Space on Smith’s mind

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In the evening hours of the 1920s, at a small house on Griswold Street, one man was changing the world.

When Edward “Doc” Smith came to Hillsdale, Michigan in 1920, space was on his mind.

Smith arrived in Hillsdale in the spring of that year, after earning two degrees from the University of Idaho. He spent nearly two decades working for F.W.Stock and Sons, formulating doughnut mixes for the company. But he would be remembered not as a cereal chemist, but as one of the greatest and most influential science fiction writers of the 20th century.

At a men’s smoking club in 1915, Smith was having a discussion with a former classmate, Carl Garby. It was especially hot and humid, and the conversation eventually turned from terrestrial temperatures to speculation on what the temperature was in the vacuum of space. Garby told his wife, Lee, about the conversation later, and Lee pushed Smith to write a story about it. The idea for Smith’s first novel, “The Skylark of Space,” was born.

The titular “Skylark” is a ship built by Dick Seaton, the story’s protagonist. Seaton discovers that space travel is possible by combining copper with another fictional element, called “X,” and creating a field with a particle accelerator, allowing the ship to reach speeds faster than light.

The antagonist, Marc DuQuesne, discovers Seaton’s plans and builds his own ship, kidnapping Seaton’s fiancée, Dorothy Vaneman, to exchange for a supply of “X.” Seaton and Crane, his partner, follow DuQuesne in an attempt to rescue Dorothy. The chase takes them far from the Earth, where they encounter a disembodied intelligence, dead stars, and civilizations on the planet Osnome.

Eventually, there is a climactic battle in which the crew of Skylark battles the armies of the rulers of Mardonale with the assistance of Prince Dunark of Kondal, which results in the destruction of Mardonale and the outfitting of the Skylark with Kondalian weapons. Seaton is named the overlord of Kondal, and the team returns to Earth on the reconstructed Skylark Two.

Now, Smith began sending it to publishers.

Eight years went by before anyone showed interest. In that time, Smith only received one letter that wasn’t outright rejection. Bob Davis, editor of Argosy, an American fiction magazine, said he loved the story, but worried that it was “too far out” for his readers.

Finally, in 1927, Amazing Stories magazine accepted his 90,000 word novel. They offered him $75 for the work, which was less than what Smith had paid in postage over eight years of submissions. But Smith accepted it.

The novel was a huge hit with readers, and soon, Amazing Stories Editor Thomas Sloane wrote Smith, asking for a sequel. Smith started work on Skylark Three, which picked up where the first novel left off.

Skylark would have another part in “Skylark Valeron” in 1933, which skyrocketed Smith to fame. After a few difficult years, during which time Smith moved from Hillsdale to Jackson, Michigan, he wrote his nextnovels: The Lensman Series.

In this new series, a group called the Galactic Patrol combated the piracy that threatened galactic civilizations. Many new alien species interacted with one another in this galaxy-wide fight. The Arisians represented the forces of good, while the Eddorians, in their search for power, represented evil.

Smith wrote for the rest of his life. At a science fiction convention in 1963, he was honored for his contributions to the genre. His hands trembled, and he was nearly blind. But when asked what his next book would be, Smith replied sharply, “The title of my next story is Skylark DuQuesne!”

Two weeks after Skylark Duquesne’s publication in 1965, Doc Smith died of a heart attack. But his contributions to the world of science fiction continued to outlast his mortality.

In 1978, Verna Trestrail, Smith’s daughter, spoke to a crowd about her father’s work.

“A teacher once came up to me and said, ‘When I was in school, a study hall teacher caught me reading your father’s book, ‘The Skylark of Space,’ and I had to spend three days in detention. Now, I’m teaching it!’ Doc would have loved that,” Trestrail said.

And nothing less than the United States Navy looked to Smith’s work for inspiration.

During World War II, Admiral Chester W. Nimitz took inspiration from Smith’s battleship bridge designs in constructing naval Combat Information Centers on ships’ bridges.

“You proposed such an integrating technique and proved how advantageous it could be. You, sir, were 100 percent right. As the Japanese Navy—not the hypothetical Boskonian fleet—learned at an appalling cost,” wrote John W. Campbell, who edited Smith’s Lensman series.

Robert Heinlein, one of the most famous science fiction writers of the latter half of the twentieth century, paid tribute to Smith help and hospitality in a 1988 publication.

“Both Doc and his beautiful Jeannie were endlessly hospitable,” he wrote. “I stayed with them once when they had nine houseguests. They seemed to enjoy it. But, above all, Doc Smith was a perfect, gallant knight. And all of the above are reflected in his stories.”