<span class="SFPTagline"> From SCIFIPEDIA </span>

If there was one single writer whose name should be identified with space opera, it would be Edmond Hamilton (1904–1977). Hamilton began writing pulp fiction during the 1920s and quickly established a reputation for his far-ranging tales set in outer space in which entire stars could be destroyed by superweapons, a theme that recurred in his work even after it became more sophisticated later in his career. He went on to be the primary writer of the Captain Future space adventures, which in many ways were a precursor to the Star Trek television series, establishing the concept of a routine interstellar patrol. Hamilton wrote about twenty book-length episodes of Captain Future and his unusual companions.

Interspersed among Hamilton's galactic sagas were several relatively thoughtful, better constructed, and certainly more plausible adventures. The Valley of Creation (1948) is a mixture of lost world plot elements and super-science in the tradition of A. Merritt. The Star Kings (1949) was an attempt to create a space opera with more credible characters and situations, and it remains among his more popular works, along with its sequel, Return to the Stars (1969). Although less prolific during the 1950s, Hamilton wrote some of his best work during this period. The City at World's End (1951) relocates a city from the contemporary world to a distant future when the Earth is almost dead. The Star of Life (1959), expanded from an earlier novelette, sends its protagonist into yet another future via suspended animation, where he finds that an aristocracy of immortals has prevented the rest of humanity from leaving the Earth in order to perpetuate their monopoly on extended life. The Haunted Stars (1960) tells of the discovery of an ancient and abandoned base on the moon that leads to the revelation that humans are not native to Earth.

During the 1960s, Hamilton returned to old-style space opera, starting with Doomstar (1966). His best work from this period is the "Star Wolves" trilogy, reprinted in one volume as Starwolf (1982). His many shorter works are generally in the same mode as his novels, but the 1952 story "What's It Like Out There?" attempted to describe conditions experienced during space travel in realistic terms and was in fact considered so bleak that he had difficulty finding a market for it. Other short stories of interest include "Son of Two Worlds" (1941), "Dead Planet" (1946), and "The Stars, My Brothers" (1962).

Hamilton was married to fellow SF writer Leigh Brackett, but they almost never collaborated on their fiction. The major exception can be found in Stark and the Star-Kings (2005).