Malcolm Smith (artist)

In the mid to late 1930s, Malcolm started working as a freelance artist for the various pulp publishers in Chicago. He did illustrations and paintings for mystery, romance, detective, western, and sci-fi pulps. He was, for a while, the art director at Ziff-Davis Publishing. At other times he worked in a Chicago-based artist's cooperative called Bendelow and Associates. Malcolm often used himself, his friends, and family members as models for his works.

In the later part of 1959, Malcolm moved his family to Huntsville, Alabama, where he worked as a concept artist and animator for the Marshall Space Flight Center of NASA. While at NASA, Malcolm worked with Fred Ordway who became the technical adviser for the Kubrick movie 2001:a Space Odyssey. Fred suggested to Arthur C. Clarke that they use Malcolm for the concept and design work for the movie. Arthur C. Clarke sent a letter to Malcolm requesting his assistance on the movie, but, at the time, Malcolm was busy illustrating a book called "In Search for Life on Other Worlds" and he was unavailable for the movie. Also in the 60s, Malcolm was asked to appear on the show "I've Got A Secret" as a famous sci-fi artist. Throughout his career he became friends with many other artists, writers, scientists and engineers including: Virgil Finlay, Ray Paul, Edgar Rice Burroughs, and Wernher von Braun. Malcolm H. Smith is considered by many Sci-Fi fans to be one of the founding fathers of this genre of art.^[3] He died in 1966 of lung cancer, and is buried in Huntsville, Alabama.

• 
  Smith's first cover for an sf magazine, Amazing Stories, January 1942
• 
  Fantastic Adventures, April 1943
• 
  Other Worlds Science Stories, March 1950
• 
  Imagination, February 1951

• Field Guide To Wild American Pulp Artists
• Works by Malcolm Smith at Project Gutenberg