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E E Smith Biography & Facts

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. 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. They moved to Spokane, Washington, the winter after Edward Elmer was born, where Mr. Smith was working as a contractor in 1900. In 1902, the family moved to Seneaquoteen, near the Pend Oreille River, in Kootenai County, Idaho. 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. 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.) He entered its prep school in 1907, and graduated with two degrees in chemical engineering in 1914. 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. 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. Whether the two were related is not known. On October 5, 1915, in Boise, Idaho he married Jeanne Craig MacDougall, the sister of his college roommate, Allen Scott (Scotty) MacDougall. (Her sister was named Clarissa MacLean MacDougall; the heroine of the Lensman novels would later be named Clarissa 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 his 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. 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, while studying food chemistry at George Washington University. During World War I, he "wanted to fly a Jenny, 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. His draft card, partly illegible, seems to show that Smith requested exemption from military service, based on his wife's dependence and on his contribution to the war effort as a civilian chemist. One evening in 1915, the Smiths were visiting a former classmate from the University of Idaho, Dr. Carl Garby (1890-1928) 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. 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, 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. His dissertation, The effect of bleaching with oxides of nitrogen upon the baking quality and commercial value of wheat flour, was published in 1919. 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, working on doughnut mixes. One evening late in 1919, after moving to Michigan, Smith was baby-sitting (presumably for Roderick) while his wife attended a movie. He resumed work on The Skylark of Space, finishing it in the spring of 1920. 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. 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. 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. (According to Warner, but no other source, Smith began work on the sequel, Skylark Three, before the first book was accepted.) 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 Amazing's letter column, and he was paid ¾¢ per word, surpassing Amazing's previous record of half a cent. The early 1930s: between Skylark and Lensman Smith then began work on what he intended as a new series, starting with Spacehounds of IPC, which he finis.... Discover the E E Smith popular books. Find the top 100 most popular E E Smith books.