The John W. Campbell, Jr. Letters

For many years John W. Campell, Jr. was the editor who, metaphorically, provided the door through which most would-be science fiction writers had to pass to sell their stories. As editor of Astounding Science Fiction, now Analog Science Fiction and Fact, and also as editor of Unknown, Campbell had to fill their pages with entertaining stories. During this early era he filled those pages by teaching about story ideas to anyone who would listen. Campbell, the editor, threw out science fiction ideas like a farmer casting seed corn to his plowed fields and he nurtured the ideas almost like real flesh and blood children. We can't say that Star Trek, Star Wars, and other great science fiction movies would not have been created except for him, but we can say that John W. Campbell, Jr. was the basic inspiration behind them. Why was that? Because Campbell taught young high school would-be writers, experienced writers of other genre, or even great writers of science fiction that the meaning of "science fiction" was "an interesting story told within the framework of real or possible science." "No fuzzy thinking was allowed " we paraphrase for him. Campbell, the editor of Unknown, also began a new type of "sword and sorcery" magazine that brought magic and genies into modern society complete with automobiles and skyscrapers. John W. Campbell, Jr., as a writer under both his birth name and the pen-name, Don A. Stuart, was successful under two styles. Writing came easy to him. More than appealing to writers, John had a wide and varied audience among those were hard scientists, engineers, mathematicians and teachers. A crater on Mars is named after him, the "Campbell Crater." In The John W. Campbell Letters, Vol. I, you'll find a selected series of his letters dated from the 1930s to the 1970s. When you read these letters you will understand how he nearly single-handedly formed the modern world of science fiction This is the second edition of Volume I, the first still available in paperback form, but its pages are becoming discolored from age. 254,053 Words