George Oliver Smith (April 9, 1911 – May 27, 1981) (known also by the pseudonymWesley Long) was an American science fiction author. He is not to be confused withGeorge H. Smith, another American science fiction author.
Smith was an active contributor toAstounding Science Fiction during theGolden Age of Science Fiction of the 1940s. His collaboration with the magazine's editor,John W. Campbell, Jr. was interrupted when Campbell's first wife, Doña, left him in 1949 and married Smith.
Smith continued regularly publishing science fiction novels and stories until 1960. His output greatly diminished during the 1960s and 1970s when he had a job that required his undivided attention. He was awarded theFirst Fandom Hall of Fame award in 1980.
He was a member of the all-male literary banqueting club theTrap Door Spiders, which served as the basis ofIsaac Asimov's fictional group of mystery solvers theBlack Widowers.
Smith wrote mainly about outer space, with such works asOperation Interstellar (1950),Lost in Space (1959), andTroubled Star (1957).
He is remembered chiefly for hisVenus Equilateral series of short stories about a communications station in outer space. Most of the stories were collected inVenus Equilateral (1947), which was later expanded with the remaining three stories asThe Complete Venus Equilateral (1976).
His novelThe Fourth "R" (1959) – re-published asThe Brain Machine (1968) – was an examination of achild prodigy, a digression from his concern with outer space.
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