byEdward Elmer Smith (1890–1965)—who first published science fiction as “E.E. Smith, Ph.D.” and later as “E. E. ‘Doc’ Smith”—was an American food engineer (specializing in doughnut and pastry mixes) who also wrote science fiction. His two degrees in chemical engineering gave his work an veneer of scientific respectability in the early days of the field, even though his galaxy-ranging adventure tales had little to do with actual science. He virtually invented the sub-genre of “space opera” in the pulp magazine Amazing Stories, and today he is often referred to as “the father of space opera.”
Amazing StoriesIt was not a smooth road to success for Smith. Although he complete his first book in 1920, there were no science fiction magazines in those days, so he tried general fiction pulps (whic
