From The SF Gateway, the most comprehensive digital library of classic SFF titles ever assembled, comes an ideal sample introduction to the fantastic work of E. E. 'Doc' Smith, one of the most influential authors of the pulp era. Working with legendary ASTOUNDING SCIENCE FICTION editor, John W. Campbell, Smith revolutionised space opera, giving it many of the tropes still evident today. This volume reprints the four novels of his classic Skylark series: THE SKYLARK OF SPACE SKYLARK THREE SKYLARK OF VALERON SKYLARK DUQUESNE

Author Biography

Edward Elmer Smith was born in Wisconsin in 1890. He attended the University of Idaho and graduated with degrees in chemical engineering; he went on to attain a PhD in the same subject, and spent his working life as a food engineer. Smith is best known for the Skylark and Lensman series of novels, which are arguably the earliest examples of what a modern audience would recognise as Space Opera. Early novels in both series were serialised in the dominant pulp magazines of the day: ARGOSY, AMAZING STORIES, WONDER STORIES and a pre-Campbell ASTOUNDING, although his most successful works were published under Campbell's editorship. Although he won no major SF awards, Smith was Guest of Honour at the second World Science Fiction Convention in Chicago, in 1940. He died in 1965.