- In full:
- Edward Elmer Smith
- Also called:
- Doc Smith
- Born:
- May 2, 1890, Sheboygan, Wisconsin, U.S.
- Died:
- August 31, 1965, Seaside, Oregon (aged 75)
- Notable Works:
- Lensman series
- “The Skylark of Space”
E.E. Smith
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Who was E.E. Smith?
E.E. Smith (1890–1965) was an American science fiction author, most famous for his Skylark (1928–65) and Lensman (1934–50) series, and is credited with creating the "space opera" subgenre. These action-adventure stories, set on an intergalactic scale, involved faster-than-light spaceships, powerful weapons, and fantastic technology.
Smith earned a Ph.D. in chemistry and worked as a chemist, specializing in doughnut mixes. His writing often had wooden dialogue and clichéd characters, typical of pulp writing. Nevertheless, his adventurous stories and cosmic scale profoundly influenced subsequent science fiction.
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What kind of books did E.E. Smith write?
E.E. "Doc" Smith was an American science fiction author known for his "space opera" subgenre, filled with action-adventure on an intergalactic scale, featuring faster-than-light spaceships, powerful weapons, and fantastic technology. His notable works include the Skylark series (1928–65), which began with The Skylark of Space, and the Lensman series (1934–50), starting with Triplanetary. Smith's stories, though sometimes criticized for pulp writing qualities, were groundbreaking due to their cosmic scale and influenced subsequent science fiction.
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What is E.E. Smith best known for?
E.E. "Doc" Smith (1890-1965) is best known as an American science fiction author who created the "space opera" subgenre with his Skylark (1928–65) and Lensman (1934–50) series. Space opera features action-adventure on a vast intergalactic scale with faster-than-light spaceships, powerful weapons, and fantastic technology. Smith's The Skylark of Space (1928) broke ground, unleashing science fiction on the universe and featuring exotic alien races and terrifying monsters. Though criticized for pulp writing, his adventures had a huge influence on science fiction.
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What are the Lensman and Skylark series about?
E.E. Smith is credited with creating the space opera subgenre through his Skylark (1928–65) and Lensman (1934–50) series.
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Skylark: Chemist Richard Seaton's spaceship, Skylark, travels faster than light using a new metal as fuel. Seaton chases his rival across the galaxy, encountering alien races and dangers.
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Lensman: Kimball Kinnison becomes a Lensman with psychic powers to defeat the evil empire of Boskone. His wife and children also become Lensmen, and they unite to defeat the aliens behind Boskone.
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How did E.E. Smith’s books influence science fiction?
E.E. Smith is credited with creating the space opera subgenre through his Skylark (1928–65) and Lensman (1934–50) series. Smith's Skylark of Space (1928) unleashed science fiction on the universe, featuring faster-than-light spaceships, exotic alien races, and terrifying monsters.
His Lensman series explored the conflict between the Arisians and Eddorians, featuring Lensmen with immense psychic powers. Though criticized for pulp writing elements, Smith's action-packed, cosmic-scale adventures profoundly influenced subsequent science fiction.
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What made E.E. Smith's writing style and ideas unique for his time?
E.E. Smith is credited with creating the "space opera" subgenre through his Skylark (1928–65) and Lensman (1934–50) series. His work unleashed science fiction on the universe, featuring faster-than-light spaceships, powerful weapons, and fantastic technology, all set on a vast intergalactic scale.
Smith's Skylark of Space (1928) broke ground by taking science fiction beyond the solar system. Though his works were sometimes criticized for pulp writing characteristics such as clichéd characters and wooden dialogue, his adventurous stories and cosmic scale had an enormous influence on subsequent science fiction.
1 Britannica SourceCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.
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.