John W. Campbell, Jr.

Overview:

• Legal Name: Campbell, John Wood, Jr.
• Place of Birth: Newark, New Jersey, USA
• Date of Birth: June 08, 1910
• Date of Death: July 11, 1971
• Pseudonyms:
  • Don A. Stuart
  • Arthur McCann
  • Karl van Campen
  • Karl Van Campen
  • John W. Campbell

Notes:

Campbell received a degree in Physics from MIT and Duke University in 1923; his first story was published while still a student at MIT. His initial splash was in Amazing Stories with his Arcot, Morey and Wade series, which established him as Edward E. Smith's main rival in galactic epics. He later took on the pseudonym Don A. Stuart (supposedly derived from Donna Stuart), to move away from space-opera, changed his writing style to a more literary tone, and began writing stories for Tremaine's Astounding Stories. He also wrote the controversial short story "The Irrelevant" under the pseudonym Karl van Campen. In 1937 Campbell was appointed editor of Astounding Stories, and would remain so through its name change to Analog until his death in 1971. As editor, he discovered Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein, Lester del Rey, Theodore Sturgeon, and A. E. van Vogt. He also brought L. Sprague de Camp, L. Ron Hubbard, Clifford D. Simak, Henry Kuttner, C. L. Moore, and Jack Williamson into the Astounding stable of writers. He was also instrumental in the originations of many classic SF ideas; Asimov co-credits Campbell with the Three Laws of Robotics. Campbell also edited the fantasy magazine Unknown, a companion magazine to Astounding. Unknown, along with Weird Tales, helped to shaped the fantasy genre into it's modern shape. Unknown died prematurely due to a wartime paper shortage.

Awards:

• 1953. Astounding Science Fiction Hugo, Best Professional Magazine
• 1955. Astounding Science Fiction Hugo, Best Professional Magazine
• 1956. Astounding Science Fiction Hugo, Best Professional Magazine
• 1957. Astounding Science Fiction Hugo, Best American Professional Magazine
• 1961. Astounding/Analog Hugo, Best Professional Magazine
• 1962. Analog Science Fiction and Fact Hugo, Best Professional Magazine
• 1964. Analog Science Fiction and Fact Hugo, Best Professional Magazine
• 1965. Analog Science Fiction and Fact Hugo, Best Professional Magazine
• 1968. Skylark, Edward E. Smith Memorial Award for Imaginative Fiction
• 1996. Astounding Science Fiction Retro Hugo, Best Professional Editor
• View all achievements »

Resources:

• Internet Movie Database (IMDb) article on John W. Campbell, Jr.
• Wikipedia article on John W. Campbell, Jr.