Sprague de Camp tested war materials at the Philadelphia Navy Yards in Pennsylvania from 1942. Asimov, Heinlein and fellow Astounding regular L. Pivotal in this trajectory was the massive, lingering impact of the Second World War on the magazine and its stable of authors, several of whom were drawn into military research. Nevala-Lee - himself a science-fiction writer - delivers a compelling account of its hopeful rise and ignominious fall.

That era has become known as science fiction’s golden age. Under Campbell’s editorship, Astounding was transformed during the late 1930s and 1940s from a showcase for space-opera schlock into a serious venue for futuristic extrapolation, often written by professional scientists such as Asimov, a biochemist, and electronics engineer George O. Ron Hubbard, by contrast, was a prolific purveyor of pulp fiction (and future founder of the Church of Scientology). Campbell Jr, long-time editor of the magazine Astounding Science Fiction (later Analog), and three of his key writers.

They were the legendary, irascible John W. Ron Hubbard, and the Golden Age of Science Fiction Alec Nevala-Lee Dey Street (2018)Īlec Nevala-Lee’s Astounding is a fascinating collective portrait of four men who, together and apart, helped to shape modern science fiction.

Science-fiction author Isaac Asimov, pictured in 1971, was a frequent contributor to Astounding Science Fiction.

Nevala lee