attended a movie. He resumed work on The Skylark of Space, finishing it in the spring of 1920.Sanders, p. 1; Moskowitz, p. 14. Warner says 1921."Doughnut Specialist Smith" says "It wasn't until 1919 that work really began ... Five years passed before acceptance by the first science-fiction magazine on the American market, and two more years elapsed before it was published." This is not consistent with other sources. He submitted it to many book publishers and magazines, spending more in postage than he would eventually receive for its publication. Bob Davis, editor of Argosy, sent an encouraging rejection letter in 1922, saying that he liked the novel personally, but that it was too far out for his readers.Sanders, p. 9; Moskowitz, p. 15. Finally, upon seeing the April 1927 issue of Amazing Stories, he submitted it to that magazine. It was accepted, initially for $75, later raised to $125.Sanders, pp. 1, 9; Moskowitz, p. 15. Both sources say that T. O'Conor Sloane was the editor who accepted it, but Sloane's Wikipedia biography states that he was managing editor for the first issue of Amazing Stories and associate editor until 1929, when he became editor, replacing Hugo Gernsback [Sloane's associate editorial duties included accepting material for publication with the final say in the matter from Gernsback]. It was published as a three-part serial in the August to October 1928 issues and it was such a success that associate editor Sloane requested a sequel before the second installment had been published.Moskowitz, p. 15. (According to Warner, but no other source, Smith began work on the sequel, Skylark Three, before the first book was accepted.Warner, "Edward E. Smith — A Biography".)
Garby, whose husband died in 1928, was not interested in further collaboration, so Smith began work on Skylark Three alone. It was published as another three-part serial, in the August to October 1930 issues of Amazing, introduced as the cover story for August. This was as far as he had planned to take the Skylark series. It was praised in Amazings letter column,For example, one letter from John W. Campbell on pages 567–68 of the September issue ends by stating that Skylark of Space had been "the best story of scientifiction ever printed"—although most of the letter was devastating criticism of the science in the story. and he was paid ¾¢ per word, surpassing Amazings previous record of half a cent.Moskowitz p. 16
Names used for publications The original magazine stories mostly have his name as Edward E. Smith, Ph.D.. But more recent editions usually give his name as either E. E. Doc Smith or E. E. "Doc" Smith.Typical modern publication of the works of E. E. Smith
The early 1930s: between Skylark and Lensman Smith then began work on what he intended as a new series, starting with Spacehounds of IPC,Moskowitz p. 16, Sanders p. 65. which he finished in the autumn of 1930. In this novel, he took pains to avoid the scientific impossibilities which had bothered some readers of the Skylark novels.Sanders p. 65. The book does, however, have significant scientific implausibilities, for example the breathable atmosphere on Saturn and some of Jupiter and its satellites. Even in 1938, after he had written Galactic Patrol, Smith considered it his finest work. He later said of it, "This was really scientific fiction; not, like the Skylarks, pseudo-science".Sheridan p. 3 Even at the end of his career, he considered it his only work of true science fiction.Rogers p. 26. It was published in the July through September 1931 issues of Amazing, with Sloane making unauthorized changes.Moskowitz p. 16, Rogers p. 14. Fan letters in the magazine complained about the novel's containment within the Solar System, and Sloane sided with the readers. So when Harry Bates, editor of Astounding Stories, offered Smith 2¢/word—payable on publication—for his next story, he agreed. This meant that it could not be a sequel to Spacehounds.