The Complete Skylark of Space

Unabridged magazine version with 10,000 words (three chapters) added that are not in most other ebook editions. When The Skylark of Space was first published in paperback in the early 1960s, the publishers made him abridge the book. Three key chapters that appeared in the original 1928 Amazing Stories printing of the author's manuscript were omitted. These deleted chapters tell of the hero's development from child to young manhood, and his growing romance with Dorothy Vaneman, both of which parallel in many ways those of the author himself, plus the start of intrigue around his discovery of the secret of liberating the energy of the atom. Soon his characters will be careening around not just the solar system, to whose confines science fiction had limited it self until The Skylark of Space was published, but the galaxy. What a honeymoon! Especially with kidnappings, evil alien armadas, wedding dresses to be designed, man-eating dinosaurs to be batted and, oh yes, home to be found somehow, far away on the far side of the galaxy. Yes, it's the galumphing granddaddy of space opera, Edward E. Smith, Ph. D., creator of the Lensmen, in his first ever interstellar outing - and of course the galaxy is just the first stop. Alexei Panshin hails it as "the most fully realized ... most innovative ... most influential" science fiction novel of its era. "When the Skylark of Space first appeared [in the August 1928 Amazing Stories] Edward E. Smith Ph. D. was instantly recognized as the premier writer of American science fiction and would remain that for fully a dozen years more." Why? The Skylark of Space was the first book whose "true business [was] not the exploration of the local solar system – but the exploration of the stars!" Complete text of this must-read romp. With a new introduction, recommended reading lists, notes on the text, and a reproduction of rare promotional material written in 1946 for the first book publication.