(Did you meanEvelyn E. Smith?)

Doc Smith atSolacon, 1958.
From the collection ofKaren Anderson.

(May 2, 1890 – August 31, 1965)

Edward Elmer Smith, Ph.D., akaE. E. Smith,Doc Smith andSkylark Smith, was the father ofspace opera and the first great in theSF genre. He is best remembered for hisLensman saga.

He was born inWisconsin, attended the University of Idaho and then George Washington University and earned his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering in 1918. Like hisThe Skylark of Space protagonist, Dick Seaton, Smith was a chemist at the Bureau of Standards (but unlike, Seaton, he did not discover any marvelous new elements). During this period, he beganSkylark, a seminal and highly influential novel of super science.

After graduation, he worked as a chemist in the food industry inBattle Creek, MI, developing new doughnut mixes, while continuing his writing. He was unable to getSkylark published untilAmazing Stories was launched and it was published in the August–October 1928 issues. It was an immediate success, and sequels quickly followed. In the late ’30s,F. Orlin Tremaine bought his new,Lensman series forAstounding.

TheGalactic Roamers grew around him inMichigan in the early 1940s, and he attended theMichiconferences and welcomed visitingfen andSlan Shackers into his home.

By this time, Smith was the Grand Old Man ofSF (though at no time was he ever theMost Senior SF Writer) and in 1940, atChicon I, he was the first writer to be honored asWorldconGoH.NESFA'sSkylark Award is given for people who, like Smith himself, arepros who are also mensches.Moscon gave theDoc Smith Second Stage Lensman Award in his memory.

While he was apro, he was alsofannish and beloved by all. He was an honorary member of theMisfits. He was one of the singers who serenaded the attendees of the Hugo Awards Banquet at Pittcon in 1960.

He was married toJeannie Smith; they attended manycons together. Their daughterVerna Smith Trestrail was afan and his literary executor. DaughterClarrissa was afan, too. The contagion doesn’t seem to have spread to their son, Roderick. Grandson Kim Trestrail is now executor.

He attended everyWorldcon he could, but missed the 1964 Worldcon due to surgery for lung cancer, and died a year later at age 75 of a heart attack.

E. E. Smith was not a particularlygood writer, but hewas a great one.

Doc Smith at center of thepropeller beanie-wearing singers at thePittconHugo AwardsBanquet.

More reading[edit]

• Entry inThe Encyclopedia of Science Fiction.
• Long obituary byRichard Lupoff (and shorter ones and tributes by many others) in theNovember 1965 issue ofScience Fiction Times.
• “Doc ‘Skylark’ Smith” reminiscence byFrederik Pohl.
• The Universes of E. E. Smith.
• A special Doc Smith issue ofPaperback Parade (January, 2015) had articles on Smith and his work byDick Lupoff,Gary Lovisi,Philip Harbottle,Richard Kellogg, andJon D. Swartz.
• Tribute to Smith in theNovember 2016 issue ofThe National Fantasy Fan (Volume 74, Number 11), honoring him as a charter member of theNational Fantasy Fan Federation in 1941, along with his daughterClarissa.
• FindaGrave entry.
• “How Did E. E. Smith Become ‘Doc’?” byFirst Fandom Experience, January 13, 2022.
• “Foist Lensman: Early Fan Pastiche from the Works of Edward Elmer Smith, Ph.d.” by First Fandom Experience, January 17, 2022.

Awards, Honors and GoHships:

• 1959 --Big Heart Award (this was the inaugural award)
• 1963 --First Fandom Hall of Fame (this was the inaugural award)
• 1965 -- TheSkylark Award was established in his honor
• 1966 --1966 Best All Time Series Hugo nominee forLensman,1966 Best Novel Hugo nominee forSkylark DuQuesne
• 2001 --1951 Best Novel Retro Hugo nominee forFirst Lensman
• 2004 --Science Fiction Hall of Fame
• 2018 --1943 Best Novel Retro Hugo nominee forSecond Stage Lensmen
• N3F Life Member

Major Works[edit]

The Skylark of Space[edit]

Smith wroteThe Skylark of Space between 1915 and 1921 while working on his doctorate in chemistry. Though the original idea for the novel was Smith's, he co-wrote the first part of the novel with Lee Hawkins Garby, the wife of his college classmate and later neighbor Carl Garby. Lee Garby supplied the "love interest" in the novel.

The Skylark of Space is considered to be one of the earliest novels of interstellar travel and the first example ofspace opera. Originally serialized in 1928 in the magazineAmazing Stories, it was first published in book form in 1946 by theBuffalo Book Company.

The novel was followed by several sequels, beginning withSkylark Three,Skylark of Valeron andSkylark Duquesne. (Blackie Duquesne was the villain in the series.Bill Evans andRon Ellik compiledThe Universes of E. E. Smith (published byAdvent) which is a concordance to both the Skylark and Lensman series.

It was hugely important to the very youngstf field, (though its successor,Smith'sLensman series was even more so.)

Smith himself wasnicknamed "Skylark Smith".NESFA'sSkylark Award takes its name from this series as did twofannishly famedcars:Art Widner'sSkylark of Foo and his laterSkylark of Woo-Woo.

Lensman Series[edit]

Beginning withTriplanetary in 1934, thisspace opera series was of enormous significance tosf and earlyfandom, and still resonates, despite the wonkiness of Smith’s prose. It inspired muchfanspeak.

SeeLensman saga for much more.