John W. Campbell

John Wood Campbell, Jr. (June 8,1910 – July 11,1971) was the editor from 1938 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 youthful Isaac Asimov. He also edited the fantasy magazine Unknown (later Unknown Worlds) from 1939 to 1943. He is widely considered to have been the single most important and influential editor in the history of science fiction although his years of major influence would have been roughly 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, moved in different directions and developed stables of talented new writers that were less directly influenced by Campbell. As the Science Fiction Encyclopedia, edited by Peter Nicholls, wrote about Campbell: "More than any other individual, he helped to shape modern sf."

External links

• Open Directory Project: John W. Campbell
• http://www.catch22.com/SF/ARB/SFC/Campbell,JW.php3
• http://www.hycyber.com/SF/campbell_john_w.html
• {{isfdb name|name=John W. Campbell|id=John_W._Campbell,_Jr.}}