Lee Hawkins Garby

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name = Lee Hawkins Garby


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birthdate = 1892
birthplace = Missouri
deathdate = 1953
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genre = Space opera
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notableworks = The Skylark of Space
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Lee Hawkins Garby (1892 - 1953) was the coauthor with Edward Elmer Smith of the first version "The Skylark of Space", the first science fiction story in which humans left the solar system. (Her coauthor credit was removed for the second edition.) She was the wife of Dr. Carl DeWitt Garby, a friend of Dr. Smith’s from college at the University of Idaho. Additional information and references are contained at Dr. Smith’s article.

Lee Hawkins was born in Missouri in 1892 and died 1953. [http://www.noosfere.com/Icarus/Livres/auteur.asp?numauteur=-52523&niveau=nouvelles accessed 2007 April 29.] She was the daughter of Jameson R. Hawkins (1849 - 1917) and Julia Valinda Offutt (1857 - 1929), and had five siblings, William, Sarah Valinda, Ellen, Mary, and Elijah. [http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/read/HAWKINS/1999-04/0924379819 accessed 2007 December 10 ] The family is living in Bonner County, Idaho in the 1910 Census.. [1910 Census of Bonner's Ferry Precinct, Residence 353, Family 362, Bonner County, Idaho, enumerated by (illegible) on 6 May 1910. Courtesy of www.ancestry.com.] However, no marriage record is currently included in the Western States Marriage Index maintained by Brigham Young University, Idaho. [ [http://abish.byui.edu/specialCollections/index.cfm Special Collections ] ] Doctor Garby was born in Lewiston, Idaho in 1892, the son of Charles Henry Garby (born Germany) and Adelaide Laventia Strickland (born New York) [http://wc.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=:2061643&id=I100321871 accessed 2007 April 26] , and after graduating from Lewiston Normal School in 1910 was a classmate with Dr. Smith in the Class of 1914 at the University of Idaho in Chemical Engineering. [http://www.uidaho.edu/che/scrapbook/ChE_1914.htm accessed 2007 April 29.] In 1919 Dr. Garby was working for the Bureau of Chemistry in Washington DC. [J. A. LeClerc and C. D. Garby, “Pearl Barley: Its Manufacture and Composition.” "Industrial Engineering Chemistry 12(5)", pages 451-455, 1920. http://pubs.acs.org/cgi-bin/abstract.cgi/iechad/1920/12/i05/f-pdf/f_ie50125a013.pdf (first page) accessed 2007 April 29.] The Garby's had a daughter born in mid-1918; the impact of Mrs. Garby's pregnancy and daughter's birth, and the apparently simultaneous pregnancy of Jeannie Smith and birth of Roderick, in the midst of the end of Dr. Smith's studies and his World War I service, on the completion of the Skylark manuscript is unknown. [1920 Census of Seaton Place Apartments, Residence 243, Family 218, Precinct 8, Washington DC, enumerated by Florence M. Townsend on 14-15 January 1920. Courtesy of www.ancestry.com.] The Garby's later have a son, Dr. Rodes Garby, who has contributed interviews regarding the writing of The Skylark of Space. [Bleiler, Everett F. "Science Fiction: The Gernsback Years", Kent State University Press, 1998. ISBN 0873386043.]

Gharlane of Eddore describes his conversation with Dr. Smith on the writing of The Skylark of Space in a rec.arts.sf.written post from 1998: "Mrs. Lee Hawkins Garby's name is listed on the title page of all known hardback editions of "THE SKYLARK OF SPACE," since she co-wrote. She was *not*, repeat, *not*, "dragged in" to "spice up" the story for magazine publication. "Spice up?" It is to guffaw; both Richard Ballinger Seaton and Dorothy Vaneman were virgins when they married! ... As for the *actual* publication history, E.E. Smith, who was not yet a PhD at the time, began working on the yarn in the middle 1910's, but as being desultory about it due to his discomfort with the writing of love scenes and social dialog. His college buddy, Garby, had a wife ith literary pretensions, who was actually pretty fair for the era; she offered to help out, and did a bunch of the writing and typing. This is why the original manuscript, completed in 1916, was listed as "by Edward E. Smith and Mrs. Lee Hawkins Garby." There was an extensive rewrite, by the original two writers, around 1919, right after EES got loose from his Army responsibilities after WWI. " [http://groups.google.gy/group/rec.arts.sf.written/tree/browse_frm/month/1998-03/82123c5b50a3c0ab?rnum=11&_done=%2Fgroup%2Frec.arts.sf.written%2Fbrowse_frm%2Fmonth%2F1998-03%3F accessed 2007 Dec 29 UTC.]

Mrs. Garby is acknowledged in some circles as an early female writer of science fiction, [http://feministsf.org/authors/wsfwriters.html accessed 2007 Dec 29 UTC] but little is known of her life and she made no known contributions to the field beyond her involvement with "Skylark". The brief reference to her in "Partners in Wonder: Women and the Birth of Science Fiction, 1926 - 1965" notes that Dr. Smith never hesitated to mention either her gender or marital status, always referring to her as Mrs. Garby. [Davin, Eric Leif. "Partners in Wonder: Women and the Birth of Science Fiction, 1926 - 1965". Lexington Books, 2006. ISBN 0739112678 ]

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