Editing Backstage Lensman

{{Notability|date=November 2023}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}}
{{Infobox short story
| name              = Backstage Lensman
| author            = [[Randall Garrett]]
| country           = United States
| language          = English
| series            = [[Lensman]]
| genre             = [[Science fiction]]
| published_in      ='' [[Analog Science Fiction and Fact]]''
| publication_type  = [[Magazine]]
| publisher         = 
| media_type        = Print ([[Paperback]])
| pub_date          = June 1978
}}
"'''Backstage Lensman'''" is a short story by [[Randall Garrett]], a parody or pastiche of the [[Lensman]] series of [[E. E. Smith|E.E. 'Doc' Smith]]. It was first written in 1949, lost and then rewritten in 1978.

Garrett claimed that "Doc read the first version of 'Backstage Lensman' and laughed all through the convention. It was his suggestion that I call the spaceship ''Dentless'' rather than ''Dauntless''."
 
==Publication history==
This story appeared in:
* The magazine ''[[Astounding Magazine|Analog]]'', June 1978
* ''Takeoff'', a collection of short fiction and poems by Randall Garrett, 1980
* ''Shaggy B.E.M. Stories'', an anthology edited by Mike Resnick, 1988

==External links==
*{{ISFDB title|id=50073}}

[[Category:1978 short stories]]
[[Category:1970s science fiction short stories]]
[[Category:Parodies of literature]]
[[Category:Lensman series]]
[[Category:Short stories by Randall Garrett]]
[[Category:Works originally published in Analog Science Fiction and Fact]]


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