Was John Wood Campbell, Jr. an important science fiction editor and writer?
John Wood Campbell, Jr. (June 8, 1910 – July 11, 1971) was an influential figure in American science fiction. As editor of Astounding Science Fiction (later called Analog Science Fiction and Fact), from late 1937 until his death, he is generally credited with shaping the so-called Golden Age of Science Fiction. Isaac Asimov called Campbell “the most powerful force in science fiction ever, and for the first ten years of his editorship he dominated the field completely.”[1] As a writer, Campbell published super-science space opera under his own name and moody, less pulpish stories as Don A. Stuart. However, he stopped writing fiction after he became editor of Astounding. Campbell’s first published story, “When the Atoms Failed,” appeared in the January 1930 issue of Amazing Stories when he was 19; he had had a previous story, “Invaders from the Infinite”, accepted by Amazing’s editor, T. O’Conor Sloane, but Sloane had lost the manuscript.[5] Campbell’s early fiction included a space oper
