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41-487: The story picks up immediately where Gray Lensman left off as Kimball and Clarissa are heading off to get ready for their impending marriage. Mentor of Arisia stops them by commanding Kim to "think" before he acts, and Kim, of course, immediately realizes that the Boskonian organization was probably not destroyed when Jarnevon was cracked between two other planets and still poses a grave threat to Civilization. The wedding

82-516: A negasphere of planetary dimensions and use it against the leaders of Boskone. Kinnison infiltrates Jalte's base and gets the information he had been hoping for since his trip to the Second Galaxy: the location of the leaders of Boskone, a group made up of members of a race called the Eich. He and Worsel set out on what amounts to an almost suicide mission to infiltrate Jarnevon, the homeworld of

123-451: A nutcracker. Earth is attacked, and by the slimmest margin, the enemy fleet is defeated. As before in this series, the ultimate weapon featured in the previous book becomes the standard for the opening stages of this one, and newer, more powerful weaponry must be developed to deal with the new danger. In this case the weapon developed is the “Sunbeam”, where the entire output of the sun is converted to an energy beam and used to vaporize much of

164-600: A planet under attack and comes to its aid, destroying the Boskonian forces and discovering that the entire planet is capable of going "free" (that is, inertialess, the method used in the Lensman books to achieve interstellar and intergalactic space travel). The Lensman returns to the First Galaxy with the space-faring planet and its grateful residents. Kinnison decides that since the Patrol is not yet strong enough to attack

205-508: A published poet. From 1950 to 1955, he was the book critic for Galaxy Science Fiction . Born in Glen Ridge, New Jersey , Conklin was educated at Dartmouth College and Harvard University , and graduated from Columbia University in 1927. He drifted through a series of jobs in the 1930s and 1940s, working for several government agencies during WWII . He was a book editor for Robert M. McBride & Co. and did public relations work for

246-604: A year before her death. Four years later, he married Florence Alexander Wohlken. His book review column, "Galaxy's Five-Star Shelf", was a key feature in Galaxy Science Fiction from its premiere issue (October 1950) until October 1955. During that period, he also edited Grosset & Dunlap 's Science Fiction Classics series, which he conceived as an inexpensive alternative to hard-to-find small-press editions of such titles as Robert A. Heinlein 's Beyond This Horizon and Isaac Asimov 's I, Robot , although

287-401: Is Clarissa MacDougall. She flatly refuses to have any contact with Mentor, so it's up to Kinnison to give her the mental training needed to make her a Lensman. Mentor sees to it that her Lens is delivered, and as Civilization's first female Lensman, she goes to Lyrane to try to find its link, if any, to Boskone. After sending Clarissa to Lyrane, Kinnison and Nadreck set about following a lead to

328-419: Is an Arisian instead of Gharlane's actual form. The time has not yet come for any member of Civilization to see what the ultimate leaders of Boskone actually are. Kimball Kinnison returns to Thrale with agents of the Patrol to begin the slow and painful process of bringing Thrale and the rest of Boskonia into Civilization. While Kinnison is taking over the warm-blooded, oxygen-breathing part of Boskonia, Nadreck

369-422: Is anything but a loyal member of Boskonia, so he does just what the former Tyrant was planning to do, he directs the construction of a massive fleet to attack the Patrol's foothold in the Second Galaxy: the massively fortified planet of Klovia. He keeps the Patrol advised of the construction and the progress of the fleet via his Lens, so when Thrale launches its attack, they sail into a carefully planned trap. Since

410-506: Is asked to lead the expedition to hunt them down, and the reptilian Worsel comes along. The Delgonians are dispatched in fairly short order, but only after the loss of many good men. Kinnison agonizes over the casualties that they suffered because, although he and Worsel were mentally strong enough to resist the Overlords, his men were not. Realizing that the Patrol will need new and much more powerful weapons before it can take on Boskone in

451-547: Is based on deceit and assassination, and as a second stage Lensman is much better at anything needing intelligence than the average Boskonian, he soon rises to a position just under the Tyrant. Soon he finds a way to assassinate the Tyrant and take his place. only to find the real power is in the hands of Fossten, the Prime Minister. Kinnison must not give the mentally super-powerful prime-minister any reason to doubt that he

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492-556: Is basically just a brain, looking enough like Mentor of Arisia to be his brother. Kinnison sends a lensed thought to Mentor and asks what an Arisian is doing leading Boskone? Mentor's explanation satisfies Kinnison so he never realizes that in actuality, he has just defeated and destroyed Gharlane of Eddore, the entity who, as Nero, Gray Roger, and many others, was responsible for most of the death and misery in Earth's history. Mentor has used his mental power to make Kinnison see what he thinks

533-619: Is doing the same with the Onlonians, leaders of the frigid world dwellers of Boskonia. Nadreck isn't Kinnison and goes about it in a completely different way, but the results are the same and Onlo falls. Civilization and the Galactic Patrol are now in control of both the first and second galaxy. The book ends with Kinnison being made Galactic Coordinator of the Second Galaxy and finally marrying Clarissa MacDougall. Reviewing

574-497: Is put on hold as Kinnison and the other Lensmen set about coming up with a defense for the expected attack upon Earth. Since one of the themes of the series is that as soon as one side develops a particular weapon, the other soon figures out how to duplicate it; the Lensmen assume that Earth will be subjected to an attack using either a negasphere (negative energy that consumes anything it touches) or two high velocity planets, used like

615-807: The Federal Home Loan Bank , the Office of Strategic Services , the Department of Commerce , the National Cancer Institute and the American Diabetes Association . He was also a former scientific researcher for the N.W. Ayer & Son advertising agency. It was as an editor of fiction that Conklin found his niche, beginning as early as 1930. At the age of 26, while employed as an assistant manager at New York's Doubleday Bookstore , he arranged for

656-420: The "zwilnik" (the series' slang for a Boskonian drug dealer) he came for, but knowing they can't stop him from taking her, they let them go. After Kinnison's ship leaves, Lyrane comes under attack by two Boskonian ships and the matriarchs, who are helpless against thought screened pirates with advanced weapons, have to call Kinnison and the Patrol to come back and help them. On the way back to Tellus (Earth) with

697-507: The 1936 publication of The New Republic Anthology: 1915-1935 , edited with Bruce Bliven. The following year, he married Lucy Tempkin on October 1. During the next decade, he wrote books about subways, rental libraries and home construction, in addition to poetry and numerous magazine articles. Conklin did not grow up as a reader of science fiction, but came to it later in life. In his Galaxy Five-Star Shelf column of December, 1954, he states, "...I actually did not become an earnest devotee of

738-454: The 1953 edition, Groff Conklin described Smith's writing as "pretty dull going for people who want a bit more than thud and blunder." P. Schuyler Miller called the novel "space opera to the nth degree," saying "you either like it a lot—though you probably won't believe a word of it—or you can't stand it at all". Gray Lensman Grey Lensman (originally Gray Lensman ) is a science fiction novel by American writer E. E. Smith . It

779-536: The Boskonian fleet that attacked Earth was completely destroyed by the Sunbeam, and no word of the weapon could be sent back to Boskonia, the Tyrant's fleet sailed directly into the path of the Sunbeam, and between Sunbeam and the Patrol Grand Fleet, it was totally destroyed. The ship Kinnison and Fossten were on wasn't destroyed because Kinnison disabled its drive and it dropped out of the fleet just before

820-749: The Boskonian fleet when it shows up. By now everyone has "thought screens" (developed by the Velantians) rendering the ability of the Lensmen to read others' minds only useful when the opposition is captured or sloppy, so the Lensmen must find new ways to gather information. Kinnison's investigations take him to the planet of Lyrane, ruled by a matriarchy of women who have advanced mental abilities, but apparently little or no art, literature, music, or other cultural assets. The Lyranian who meets Kinnison when he lands immediately tries to mentally kill him, as does every other Lyranian. Kinnison handles their mental attacks easily. They don't want to cooperate in handing over

861-403: The Eich. Kinnison is captured and tortured. Unknown to the Eich, Worsel is hiding close by and finds a way to rescue Kinnison, and they get away. Infected by something that requires the Patrol doctors to amputate all four limbs, blinded, and tortured almost to death, Kinnison is nonetheless saved, but he will most likely be a basket case. Earlier in the book, a Posenian physician called "Phillips"

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902-713: The English Language . He lived in New York at 150 West 96th Street. At the age of 63, he died of emphysema in his summer home at Pawling, New York . A major survey of Conklin's contribution to science fiction is contained in Bud Webster 's 41 Above the Rest: An Index and Checklist for the Anthologies of Groff Conklin . Webster's study prompted this comment from Barry N. Malzberg : Groff Conklin

943-617: The Second Galaxy militarily, he will follow leads to the upper levels of Boskone through the traffic in the illegal drug thionite. The novel then follows Kinnison as he tries to infiltrate the Boskonian drug network. Along the way, Kinnison learns something else new: as a Second Stage Lensman he no longer needs his Lens to do Lensman things such as read minds or communicate telepathically, although he works better while wearing it. Kinnison suffers some setbacks, and has to assume different identities, eventually one requiring him to drink and use drugs. Even though he tries to drink while actually letting

984-421: The Second Galaxy, Kinnison convenes 50 of the greatest scientists in the galaxy to work on new weapon-development projects. The weapon they invent, whose theory requires the development of a wholly new mathematics, is called a "negasphere", composed of something combining the attributes of antimatter and negative matter . It totally consumes absolutely anything it touches, in mutual annihilation. They plan to make

1025-435: The battle was joined. While the patrol was taking care of the Boskonian fleet, Kimball faces off against Fossten. A battle royal ensues, deadly to the crew members even though it was fought with mental weapons. The spent forces bouncing off the mental shields of the two combatants were enough to destroy the minds of all the crew members of the ship. Kinnison at last beats down Fossten's mental shield and what he sees before him

1066-510: The book ends with them walking off, hand in hand, into a bright and happy future. Groff Conklin gave the novel's first edition a scathing review in Galaxy , describing it as a "primitive artifact" which "simply gives [me] alternate waves of incredulous laughter and dull, acid boredom." P. Schuyler Miller reviewed the novel favorably, saying "Whatever [Smith's] yarns have, Grey Lensman has more of, in greater abundance and variety, than any of

1107-555: The cover— The Science Fiction Galaxy (1950), The Big Book of Science Fiction (1950) and Possible Worlds of Science Fiction (1951). The prominent display of Conklin's huge hardcover anthologies in the "New Titles" section of libraries led numerous American readers to discover science fiction during the genre's early 1950s boom. In the Grip of Terror ( Permabooks , 1951) was an offbeat collection of horror tales, and he collaborated with Lucy Conklin on The Supernatural Reader in 1953,

1148-437: The first title in the series ( Henry Kuttner 's Fury ) was that story's first book publication. The Weather-Conditioned House (1958) is not science fiction but a practical discussion of methods involved in weather-conditioning a house. The book was authoritative enough that it was reissued with an update in 1982. In the last three years of his life, Conklin was the staff science editor for The American Heritage Dictionary of

1189-459: The form until 1944, about a year before the Atomic Age actually opened....The first item I remember reading that could be classified as science fiction was H. G. Wells ' Men Like Gods , back in 1924 when I was a college sophomore. It had a tremendous effect on me...." A roommate from 1930 provided him with "bound volumes of tear-sheets of early weirds, fantastics and ' scientifictions ' from

1230-539: The hardcover publication of a story first published in The Smart Set (November 1913), reprinting "A Flood" by the Irish writer George Moore in a limited edition of 185 signed copies. In 1934, Conklin and Burton Rascoe published The Smart Set Anthology (reissued in 1944 as The Bachelor's Companion ), the first collection of stories from that literary magazine. Conklin's interest in short fiction continued with

1271-525: The main Boskonian threat by tracing an enemy communications line leading into the second galaxy. The Galactic Patrol is by now ready to begin a full-scale invasion of the second galaxy, so Port Admiral Haynes mobilizes the Grand Fleet. With the patrol invading their home galaxy in overwhelming force, the Boskonians are too busy to worry about a communications line, so Kinnison and Nadreck trace it all

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1312-497: The middle of the battle to destroy Helmuth's Main Base and, it is hoped, fully end the threat of Boskone. After the base falls, Kinnison finds some clues that lead him to think that Helmuth was perhaps not the head of Boskone after all. The clues lead Kinnison to mount an expedition aboard the newly constructed super-dreadnought Dauntless , into the Second Galaxy where he thinks the true head of Boskone might reside. The Dauntless locates

1353-500: The negasphere. He continues to the Boskonian home ground in the Second Galaxy, to destroy their fleet and then the Eich's home base using a "nutcracker"—a pair of planets with diametrically opposed velocities, released to crush Jarnevon between them. And so pass the Eich and the Council of Boskone. It is thought that finally the long struggle is finished and Civilization is triumphant. Kinnison and MacDougall make plans to get married and

1394-630: The old Argosy , All-Story and others...." He sent a proposal for his first science fiction anthology to Crown Publishers in 1944, and the book was issued in 1946, several months ahead of the other great sf anthology of that year, Adventures in Time and Space edited by Raymond J. Healy and J. Francis McComas . After his first science fiction anthology, The Best of Science Fiction (1946), weighing in at 785 pages, he followed with A Treasury of Science Fiction (1948). Readers soon began to seek out books with his strikingly unusual and exotic name on

1435-498: The people around him empty the bottles, and uses the least harmful drug he can, it still takes him a while to get over their effects. Eventually he uncovers the information he was looking for: the name and the location of Jalte, the boss of all Boskonian drug traffic in the First Galaxy. There is a minor interlude in which the Delgonian Overlords seem to have returned. Because he had fought the Overlords before, Kinnison

1476-498: The rest." One newspaper reviewer described it as "Science fiction of the highest calibre." Groff Conklin Edward Groff Conklin (September 6, 1904 – July 19, 1968) was an American science fiction anthologist. He edited 40 anthologies of science fiction, one of mystery stories (co-edited with physician Noah Fabricant), wrote books on home improvement and was a freelance writer on scientific subjects as well as

1517-557: The way back to the Thrallis system. Nadreck takes on the Boskonian headquarters on the frigid world of Onlo and sets about carefully fomenting discord by tampering with the minds of the various Onlonians he finds there. Kinnison infiltrates Thrale, inhabited by a near-human race that forms the core race around which Boskone's strength is built. Kinnison infiltrates the Tyrant of Thrale's personal guards. Since advancement within Boskonia

1558-403: The zwilnik, Kinnison decides that, in some way, Lyrane is connected with Boskone. He knows that no male, except a Lensman, could survive a minute in that man-hating culture, and even a Lensman would have to spend all his time protecting himself. Only a female could be effective, but there were no female Lensmen. Kinnison makes the decision, after consulting Mentor, that the best person for the job

1599-468: Was financed by the Patrol to try to develop a way to allow higher beings to regenerate body parts in the same way that lower animals (starfish, flatworms, salamanders, etc.) can. When Kinnison was injured, Phillips was ready to try his procedure on humans. It works and Kinnison is brought back to full health. During his convalescence Clarissa MacDougall is again his nurse, and their love grows stronger. He then leads an expedition to destroy Jalte's base, using

1640-522: Was first published in book form in 1951 by Fantasy Press in an edition of 5,096 copies. The novel was originally serialized in the magazine Astounding in 1939. Grey Lensman is the fourth (originally the second) book in the Lensman series and the second to focus on the adventures of Lensman Kimball Kinnison. The action in Grey Lensman picks up immediately where Galactic Patrol left off, in

1681-493: Was the most important science fiction anthologist through the years of the genre's true second generation, that point at which its previously magazine-bound masterpieces were being systematically located, aligned and placed into permanent format. His contribution over the period of two decades was irreplaceable and all of our postwar history exists in the penumbra of his work. Bud Webster has in this index granted an act of scholarship and homage of equal irreplaceability. Groff Conklin

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