Astounding
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“totally and permanently disabled” Patterson, Learning Curve, 170.
Old Tom Madfeathers Wright, Going Clear, 25–26.
learned to ride before he could walk Atack, A Piece of Blue Sky, 47.
“Whenever I sat down” LRH, Early Years of Adventure, 39.
“They smell of all the baths they didn’t take” Miller, Bare-Faced Messiah, 47.
“to escape the Naval Academy” LRH, “Affirmations.” This document can be viewed in its entirety at http://www.lermanet.com/reference/Admissions.pdf (accessed December 2017).
“[He said] I should study engineering” Atack, A Piece of Blue Sky, 60.
“the first American class” “Who Was L. Ron Hubbard?” Church of Scientology International, http://www.scientology.org/faq/scientology-founder/who-was-lronhubbard.html (accessed December 2017).
“smiling woman” “If I was trying to find the ground through the heart of a thunderstorm, and feared a fatal crash, and looked out to see a smiling woman sitting on one of my wings, I knew I would come through. She was always there, and visible, when I knew myself in great trouble.” Burks, Monitors, 99.
Flavia Julia “Only Flavia Julia and then the All Powerful have opinions worth inclining toward.” LRH, “Affirmations.” Jack Parsons later stated that LRH referred to his guardian as the Empress, which also points to Saint Helena, who was the mother of the emperor Constantine. Miller, Bare-Faced Messiah, 120.
“strongholds and bivouacs of the Spanish Main” Miller, Bare-Faced Messiah, 56.
Hubbard hung in effigy by his passengers Wright, Going Clear, 31.
“Despite these difficulties” Miller, Bare-Faced Messiah, 59.
dismissed his mother as a “whore” Ibid., 170.
marking troop movements with pins Asimov, In Memory Yet Green, 5.
“A few miles south of Smolensk” JWC, The Analytical Laboratory, ASF, November 1941, 58.
“as the only way of getting rid of him” Asimov, In Memory Yet Green, 24.
He learned the alphabet from a jump-rope rhyme Asimov, Before the Golden Age, 5.
“Junk! It is not fit to read” Asimov, In Memory Yet Green, 71–72.
a paskudnyak Asimov, Asimov Laughs Again, 93.
“Science fiction? Like Jules Verne?” Asimov, Treasury of Humor, 245.
“Well, Isaac” Asimov, In Memory Yet Green, 96.
“It was just enough of a slipping of bonds” Ibid., 169.
he didn’t like it Asimov, Before the Golden Age, 794.
“Astounding Stories as a whole” Asimov, letter to Astounding Stories, February 1935, 157–58.
fantasized about running a newsstand Asimov, In Memory Yet Green, 124.
long walks in the cemetery Ibid., 131.
CHAPTER 3: TWO LOST SOULS (1931–1937)
“No one should be a freelance writer” JWC to Ben Bova, January 18, 1965.
Durham, North Carolina Their address is given as 1501 Watts Street on the cover page of Doña Campbell’s unpublished story “Beyond the Door.” John W. Campbell compositions, Houghton Library, Harvard University, folder “Beyond the Door.”
his first close encounter with the unknown JWC to Cal Laning, July 21, 1959.
his grandmother’s house in Ohio JWC to Asimov, February 17, 1958.
reported the incident to a physics professor JWC to Theodore Cogswell, January 3, 1962.
“My one advantage” JWC to RAH, January 11, 1955.
childlike and “stupid” JWC to William H. Burkett, Jr., March 30, 1966.
“the city where every pimp” Ibid.
“Paris itself is fine” Ibid.
his intended occupation Duke University registration record for JWC.
His performance in his first semester Ibid.
Joseph B. Rhine JWC to Joseph B. Rhine, November 23, 1953.
runs with the Zener cards Ibid.
“the evil eye” JWC, letter to Amazing Stories, May 1933, 182.
“You can generally smell them” JWC to A. Spurling, May 18, 1970.
he took no science classes at all Duke University registration record for JWC.
a rebuke in print “If [Campbell] has left out any colored rays, or any magical rays that could not immediately perform certain miraculous wonders, we are not aware of this shortcoming in this story. . . . We were tempted to rename the story ‘Ray! Ray!’ but thought better of it.” Hugo Gernsback, “Reasonableness in Science Fiction,” Wonder Stories, December 1932, 585.
he didn’t even attend his graduation ceremony JWC to John W. Campbell, Sr., June 11, 1953.
During a visit home JWC to Raymond F. Jones, August 13, 1953.
he came to despise Roosevelt In a letter to Robert Swisher on November 12, 1936, JWC referred to Roosevelt as “F(ool) D(olt) R(abblerouser).”
Doña Louise Stewart Stebbins Doña’s birth date and state appear on the birth certificate of her son Doug Smith, who confirmed her full name and the names of her parents in an e-mail to the author, September 9, 2016.
a Latin high school in Waltham Moskowitz, Seekers of Tomorrow, 44.
“We were two lost souls” Leslyn Randazzo, e-mail to author, July 21, 2016.
“I quit MIT at twenty-one” JWC to Asimov, May 5, 1957.
she disapproved of his writing JWC to Susan Douglas, November 9, 1954.
“When his wife Doña was new” Catherine de Camp, quoted in Moskowitz, “Inside John W. Campbell,” 113.
Boston School of Cooking Leslyn Randazzo, e-mail to author, July 31, 2016.
“were walking in about two feet of water” JWC to Curtis Upton, July 19, 1957.
“She considered the proper thing to do” JWC to John Clark, May 14, 1963.
“Beyond the Door” The story, which was ten pages long, revolved around a method for returning the dead to life, which its inventor is forced to use on his girlfriend after she drowns. John W. Campbell compositions, Houghton Library, Harvard University, folder “Beyond the Door.”
to retype his stories JWC to Robert Swisher, April 2, 1937.
“sounding board . . . that science was for people” LRH, “An Introduction to Science Fiction,” reprinted in LRH, Writer: The Shaping of Popular Fiction, 154.
The Red Gods Call Algis Budrys, “Paradise Charted,” in Hartwell and Wolff, Visions of Wonder, 313.
a backlog of his unsold manuscripts “In 1934 . . . [JWC] came to me with a stack of short stories from his morgue, and unsmiling told me he wanted one cent per word for them—double our usual rate. I told this to Gernsback and also noted that these stories must have been rejects from his childhood, as none of them were any good. I had the dubious duty of returning stories to John W. Campbell, Jr. He hated me ever after.” Charles Hornig, interview in Galileo, November 1979, 23.
The Mightiest Machine Moskowitz, Seekers of Tomorrow, 46.
“And Now Campbell!” F. Orlin Tremaine, Astounding Stories, October 1934, 38.
Arthur C. Clarke would later borrow Clarke, Astounding Days, 103.
to use a pseudonym Moskowitz, Seekers of Tomorrow, 47.
“almost overnight” F. Orlin Tremaine, Astounding Stories, February 1935, 106.
“a dirty, underhanded crack” JWC, introduction to Cloak of Aesir, 10–11.
“I’m doing some work now” JWC, as “Karl Van Campen,” letter to Astounding Stories, February 1935, 157.
MacKenzie Motors Moskowitz, “Inside John W. Campbell,” 3.
Robert Swisher Ibid., 7–8.
Their apartment in Cambridge The building was at 6 Agassiz Street. Ibid., 7.
“Always a Breeze” Moskowitz, Seekers of Tomorrow, 45.
The Moon Is Hell “The Moon Is Hell was written about 1935 and relatively little modernizing and rewriting was done before it was published.” JWC to Arthur C. Clarke, July 2, 1951. The draft preserved in the John W. Campbell compositions at Harvard is identical to the published version, apart from a few minor revisions. Its original title, crossed out in the manuscript, was Frozen Hell, which JWC later reused for the sto
ry that became “Who Goes There?”
a series of articles on the solar system The articles ran in Astounding Stories from June 1936 through November 1937. Asimov mentioned them approvingly in a letter to ASF, July 1938, 158, and RAH recommended them in his speech at the Third World Science Fiction Convention, Denver, 1941, reprinted in Kondo, Requiem, 165.
“a factory town . . . a terrible hole” Doña Campbell to Robert and Frances Swisher, April 1, 1936.
“Experimental Engineer” JWC to Robert Swisher, March 26, 1936.
“Poor John” Doña Campbell to Robert and Frances Swisher, April 1, 1936.
the couple was evicted JWC to Robert Swisher, April 9, 1936.
“rejection of an up-till-then idea” JWC to Reginald Bretnor, June 6, 1953.
Samuel B. Pettengill JWC to Robert Swisher, April 23, 1936.
a beer garden in New York JWC to Robert Swisher, June 11, 1936.
“with a nasty little sneer” JWC to Robert Swisher, July 29, 1936.
“I’m beginning to get restless” Doña Campbell to Robert Swisher, June 1, 1936.
Pioneer Instrument Company JWC to Robert Swisher, July 29, 1936.
“tweezer dexterity” JWC to RAH, July 21, 1942.
Carleton Ellis JWC to Robert Swisher, September 11, 1936.
he left anyway JWC to Robert Swisher, March 1, 1937.
“no man in all history” JWC, “Invaders from the Infinite,” Amazing Stories Quarterly, Spring/Summer 1932, 216.
“The total capacity of the mind” JWC, “The Story Behind the Story,” Thrilling Wonder Stories, August 1937.
rewritten as a horror story JWC to Robert Swisher, May 15, 1937.
“Frozen Hell” The five false starts and the original manuscript of “Frozen Hell,” which JWC also considered titling “Pandora,” were discovered by the author in the John W. Campbell compositions, Houghton Library, Harvard University, folders “Untitled” and “Pandora.” Its deleted opening section recounted the discovery of the alien spacecraft.
Richard Byrd JWC to Robert Swisher, May 15, 1937.
“too frightful to mention” JWC to Robert Swisher, May 26, 1936.
“Doña says I clicked” JWC to Robert Swisher, May 15, 1937. In a letter to Swisher on June 21, JWC wrote that he was hoping to submit the story to Argosy.
“M, my friend” JWC to Reginald Bretnor, June 6, 1953.
an attack of appendicitis Doña Campbell to Robert Swisher, July 2, 1937.
rumors at Street & Smith JWC to Robert Swisher, September 15, 1937.
“But Tremaine” JWC to Robert Swisher, October 4, 1937.
to fill a gap in inventory Ibid.
“Hiya, Bob!” JWC to Robert Swisher, October 5, 1937.
Isaac Asimov saw with approval Asimov, In Memory Yet Green, 189.
Astounding Science Fiction Technically, the title was Astounding Science-Fiction, with a hyphen, which it retained until November 1946. For the sake of consistency, the hyphen will be omitted throughout this book.
CHAPTER 4: BRASS TACKS (1937–1939)
“There are times of evolutionary stress” JWC, as “Arthur McCann,” letter to ASF, April 1938, 152.
“a tall, rather thin” JWC to Robert Swisher, August 9, 1939.
an ancestor on his mother’s side JWC to Eric Frank Russell, June 20, 1957.
“The conditions [man] tries to adjust to” JWC, as “Arthur McCann,” letter to ASF, April 1938, 151.
several older structures Frederik Pohl, “Astounding: The Campbell Years,” December 3, 2009, http://www.thewaythefutureblogs.com/2009/12/astounding-campbell-years (accessed December 2017).
John Nanovic Ashley, The Time Machines, 83.
the copper ashtray Pohl, The Way the Future Was, 43.
“a continuous very mild sniffle” JWC to Robert Swisher, March 25, 1938.
the covers for all thirteen magazines Harry Bates, in Rogers, A Requiem for Astounding, ix–xi. In a response to a question from the author, Richard Fidczuk, a publishing production director, suggested that the extra covers from magazines with smaller print runs were simply discarded, and the editor Sheila Williams confirmed in an e-mail on November 10, 2017, that this remained the case until recently at Dell.
“scientifiction” The term first appeared in Hugo Gernsback, “Thought Transmission on Mars,” The Electrical Experimenter, January 1916, 474.
“Ninety percent of science fiction is crud” The law made its earliest appearance in print in Theodore Sturgeon, “On Hand: A Book,” Venture Science Fiction, March 1958.
“If Weinbaum had lived” Asimov, Asimov on Science Fiction, 211–12.
a single story worth remembering Asimov, Before the Golden Age, 16.
a series of frantic innovations Most of these features appeared in the final Clayton issue of Astounding Stories of Super-Science, January 1933.
the pulp publisher Street & Smith Ashley, The Time Machines, 82.
Desmond Hall Hall left Astounding in 1934 to edit Mademoiselle for Street & Smith, and he was succeeded as associate editor by R. W. Happel. Ibid., 105.
“thought variant” F. Orlin Tremaine, Astounding Stories, December 1933, 69.
a circulation of fifty thousand Ashley, The Time Machines, 85.
the climax of his infatuation with the genre Asimov, In Memory Yet Green, 198n.
more lousy science fiction than anyone else JWC to Terry Carr, June 17, 1968.
twelve hours a day on manuscripts alone Bova, “John Campbell and the Modern SF Idiom.”
offering notes for writers “I never sent [JWC] a story after 1938 because I had to revise that one. First, to suit John’s idea, and then to suit John’s wife’s idea. That was a little hard to do, so I never sent John any more stories.” Edmond Hamilton, interview with Dave Truesdale and Paul McGuire III, April 1976, https://www.tangentonline.com/interviews-columnsmenu-166/1270-classic-leigh-brackett-a-edmond-hamilton-interview (accessed December 2017).
“At present my eyes feel” Doña Campbell to Robert Swisher, April 18, 1939.
Catherine Tarrant The description of Tarrant is based largely on an e-mail to the author from Robert Silverberg, September 20, 2016. Malzberg gives her hiring date as 1938 in The Engines of the Night, 72.
R. W. Happel Happel was associate editor at least through the end of October 1937, when he was the guest of honor at the Third Eastern Science Fiction Convention in Philadelphia. Moskowitz, The Immortal Storm, 117. JWC also refers to “Happle” as one of the usual readers of his stories—along with Doña, Robert Swisher, L. Sprague de Camp, and John Clark—in a letter to Swisher on November 8, 1938.
“Campbell’s editing Astounding” JWC to Robert Swisher, October 30, 1937.
dividing submissions into two piles Frederik Pohl, “Campbell Gets the Magazine,” October 24, 2011, http://www.thewaythefutureblogs.com/2011/10/campbell-gets-the-magazine (accessed December 2017).
“about fourteen months ago” JWC to Robert Swisher, February 11, 1938.
selling to himself In a letter to Robert Swisher dated November 8, 1938, JWC mentioned that he was revising an old story, “Empire,” with an eye to publishing it in ASF, and that he hoped to try his other rejects in England.
“Stuart, I’m afraid” JWC, Brass Tacks, ASF, May 1939, 157.
it was Don A. Stuart who was really editing Astounding JWC to Jack Williamson, October 7, 1941, quoted in Williamson, Wonder’s Child, 134.
“I’m thinking up ideas at a furious rate” JWC to Robert Swisher, October 30, 1937.
“The future doesn’t happen one at a time” Scithers, On Writing Science Fiction, 117.
the same premise to multiple writers Pohl, The Way the Future Was, 87.
“Television will never replace radio” Ibid., 86–87. JWC’s editorial on television, “Communication and Noncommunication,” appeared in June 1945, which suggests that his first conversation with Pohl must have been on a different subject—although the dynamic between the two men was presumably much the same.
“I’ve never l
iked him” Memo from Catherine Tarrant to JWC, June 8, 1951.
Pohl obtained free magazines Pohl, The Way the Future Was, 88.
Mort Weisinger Budrys, Benchmarks Revisited, 242n.
to write stories around paintings One example was “Lunar Landing” by Lester del Rey, which JWC commissioned to go with a painting by A. von Munchhausen. Del Rey, Early Del Rey, 270.
he hoped to change the title Ashley, The Time Machines, 146.
“The discoverer of the secret of atomic power” JWC, “Fantastic Fiction,” ASF, June 1938, 21.
Enrico Fermi JWC to John W. Campbell, Sr., August 29, 1953.
the first “mutant” story JWC, In Times to Come, ASF, March 1938, 4.
“an ace of the pulps” “Burks of the Pulps,” The Talk of the Town, The New Yorker, February 15, 1936, 12.
a premise about a replication machine JWC to Robert Swisher, December 4, 1937. The story was serialized as Jason Sows Again in ASF, March and April 1938.
“An editor does” Panshin, The World Beyond the Hill, 257.
writers submitting to the revived Amazing JWC to Robert Swisher, February 11, 1938.
just one out of every fifteen submissions JWC to Robert Swisher, February 7, 1938.
a meeting with Tremaine and Blackwell LRH, “An Introduction to Science Fiction,” reprinted in LRH, Writer: The Shaping of Popular Fiction, 151.
come up with the plot in his sleep LRH to Jim Higgins, reprinted in LRH, Literary Correspondence, 63.
“A story jammed and packed” LRH, “Suspense,” reprinted in LRH, Writer: The Shaping of Popular Fiction, 78.
“a country almost as large as the United States” LRH, “Five Mex for a Million,” Top-Notch, November 1935.
“I guess L. Ron Hubbard” Leo Marguiles, Thrilling Adventures, October 1934.
“The morgue is open to you anytime” Widder, Master Storyteller, 36.
analyzing the percentage of stories that sold LRH, “The Manuscript Factory,” reprinted in LRH, Writer: The Shaping of Popular Fiction, 19–21.
switching the envelopes Wright, Going Clear, 40.
“Because of her coldness” LRH, “Affirmations.”
“a remarkable young man” De Camp, “El-Ron of the City of Brass,” Fantastic, August 1975.