The Mammoth Book of Golden Age SF
Read The Mammoth Book of Golden Age SF Online
Authors: Isaac Asimov
ISAAC ASIMOV
was for five decades a central figure in science fiction writing. Born in the Soviet Union and raised in Brooklyn, he wrote over 330 books.
CHARLES G. WAUGH
is a leading authority on science fiction and fantasy.
MARTIN H. GREENBERG
has been called the king of anthologists, with more than one thousand anthologies.
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THE MAMMOTH BOOK OF
SCIENCE FICTION
Edited by Isaac Asimov, Charles G. Waugh
and Martin H. Greenberg
ROBINSON
London
Constable & Robinson Ltd
55–56 Russell Square
London WC1B 4HP
www.constablerobinson.com
First published in the UK by Robinson Publishing, 1989
This edition published by Robinson,
an imprint of Constable & Robinson Ltd, 2007
Copyright © Nightfall Inc., Charles G. Waugh and
Martin H. Greenberg 1989, 2007
All rights reserved. This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
A copy of the British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data is available from the British Library
ISBN-13: 978-1-84529-096-2
ISBN-10: 1-84529-096-8
eISBN: 978-1-78033-723-4
Printed and bound in the EU
1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2
Isaac Asimov
Ross Rocklynne
A.E. van Vogt
Lester del Rey
Fredric Brown
Theodore Sturgeon
C.L. Moore
Isaac Asimov
A. Bertram Chandler
T.L. Sherred
Jack Williamson
Ross Rocklynne – Copyright 1941 by Street & Smith Publications, Inc.; renewed © 1969. Reprinted by permission of the author’s agent, Forrest J. Ackerman, 2495 Glendower Ave., Hollywood, CA 90027
.
A. E. van Vogt – Copyright 1942 by Street & Smith Publications, Inc.; renewed © 1970 by A. E. van Vogt. Reprinted by permission of Richard Curtis Associates, Inc
.
Lester del Rey – Copyright 1942 by Street & Smith Publications, Inc.; renewed © 1970 by Lester del Rey. Reprinted by permission of the Scott Meredith Literary Agency, Inc., 845 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10022
.
Fredric Brown – Copyright 1943 by Standard Magazines, Inc.; renewed © 1971 by Fredric Brown. Reprinted by permission of Roberta Pryor Inc
.
Theodore Sturgeon – Copyright 1944 by Street
&
Smith Publications, Inc.; renewed © 1972 by Theodore Sturgeon. Reprinted by permission of Kirby McCauley, Ltd
.
C. L. Moore – Copyright 1944 by Street & Smith Publications, Inc.; renewed © 1972 by Catherine Reggie. Reprinted by permission of Don Congdon Associates, Inc
.
Isaac Asimov – Copyright 1944 by Street & Smith Publications, Inc.; renewed © 1972 by Isaac Asimov. Reprinted by permission of the author
.
A. Bertram Chandler – Copyright 1945 by Street & Smith Publications, Inc.; renewed © 1973 by A. Bertram Chandler. Reprinted by permission of the agents for the author’s Estate, the Scott Meredith Literary Agency, Inc., 845 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10022
.
T. L. Sherred – Copyright 1947, renewed © 1975 by T. L. Sherred. Reprinted by permission of the author’s Estate and the author’s agent, Virginia Kidd
.
Jack Williamson – Copyright 1947 by Street & Smith Publications, Inc.; renewed © 1975 by Jack Williamson. Reprinted by permission of the Spectrum Literary Agency
.
I
n the first book of the series, which dealt with classic science fiction (s.f.) novellas of the 1930s, I said that the 1930s was the decade in which science fiction found its voice. Toward the end of that decade, the voice began to resemble, more and more, that of John Wood Campbell, Jr., and in the 1940s, J.W.C. dominated the field to the point where to many he seemed
all
of science fiction.
It was a phenomenon that had never happened before and can never be repeated. Before the 1940s, science fiction was so small a field that, in a way, there was nothing to dominate. Hugo Gerns-back had been important in the 1920s, but he was alone. F. Orlin Tremaine had been important in the 1930s, but he did not drown out the other voices completely.
Campbell, however, towered. He had a charismatic personality that utterly dominated everyone he met. He overflowed with energy and he had his way with science fiction. He found it pulp and he turned into something that was his heart’s desire. He then made it the heart’s desire of the reader.
To put it another way, he found science fiction a side-issue written by eager fans with only the beginnings of ability, or by general pulp writers who substituted spaceships for horses, or disintegration rays for revolvers, and then wrote their usual stuff. Campbell put science fiction center stage and made it a field that could be written successfully only by
science fiction writers
who had learned their craft.
To put it still another way, he found science fiction a trifling thing that could only supply writers with occasional pin-money and he labored to make of it something at which science fiction writers could make a living. He could not, in the 1940s, drag the field upward to the point of making writers
rich
, but he laid the foundations for the coming of that time in later decades.
It is impossible for anyone ever to repeat the feat of John W. Campbell, Jr. For one thing you cannot lay the foundations for quality science fiction a second time. The foundation is there for all time and it was laid by Campbell. For another thing, the field has grown to such a pitch (thanks to Campbell) that it is too large ever to be dominated by one man. Even Campbell, larger than life though he was, if he were miraculously brought back into existence, could not dominate the field today.
So who was John Campbell? He was born in Newark, New Jersey on June 8, 1910. I have never found out much about his childhood, except that I received the impression that it was a very unhappy one. He attended M.I.T. between 1928 and 1931, but never finished his schooling there. The story I heard was that he couldn’t pass German. He transferred to Duke University.
This double experience at college was reflected in his later work. At M.I.T. he picked up his interest in science. At Duke, where R.B. Rhine was conducting his dubious experiments on extra-sensory perception, he picked up his interest in the scientific fringe. In the 1940s, science dominated Campbell’s mind, and in the 1950s the scientific fringe did. He went from M.I.T. to Duke in science fiction as well as in his college training. In this volume, however, we are concerned with his earlier phase.
He sold his first science fiction story while he was still a teenager (not unusual among the true devotees) but he was too inexperienced to keep a carbon and T. O’Conor Sloane of
Amazing Stories
lost the manuscript (which
was
unusual). It was Campbell’s second sale, then, that marked his first actual appearance. This was “When the Atoms Failed” in the January 1930,
Amazing
. He was still only nineteen at the time.
