Sunday Spotlight: E.E. "Doc" Smith

 

            Perhaps the greatest science fiction writer of the 1930’s, Edward Elmer Smith, Ph.D. (1890 – 1965), a.k.a. “Doc” Smith, E.E. Smith, E.E. “Doc” Smith, “Skylark” Smith, or “Ted” to his family members, wrote stories of space opera before they were vogue. He was a food chemist, specializing in pastries, but his imagination soared to the stars.

            In the late 20’s, he began working on the Skylark series, getting some help on the romance dialogue from his neighbor’s wife. He submitted the first story, The Skylark of Space, to various publications before it was finally accepted by Amazing Stories, and serialized in 1928. He would go on to write three more Skylark stories, Skylark Three (1930), Skylark of Valeron (1935), and Skylark DuQuesne (1965). These made him into a well-known name in science fiction.

            Throughout the 1930’s, Smith would write his second great series, that of the Lensman. Triplanetary was first serialized in Amazing Stories in 1934. He followed this up with Galactic Patrol (Astounding, 1937), Gray Lensman (Astounding, 1939), Second Stage Lensman (Astounding, 1941), The Vortex Blaster (various pulps, 1941-1942), and finishing with Children of the Lens (Astounding, 1947).

            All of these stories would be re-published in book form during the 1950’s and 1960’s. Interestingly, book 2 of the Lensman series, First Lensman, would never be published until it was in its book form in 1950.

            During the 1930’s, he was ten years ahead of his time. The space operas he wrote were truly cutting edge. By the 1940’s, many people were doing the same thing, and his stories were still vogue. But by the 1950’s, the genre had moved beyond his style, and Smith’s stories were out of date. He simply never modified the formula of what he wrote. He tried to write a bit more, but it just wasn’t the same. Perhaps this is because, as a man from a different era, he continued to work as a pastry chemist full time while writing, never quitting his day-job to concentrate upon refining and modifying his writing. Other authors, such as Stephen Goldin and Gordon Eklund, have carried on some of the storylines Smith started, such as the Family d’Alembert or Lord Tedric, but these were carried on long after Doc Smith passed on, and are simply not his own.

            Nevertheless, the legacy of E.E. “Doc” Smith was well felt. George Lucas admitted to the influence of Smith’s work upon his subsequent development of Star Wars. J. Michael Straczynski, creator of Babylon 5, also acknowledged the influence of Doc Smith. The influence extended to Robert Heinlein’s work, not only in his choosing the name of Smith for many of his main characters, but in outright naming one of his characters Lensman Ted Smith in The Number of the Beast (1980).

            Lensmen later became a popular Japanese Anime series.

Eric

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