| The cover of The John W.For other persons of the same name, see John Campbell.Golden Age of Science Fiction, which is often held to have started with the July 1939 issue of Astounding.At the time of his sudden and unexpected death after 34 years at the helm of Astounding, however, his quirky personality and occasionally eccentric editorial demands had alienated a number of his most illustrious writers such as Asimov and Robert A.Strahern) was warm but changeable of character and had an identical twin who visited them often and who disliked young John.John was unable to tell them apart and was frequently coldly rebuffed by the person he took to be his mother.Campbell attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he befriended Norbert Wiener, one of the godfathers of computers.He began writing science fiction at age 18 and quickly sold his first stories.Asimov notes Campbell's presence at Duke and speculates that Duke was "best known in my youth for the work of Joseph B.Rhine on extrasensory perception, and that may have influenced Campbell's later views on the subject."He might quit and go into science.I'm a nuclear physicist, you know,' he said, looking me right in the eye."He was married to Dona Stewart in 1931, divorced in 1949, then remarried in 1950 to Margaret (Peg) Winter.He spent most of his life in New Jersey and died at home, "quietly, quickly, painlessly, as he sat before his television."Writing career
Campbell's first published story, "When the Atoms Failed", appeared in the January 1930 issue of Amazing Stories, when he was 18; he had had a previous story, "Invaders from the Infinite", accepted by Amazing's editor, T.Campbell's early fiction included a space opera series based around three characters, Arcot, Morey and Wade; and another series with lead characters Penton and Blake.All were eventually published in book form in the 1950s and 1960s.Soon Stuart also had a strong reputation as a leading writer, and from 1930 until the later part of the decade Campbell was prolific and successful under both his own name and the Stuart pseudonym.Two significant stories published under the pseudonym are "Twilight" (Astounding, November 1934), the first Stuart story, which immediately established the reputation of the apparently new author; and "Who Goes There?""From the memories of his childhood he drew the most fearsome agony of the past: the doubts, the fears, the shock, and the frustration of repeatedly discovering that the woman who looked so much like his mother was not who she seemed.Orlin Tremaine hired Campbell as the editor of Astounding.November 1937 issue listed Tremaine as the editor as of October 1, 1937.The July issue contained A.Vogt's first story, "Black Destroyer"; and Isaac Asimov's early story "Trends"; August brought Robert A.Virginia Heinlein writes in her collection of Heinlein's letters that Campbell was "a large, tall man who threw off ideas like a sparkler....Asimov says of his unmatched influence on the field: "By his own example and by his instruction and by his undeviating and persisting insistence, he forced first Astounding and then all science fiction into his mold.Campbell did not compromise because of that: those who could not meet his requirements could not sell to him, and the carnage was as great as it had been in Hollywood a decade before, while silent movies had given way to the talkies."The most famous example of the type of speculative but plausible science fiction that Campbell demanded from his writers is Deadline, a short story by Cleve Cartmill that appeared during the wartime year of 1944, a year before the detonation of the first atomic bomb.The FBI, however, descended on Campbell's office after the story appeared in print and demanded that the issue be removed from the newsstands.Godwin kept coming up with ingenious ways to save the girl!Since the strength of this deservedly classic story lies in the fact the life of one young woman must be sacrificed to save the lives of many, it simply wouldn't have the same impact if she had lived."Campbell revealed a sly sense of humor in the November 1949 issue.He had always encouraged literary criticism by Astounding's readership, and in the November 1948 issue he published a letter to the editor by a reader named Richard A.Hoen that contained a detailed ranking of the contents of an issue one year in the future.An anthology of these editorials was published in 1966.He also suggested story ideas to writers (including, famously, "Write me a creature that thinks as well as a man, or better than a man, but not like a man"), and sometimes asked for stories to match cover paintings he had already bought.Isaac Asimov once asked Campbell why he had stopped writing fiction after he became the editor of Astounding.Joe Green writes that Campbell "enjoyed taking the 'devil's advocate' position in almost any area, willing to defend even viewpoints with which he disagreed if that led to a livelier debate."Green goes on to say that he was "very much afraid that in fact he was sincere.John held some racist views, at least in regard to blacks."Finally, however, Green agreed with Campbell that "rapidly increasing mechanization after 1850 would have soon rendered slavery obsolete anyhow.It would have been better for the USA to endure it a few more years than suffer the truly horrendous costs of the Civil War."He went on to say that "...South would have been integrated by 1910.Smoking
Campbell was a heavy smoker throughout his life and was seldom seen without his customary cigarette holder.In it he stated that the connection to lung cancer was "esoteric" and referred to "a barely determinable possible correlation between cigarette smoking and cancer".United States submarine in Martian orbit, propelled there by a Dean drive, on an Astounding cover.In the 1950s, Campbell developed strong interests in alternative theories that began to isolate him from some of his own mainstream writers such as Asimov.He published many stories about telepathy and other psionic abilities.In 1949 Campbell also became interested in Dianetics.He was initially a strong supporter, writing of Hubbard's initial article in Astounding that "It is, I assure you in full and absolute sincerity, one of the most important articles ever published."He also claimed to have successfully used dianetic techniques himself: "The memory stimulation technique is so powerful that, within thirty minutes of entering therapy, most people will recall in full detail their own birth.Damon Knight commented in his book In Search of Wonder: "In the pantheon of magazine science fiction there is no more complex and puzzling figure than that of John Campbell, and certainly none odder."Pseudoscience
Isaac Asimov writes: "A number of writers wrote pseudoscientific stuff to ensure sales to Campbell, but the best writers retreated, I among them."Asimov was not alone in his opinion.He pained very many of the men he had trained (including me) in doing so, but felt it was his duty to stir up the minds of his readers and force curiosity right out to the border lines.He was a tall, large man with light hair, a beaky nose, a wide face with thin lips, and with a cigarette in a holder forever clamped between his teeth."Campbell talked a good deal more than he listened, and he liked to say outrageous things."The notable British novelist and critic Kingsley Amis, in his seminal 1960 book about science fiction, New Maps of Hell, dismisses Campbell brusquely: "I might just add as a sociological note that the editor of Astounding, himself a deviant figure of marked ferocity, seems to think he has invented a psi machine."The noted SF writer Alfred Bester, an editor of Holiday Magazine and a sophisticated Manhattanite, recounts at some length his "one demented meeting" with Campbell, a man he imagined from afar to be "a combination of Bertrand Russell and Ernest Rutherford," across the river in Newark.Over a sandwich in a dingy New Jersey lunchroom Campbell ordered the bemused Bester to "think back.You can remember when your mother tried to abort you with a button hook.You've never stopped hating her for it."Asimov's final word on Campbell was that "in the last twenty years of his life, he was only a diminishing shadow of what he had once been."The friendship dwindled, and was eventually completely gone."Each story was prefaced by comments either by the author or the editor, Harry Harrison.Radio and awards
Between December 11, 1957 and June 13, 1958, Campbell hosted a weekly science fiction radio program called Exploring Tomorrow.The scripts were written by authors such as Gordon Dickson and Robert Silverberg.Transcripts of some programs are still available.Campbell Award for Best New Writer were named in his honor.Bibliography
For the main article, see Bibliography of John W.This shortened bibliography lists each title once.The main bibliographic sources are footnoted from this paragraph and provided much of the information in the following sections.For more bibliographic information see the separate bibliography article.Short story collections and omnibus editions
Who Goes There?Stuart Stories of John W.Reprinted in Seekers of Tomorrow, Masters of Modern Science Fiction, Sam Moskowitz, Ballantine Books, New York, 1967
Hell's Cartographers, Some Personal Histories of Science Fiction Writers, edited by Brian W.Grumbles from the Grave, selected letters of Robert A.Chicago, 1970
Our Five Days with John W.London: Elm Tree Books, 63.August 1963) "Amazing Stories": 101.Hell's Cartographers, edited by Brian W.Chicago: Advent: Publishers, Inc.The World of Science Fiction and Fantasy: The History of a Subculture.The editorial note was not signed, but it refers to stories bought for the last three issues, one of which (Lester del Rey's The Faithful) is known to have been bought by Campbell.See the citation from The Early del Rey for del Rey's account of that sale.Nicholls, Peter: The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction."The beginning of Campbell's particular Golden Age of SF can be pinpointed as the summer of 1939," and goes on to begin the discussion with the July 1939 issue.Lester del Rey (del Rey, Lester (1979).New York: Ballantine Books, 94.In addition, the issue was later reproduced as a facsimile issue just because of its fame for this reason.Campbell, by Joe Green, The Bulletin of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, Fall 2006, No.Asimov's introduction to ASTOUNDING: John W.Our Five Days with John W.Campbell, by Joe Green, The Bulletin of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, Fall 2006, No.Hell's Cartographers, edited by Brian W.Retrieved on 21 June 2006.Index to Science Fiction Anthologies and Collections, Combined Edition.Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature: Volume 1: Indexes to the Literature.All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.See Copyrights for details.Contact Information Form:
Please use the form below to send inquiries to Congressman John Campbell.Please use one of these other contact forms if your message is a comment about this site, flag order, tour request or an intern application.To subscribe to Email Lists click here."Please enter a valid Phone Number.""Please enter a Phone Number."Since then the Award has been presented in
various parts of the world: at California State University at
Fullerton; at St.The Award was created to honor the late editor of Astounding
Science Fiction magazine, now named Analog.Writers and critics Harry Harrison and Brian W.Aldiss
established the award in Campbell's name as a way of continuing his
efforts to encourage writers to produce their best possible work."Campbell Award (on right) and trophies.The permanent Award, beside the new trophies in this photo, bears the names of
every winner.Selection Process
The Campbell Award differs from the other two major awards in the field by
being restricted to the novel and by its method of selection.The Nebula Awards are voted on by some hundred of the nearly
three thousand members of the Science Fiction Writers of America and
presented at the annual Nebula Award meeting usually held late in
the Spring.The Campbell Award is the only award of the three selected by a committee
small enough to discuss among its members all of the nominated novels.The current jury consists of Gregory Benford, Paul A.Carter, James Gunn, Elizabeth Anne Hull, Christopher McKitterick,
Farah Mendlesohn, Pamela Sargent, and T.This
process produces a list of finalists based
on jurors' rankings.SF Writers Workshop, as well.Eligible novels are those published in English during the previous calendar
year.Award nominations process, please contact Chris McKitterick
for more information.Rendezvous with Rama, Arthur C.The Unlimited Dream Company, J.Helliconia Spring, Brian W.The Summer Isles, Ian R.August 2007, Sing Behind the Plow Broadcasted Nationally!AND help support our local food banks.Sing Behind the Plow: John C.Campbell Folk School, according to the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.Craft Shop and History Center Hours:Mon.For other persons of the same name, see John Campbell.For ten years before coming to Canada, he represented Argyllshire as a Liberal Member of Parliament in the House of Commons.Governor General of Canada
When Lord Lorne's appointment was announced, there was great excitement throughout Canada.Macdonald returned as Prime Minister.He and Princess Louise made many lasting contributions to Canadian society especially in the arts and sciences.They encouraged the establishment of the Royal Society of Canada, the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts and the National Gallery of Canada, even selecting some of its first paintings.In addition to acting as a patron of arts and letters in Canada, Lorne was the author of many books of prose and poetry.His writings show a deep appreciation of Canada's physical beauty.He travelled throughout the country encouraging the establishment of numerous institutions, and met with members of Canada's First Nations and with other Canadians from all walks of life.Monck wing corridor at Rideau Hall.She gave the name Regina (which is Latin for Queen) to the capital of Saskatchewan, and both the district of Alberta in the Northwest Territories (later the province of Alberta) and Lake Louise in that district were named after her.Although she was often unwell, she was a compassionate woman who, during an epidemic of scarlet fever, personally nursed the sick.Lorne was Governor and Constable of Windsor Castle from 1892 to 1914, and he sat as MP for Manchester South from 1895 until the death of his father on 24 April 1900, when he succeeded as 9th and 2nd Duke of Argyll (his father had been created Duke of Argyll in the Peerage of the United Kingdom in 1892).He and Princess Louise lived at Kensington Palace until his death from pneumonia in 1914.The marriage was not a happy one.There is clear evidence that official investigation of the theft of the Crown Jewels was suppressed.It has been suggested that this is because authorities became aware of the Lorne connection to Shackleton.Cafferky, John and Hannafin, Kevin.Knights Grand Cross of the Royal Norwegian Order of St.This page was last modified 01:30, 29 December 2007.All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. |
