The Skylark of Space
Skylark Series, Book 1 of 4 

Brilliant government scientist Richard Seaton discovers a remarkable faster-than-light fuel that will power his interstellar spaceship, The Skylark. His ruthless rival, Marc DuQuesne, and the sinister World Steel Corporation will do anything to get their hands on the fuel. They kidnap Seaton's fiancée and friends, unleashing a furious pursuit and igniting a burning desire for revenge that will propel The Skylark across the galaxy and back. The Skylark of Space is the first and one of the best space operas ever written. Breezy dialogue, romantic intrigue, fallible heroes, and complicated villains infuse humanity and believability into a conflict of galactic proportions. The Amazing Stories publication of The Skylark of Space in 1928 heralded the debut of a major new voice in American pulp science fiction and ushered in its golden age. Legions of interstellar epics have been written since that time, but none can match the wonder, dazzle, and sheer fun of the original.
Fiction, science fiction, space opera, Fiction, Space flight, Space ships, American Science fiction
Edward Elmer Smith, Lee Hawkins Garby
Edward Smith was born in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, the son of staunch Presbyterians of British ancestry. The following winter, his family moved to Spokane, Washington, and, in 1902, to Seneaquoteen, Idaho, to farm. He received two degrees in Chemical Engineering from the University of Idaho in 1914. He married in 1915. One evening, while he and his wife were visiting friends, a discussion about space travel led to Smith agreeing to co-author a novel with one of the friends, although after getting about a third of the way through, they abandoned it. Smith went on to receive a Master's degree in Chemistry from George Washington University in 1917 and a doctorate in Chemical Engineering in 1918. In 1919, he became chief chemist for F. W. Stock & Sons of Hillsdale, Michigan. That same year he resumed writing his first novel, The Skylark of Space, which he finished in 1920, although multiple submissions failed to get it published until 1928. He continued to write and publish stories through the 1930s. In 1936 he took a job as a food technologist at the Dawn Doughnut Company of Jackson, Michigan, while continuing to write and sell fiction.  During World War II, he worked for the U.S. Army, and after the war he took a job with the J. W. Allen Company, which he held until his professional retirement in 1957.  After his retirement he and his wife moved to Clearwater, Florida in the winters and Seaside, Oregon in the summer.  He continued to write until his death in 1965.