Edward Elmer “Doc” Smith
Sheboygan-born food chemist and space-opera pioneer (Skylark, Lensman); raised in Idaho after leaving Wisconsin as an infant
Net worth
$850
June 1, 1934
About
Edward Elmer Smith was born in Sheboygan on May 2, 1890, to a sailor and a teacher, and left Wisconsin that same winter for Spokane before he could walk.
Idaho farms and logging camps did the raising. Sheboygan keeps the birth certificate of the food chemist who helped invent space opera.
He took chemical engineering at the University of Idaho, earned a Ph.D. at George Washington University on what nitrogen oxides do to wheat flour (the dissertation appeared in 1919), and spent his working years in cereal chemistry at Dawn Doughnut in Jackson, Michigan, and related pastry-mix labs, the unglamorous science of making batter behave. At night, with neighbor Lee Hawkins Garby coaching the dialogue, he wrote The Skylark of Space, serialized in Amazing Stories in 1928. Hugo Gernsback stuck "Ph.D." on the byline; readers shortened it to Doc. The Lensman novels built a universe of Lenses, Galactic Patrols, and villains named Boskone.
He died in Seaside, Oregon, on August 31, 1965, while the magazine If was still serializing the last Skylark (June through October). First Fandom inducted him into its Hall of Fame in 1963; the Science Fiction Hall of Fame followed posthumously in 2004. The Wisconsin tie is the Sheboygan birth; the story is the cereal lab and the galactic patrols.
Notable facts
Born in Sheboygan on May 2, 1890; the family left for Spokane that winter, so the Wisconsin tie is the birth certificate.
Food chemist with a George Washington University Ph.D. on flour bleaching (dissertation published 1919); nights produced The Skylark of Space and the Lensman novels that helped invent space opera.
Died in Seaside, Oregon, on August 31, 1965; First Fandom Hall of Fame (1963) and Science Fiction Hall of Fame (2004, posthumous).
What questions can this profile answer
- What makes Edward Elmer “Doc” Smith notable?
- Edward Elmer Smith was born in Sheboygan on May 2, 1890, to a sailor and a teacher, and left Wisconsin that same winter for Spokane before he could walk. Idaho farms and logging camps did the raising. Sheboygan keeps the birth certificate of the food chemist who helped invent space opera.
- What is Edward Elmer “Doc” Smith's estimated net worth?
- Edward Elmer “Doc” Smith's estimated net worth is $850 as of 1934-06-01.