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John Wood Campbell, Jr. ( June 8 , 1910 – July 11 , 1971 ) was the Editor from 1937 until his death in 1971 of the Science Fiction magazine '' Astounding Science Fiction '', renamed '' Analog Science Fiction '' in 1960 . During his editorship, he published the first stories of Robert A. Heinlein , A. E. Van Vogt , L. Sprague De Camp , and other notable writers, and strongly encouraged the young Isaac Asimov . He also edited the Fantasy magazine '' Unknown '' (later ''Unknown Worlds'') from 1939 to 1943 . He is widely considered to be the single most important and influential editor in the history of science fiction. As the '' Science Fiction Encyclopedia '', edited by Peter Nicholls , wrote about Campbell: "More than any other individual, he helped to shape modern sf." The period of his greatest influence was roughly from 1938 to about 1950 . After that, new magazines such as '' Galaxy '' and the '' Magazine Of Fantasy And Science Fiction '', building upon the foundation ''Astounding'' had laid during the so-called Golden Age Of Science Fiction , moved in different directions and developed talented new writers who were not directly influenced by him. Campbell was well known for the opinionated editorials in each issue of the magazine, wherein he would sometimes put forth quite preposterous hypotheses, perhaps intended to generate story ideas. 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. Before he became an editor, Campbell was a noteworthy SF writer. In the early 1930s , he rivalled E. E. Smith in the area of Space Opera , with his ''Arcot, Morey, and Wade'' series of novels. He then turned to writing more nuanced stories, such as "Twilight" and "Forgetfulness", under the penname "Don A. Stuart" (taken from his then-wife's name, Dona Stuart). His best known short story is the classic " Who Goes There? ", about a group of Antarctic researchers who discover a crashed alien vessel, complete with a malevolent shape-changing occupant. This was filmed as '' The Thing From Another World '' ( 1951 ) and again as '' The Thing '' ( 1982 ). Isaac Asimov once asked Campbell why he had stopped writing fiction after he became the editor of ''Astounding''. Campbell explained, "Isaac, when I write, I write only my own stories. As editor, I write the stories that a hundred people write." It was once said that Robert A. Heinlein, Campbell's most notable discovery, was merely "the pen in Campbell's hand." Not surprisingly, Heinlein himself strongly disagreed. 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 wrote favorably, for instance, about such things as the " Dean Drive ," a device that supposedly produced thrust in violation of Newton 's Third Law , and the " Hieronymous Machine ," which could supposedly amplify Psi powers. He published many stories about Telepathy and other Psionic abilities. It was during this time that Campbell also became interested in Dianetics , publishing L. Ron Hubbard 's first articles on the subject and then writing editorials in support of Dianetics. Like many of his other interests, this waned with time and he is generally not believed to have ever been a member of the Church Of Scientology . Writing about the Campbell of this period, the noted science-fiction writer and critic 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." Knight also wrote a four-stanza ditty about some of Campbell's new interests. The first stanza reads: :Oh, the Dean Machine, the Dean Machine, :You put it right in a submarine, :And it flies so high that it can't be seen -- :The wonderful, wonderful Dean Machine! 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. The John W. Campbell Memorial Award For Best Science Fiction Novel and John W. Campbell Award For Best New Writer were named in his honour. IN THE EYES OF OTHERS Campbell was far from universally popular, even before he began exploring Dianetics and other scientifically dubious ideas. He believed in the American model of society as understood in the 1940's and 1950's and was opposed, not only to Communism , but to what he called "hyperdemocracy", the notion that equality was enforceable by law and custom, and that the more able members of society had to be hobbled so the less able could compete with them. Isaac Asimov has said that, while he knew Campbell regarded other cultures as inferior, including the Jewish background he himself came from, this was not something that affected their working relationship. Authors Randall Garrett and Robert Silverberg tailored a series of stories to Campbell's WASP views, culminating in a novel, The Dawning Light , which Campbell serialized. Finally, Kurt Vonnegut , who published science fiction in the 1950's, created the character "Howard W. Campbell Jr." as the first-person narrator of his 1961 novel Mother Night . This Campbell was an American playwright and poet who pretended to be a Nazi sympathiser making Propaganda broadcasts from Germany during World War II , but was actually a double agent working for the United States. His impersonation of a Nazi sympathizer was so successful that he was subsequently hunted down by Israelis as a war criminal and sentenced to death. It is well-known that Vonnegut has mixed feelings about science fiction; whether he holds a grudge against John W. Campbell personally is less clear. EXTERNAL LINKS
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