“lacking in the essential qualities” Quoted in Owen, “Ron the ‘War Hero.’ ”
he had invented them to avoid punishment LRH, “Affirmations.”
“My salvation is to let this roll over me” Miller, Bare-Faced Messiah, 110.
“I do not know whether” JWC, In Times to Come, ASF, February 1942, 35.
“That leaves de Camp” JWC to Jack Williamson, December 9, 1941, quoted in Williamson, Wonder’s Child, 136.
a metalworker at McDonnell Aircraft Moskowitz, Seekers of Tomorrow, 183.
a hotel in Jamaica Davis, “The Work of Theodore Sturgeon,” 24.
“A. E. van Vogt is a Canadian” JWC, In Times to Come, ASF, February 1942, 35.
“I would like to contract you” Van Vogt, Reflections of A. E. van Vogt, 65.
“I’m genuinely trying to divert the stream” JWC to A. E. van Vogt, June 12, 1942.
“For the past several months” JWC, In Times to Come, ASF, August 1942, 98.
Ace Magazines Knight, The Futurians, 132.
“Well, I think I’d better go, Fred” Ibid., 134.
Rocket to the Morgue The book included thinly veiled portraits of RAH, LRH, and Jack Williamson. Boucher had never met LRH, but based the portrayal on descriptions by others. JWC to Robert Swisher, October 21, 1942.
their mutual friend H. P. Lovecraft Moskowitz, Seekers of Tomorrow, 311.
“He’s a homely little squirt” JWC to Robert Swisher, “Friday,” circa 1942.
on the advice of the editor Panshin, The World Beyond the Hill, 589.
jokingly threatened to kill him Eller, Becoming Ray Bradbury, 70.
“mastered the mechanics of writing” Ibid., 72.
Campbell passed anyway “Chrysalis” was later published in Amazing Stories, July 1946.
first look at such future landmarks Moskowitz, Seekers of Tomorrow, 365.
wartime rationing JWC to RAH, January 6, 1943.
it would exceed the sales of Astounding JWC to Robert Swisher, April 4, 1939.
the same number of display issues JWC to A. E. van Vogt, April 4, 1943.
its print run would be reduced JWC, “—In Small Boxes,” Unknown Worlds, October 1943, 6.
“for the duration” Asimov, In Memory Yet Green, 390.
“I interpret that as forever” Ibid., 390. As a result of the magazine’s end, Asimov’s “Author! Author!” wouldn’t appear for years, and a sale by Bradbury, “The Emissary,” ended up in limbo as well. JWC to Ray Bradbury, August 2, 1951.
“The more we write about ingenious ruses” Anthony Boucher, letter to ASF, June 1943, 162.
“I’m doing research work” JWC, “Too Good at Guessing,” ASF, April 1942, 6.
“The consequence is that” Ibid.
a terrible enemy in a conflict JWC, “Invention,” ASF, January 1941, 5–6.
“We have the highest potential” JWC, “Science-Fiction and War,” ASF, March 1942, 6.
“The whole setup down there” JWC to Robert Swisher, March 30, 1942.
“crash the gate” JWC to A. E. van Vogt, August 24, 1942.
“Among the writers and readers” Buddy Scoles to RAH, January 14, 1942, quoted in Wysocki, An Astounding War, 188.
“I’ll have to try helping” JWC to RAH, July 21, 1942.
“problems of the Navy” JWC to RAH, October 9, 1942.
“gotten Navy authorization” JWC to Leslyn Heinlein, November 20, 1942.
The issue was censorship JWC to RAH, October 12, 1943.
“I’m a nuclear physicist, you know” Knight, In Search of Wonder, 18.
“stymied . . . But I’m running” JWC, In Times to Come, ASF, November 1942, 42.
A pressure suit project Wysocki, An Astounding War, 170–71.
“a very careful, long, and elaborate letter” Ibid., 191.
to weaken wing struts and disable boilers JWC to RAH, “Friday,” circa June 1942.
the “diabolic” notion JWC to RAH, February 2, 1943.
his own proposals JWC submitted these proposals, as well as others, to RAH in letters dated “Friday,” circa June 1942; July 9, 1942; August 11, 1942; February 2, 1943; and February 10, 1944. RAH later told him that his best idea—to use AC motors as a power source for planes—was “already on the fire,” adding encouragingly: “You were cooking with gas on that one, John.” RAH to JWC, August 2, 1945.
None were deemed practical JWC briefly became excited by another avenue of investigation. Felix Ehrenhaft, an Austrian physicist, announced that he had discovered particles called “magnetic monopoles,” which could be used to develop generators, motors, and other machines analogous to those based on electricity. JWC called it a greater discovery than uranium fission—but the results were never duplicated. JWC, “Super-Conservative,” ASF, April 1944, 5–6, and “Beachhead for Science,” ASF, May 1944, 103–17.
“There might be a story in this thought” Berger, “The Astounding Investigation,” 132, and Silverberg, “Reflections: The Cleve Cartmill Affair: One,” 4. JWC’s assertion that uranium had been separated in “quantities measured in pounds” was premature—Oak Ridge wouldn’t possess such amounts until around the autumn of 1944. Berger, The Magic That Works, 69.
“prophecy so close to home” Berger, “The Astounding Investigation,” 132.
“Censorship won’t give any trouble” Ibid.
“mediocre fantasy” M. Eneman, letter to ASF, July 1944, 151.
he might conceivably have been part of the effort “Practically all the nuclear physicists graduated in the United States since [1941] have graduated directly into the Manhattan Project.” JWC, “Spanish Atoms,” ASF, September 1946, 5.
the reaction at Los Alamos was “astonishment” Benford, “A Scientist’s Notebook: The Science Fiction Century,” 133.
He was a security officer “[Edward] Teller recalled a security officer who took a decided interest, making notes, saying little.” Ibid., 134.
CHAPTER 9: FROM “DEADLINE” TO HIROSHIMA (1944–1945)
“Atomic physics . . . could end the war in a day” JWC, “Noncommunication Radio,” ASF, August 1943, 7.
the most detailed description JWC to Jane Rice, April 23, 1956.
sixteen pounds of uranium For a detailed critique of the design of the bomb in “Deadline,” see Wysocki, An Astounding War, 124–26.
numerous stories Examples include “Artnan Process” by Theodore Sturgeon, “Collision Orbit” by Jack Williamson, “Lunar Landing” and “Fifth Freedom” by Lester del Rey, and “Recoil” by George O. Smith.
alarms in the Counterintelligence Corps Most of the details in the following account are drawn from Berger, “The Astounding Investigation,” and Silverberg, “Reflections: The Cleve Cartmill Affair.”
“no technical knowledge” Silverberg, “Reflections: The Cleve Cartmill Affair: One,” 7.
“The subject of atomic disintegration” Ibid.
“technically minded intimates and associates” Berger, “The Astounding Investigation,” 128.
a copy of a journal Reynolds, The Fiction Factory, 264.
the story line of “Solution Unsatisfactory” Ibid.
“somewhat of an egotist” Silverberg, “Reflections: The Cleve Cartmill Affair: Two,” 8.
“I am Astounding Science Fiction” Berger, “The Astounding Investigation,” 127.
Wernher von Braun “In wartime days, Wernher von Braun had been able to get his treasured subscription copies only by means of a false name and a neutral mail drop in Sweden.” Frederik Pohl, “Astounding: The Campbell Years, Part 2,” December 7, 2009, http://www.thewaythefutureblogs.com/2009/12/astounding-campbell-years-part-2 (accessed December 2017). JWC wrote to John L. Nanovic on November 30, 1951: “Count von Braun, who developed the V-2 in Germany, and is now at White Sands, was reading ASF all during the war—at considerable expense and trouble.”
“Four Little Ships” Wysocki, An Astounding War, 88–89.
“Tell me, have you ever read” Stallings and Evans, Murray Lein
ster, 93–94.
“conducted experiments” Berger, “The Astounding Investigation,” 128.
Campbell had joked that he should try it on uranium JWC to Robert Swisher, “Friday,” circa 1942.
He gave the sample to Asimov Berger, “The Astounding Investigation,” 128.
“In the opinion of informed persons” Silverberg, “Reflections: The Cleve Cartmill Affair: One,” 7–8.
“It stinks” Berger, “The Astounding Investigation,” 130.
“He took the major portion of it” Ibid., 131.
“provoke public speculation . . . such highly particularized stories” Ibid., 134.
“I tremble over venturing” Silverberg, “Reflections: The Cleve Cartmill Affair: Two,” 9, and Berger, “The Astounding Investigation,” 135.
“such articles coming to the attention” Berger, “The Astounding Investigation,” 135.
“publish additional material” Ibid., 134.
“atom smashing” Ibid., 132.
“We got the notice of censorship” “1945 Cassandra,” The Talk of the Town, The New Yorker, August 25, 1945, 15.
“One of the boys guessed too good” JWC to Robert Swisher, “Summer” 1944.
“The really good ideas” JWC, Brass Tacks, ASF, January 1945, 149–50.
A legend later developed Brake and Hook, Different Engines, 101.
“Every major trade journal publishing company” JWC, “Denatured Atoms,” ASF, July 1946, 5.
the drugstore near Oak Ridge De Camp, Science Fiction Handbook, 70.
Manuals for sonar equipment Information about this project is drawn primarily from the Completion Report of the UCDWR, UC San Diego Special Collections, University of California Division of War Research Reports, Box 1, 144–45.
Keith Henney Smith, Worlds of George O., 26.
“[We] are, as usual” JWC to RAH, June 18, 1944.
Heinlein came to think that Sturgeon RAH, introduction to Sturgeon, Godbody, 11.
L. Jerome Stanton JWC to RAH, June 18, 1944. Stanton was there a year later on July 28, 1945, when a small plane crashed into the Empire State Building. Harriet Teal (Stanton), e-mail to author, August 27, 2017.
a weekend every month in New Jersey Smith, Worlds of George O., 4–5.
Popular Science JWC’s byline appeared on twenty articles between November 1942 and May 1946.
projects in the basement These included a remote baby monitor that JWC described in an article, complete with pictures of Doña listening at the speaker while Peedee slept in her crib. JWC, “Completing Your Carrier-Current Receiver,” Popular Science, March 1945, 192–194.
“like a delicate flower” Doña Campbell to RAH, “Tuesday,” circa 1943.
Smith moved into the house Doña Campbell to RAH and Leslyn Heinlein, August 19, 1944.
as Smith was coming upstairs Smith, Worlds of George O., 27.
“The trouble with John Campbell” Quoted by A. Bertram Chandler in Bangsund, JWC: An Australian Tribute, 7.
an entire floor RAH, introduction to Sturgeon, Godbody, 11.
four editors, ten physicists Completion Report of the UCDWR, UC San Diego Special Collections, University of California Division of War Research Reports, Box 1, 145.
“two big and several dozen small rooms” JWC to RAH, June 18, 1944.
“like a ping-pong ball” JWC, “Meet the Authors,” Air Trails Pictorial, December 1946, 106.
thirteen manuals Completion Report of the UCDWR, UC San Diego Special Collections, University of California Division of War Research Reports, Box 1, 145.
“Inventions Wanted” JWC, “Inventions Wanted,” ASF, October 1944, 5–6.
“I couldn’t keep up” JWC to Robert Swisher, November 30, 1944.
“Lieutenant, your slip is showing” Patterson, Learning Curve, 330.
“But he’s your commander in chief!” RAH to Ted Carnell, May 13, 1945, quoted in Patterson, Learning Curve, 333.
Asimov joined the crowd as well Asimov, In Memory Yet Green, 407.
“very temperamental” Miller, Bare-Faced Messiah, 111.
Heinlein’s younger brother Clare RAH to JWC, November 22, 1944.
“He’ll go in with the first wave” JWC to Robert Swisher, November 30, 1944.
to make himself attractive to women In the “Affirmations,” LRH attempted to dissuade himself from this approach: “Women are not impressed by your injuries. Clear exuberant good health is your passport to their hearts.”
“He was in command” JWC to Robert Swisher, November 30, 1944.
“Ron had had a busy war” RAH, introduction to Sturgeon, Godbody, 13.
Hubbard also slept with Leslyn Virginia Heinlein to William H. Patterson, Jr., October 1, 1999. Patterson believed that this affair took place after the war, but the reference in the “Affirmations” clearly dates it to the Philadelphia period: “During my Princeton sojourn I was very tired and harassed . . . and spent weekends with a writer friend in Philadelphia. He almost forced me to sleep with his wife.”
“He almost forced me to sleep with his wife” LRH, “Affirmations.”
her husband and Hubbard Patterson, Learning Curve, 538n.
afraid of a recurrence of his gonorrhea LRH, “Affirmations.”
he was sleeping at the same time “Meanwhile I had a affair with a woman named Ferne.” LRH, “Affirmations.” Asimov mentions a “friend of the Heinleins named Firn [sic]” in In Memory Yet Green, 412.
None of the team’s ideas were ever put into practice De Camp suggested using a keyboard to designate targets, which was too slow to work, while E. E. Smith wrote to pitch a gigantic shotgun shell or a greater presence in the air. The most creative notions came from Jenkins, who proposed detecting planes with sound or with magnesium granules that would light up the sky. Wysocki, An Astounding War, 218–20.
“I can see him now” RAH, introduction to Sturgeon, Godbody, 13. On another occasion, after his attention was drawn to a dust devil in the room, LRH said casually: “Oh, that’s just Kitten.” The remark gave RAH the idea for the story “Our Fair City,” which he wrote up a few years later. Patterson, Learning Curve, 336.
the music undulating on a cathode ray screen A. Bertram Chandler, in Bangsund, JWC: An Australian Tribute, 6.
“He has a low, magnificently mellow baritone voice” JWC to Robert Swisher, November 30, 1944.
“swarmed all over her” Asimov, In Memory Yet Green, 412.
the fact that de Camp outranked him De Camp, “El-Ron of the City of Brass.”
“quietly as pussycats. . . . In after years” Asimov, In Memory Yet Green, 413.
“I recall [Hubbard’s] eyes” Williamson, Wonder’s Child, 185.
a box of candy bars Patterson, Learning Curve, 339.
“a supposedly hopeless cripple” LRH, “My Philosophy,” 1965, http://www.lronhubbard.org/articles-and-essays/my-philosophy.html (accessed December 2017).
Mark Hubbard RAH provided information on Mark Hubbard’s actions during the war in a letter to Poul Anderson, September 6, 1961. Hubbard’s service number was 2032296. Details of his death were verified through a number of sources, including the database “Pacific POW Roster,” http://www.mansell.com/pow_resources/pacific_pow_roster.html (accessed December 2017).
“This is how a man gets to Valhalla” RAH to Poul Anderson, September 6, 1961.
a restaurant with service so bad Asimov, In Memory Yet Green, 416.
“Both of you seem to be strung on taut wires” Henry Kuttner to RAH, February 8, 1945, quoted in Patterson, Learning Curve, 340.
“You see, I’ve never lost a member of my family before” RAH to Ted and Irene Carnell, April 2, 1952, quoted in Patterson, Learning Curve, 346.
Heinlein took it down RAH to Ted Carnell, May 13, 1945, quoted in Patterson, Learning Curve, 347.
“just enough of him left to sit down” RAH to JWC, June 3, 1945.
one day after he had predicted it James, “Regarding Leslyn,” 25.
“That’s the end” Patterson, Lea
rning Curve, 354.
snide remarks about his Russian ancestry Asimov, In Memory Yet Green, 414.
“I sent word to him” RAH to JWC, June 3, 1945.
“No, no, no” Asimov, In Memory Yet Green, 415.
“What chart?” Ibid., 401.
“mild physical defects” Ibid., 421.
squashing radios in a compression machine De Camp, Time and Chance, 191.
“Oh my God!” Smith, Worlds of George O., 66.
“During the weeks” JWC, “Atomic Age,” ASF, November 1945, 5.
“The fact that your life is in danger” Quoted in Berger, The Magic That Works, 74.
“the kind of man who could talk a blue streak” Wollheim, The Universe Makers, 1.
“the economics of atomic power” JWC to RAH, August 8, 1945.
a contract with the publisher Henry Holt Ibid.
“Every major city” “1945 Cassandra,” The Talk of the Town, The New Yorker, August 25, 1945, 16.
Laura had left her first husband “We find that John’s sister presented us with an almost ex-brother-in-law. However she has another lined up, now a vice-consul in Lagos, Nigeria.” Doña Campbell to RAH, January 1, 1942.
braved the Atlantic at the height of the war Obituary for William Laurence Krieg, Sarasota Herald-Tribune, December 5, 2010.
“she was invalided home” JWC to Asimov, December 8, 1955.
electroshock therapy Leslyn Randazzo, e-mail to author, July 31, 2016.
Campbell wrote favorably about the treatment JWC, “Science to Come,” ASF, August 1945, 6.
she got tipsy in the afternoons Doña Campbell to RAH and Leslyn Heinlein, “Sunday,” circa July 1945.
she sometimes went out with George O. Smith Doña Campbell to RAH and Leslyn Heinlein, November 8, 1944.
“It must be the life I lead” Doña Campbell to RAH, September 10, 1944.
“in very real danger” Theodore Sturgeon, at the panel “The Man John W. Campbell,” Conclave III, Romulus, MI, November 4, 1978. Recording courtesy of the SFOHA Archives.
“a renovation, regeneration, or something” Doña Campbell to RAH, July 12, 1945.
“I also have been the victim” Doña Campbell to RAH, April 9, 1945.
“She’s in violent revolt” JWC to RAH, October 10, 1945.
Doña met up with George O. Smith Ibid.
Astounding Page 45