Astounding: John W. Campbell, Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein, L. Ron Hubbard, and the Golden Age of Science Fiction

by Alec Nevala-Lee

Overview

Hugo and Locus Award Finalist

An Economist Best Book of the Year

A Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Best Book of 2018

“An amazing and engrossing history...Insightful, entertaining, and compulsively readable.” — George R. R. Martin

Astounding is the landmark account of the extraordinary partnership between four controversial writers—John W. Campbell, Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein, and L. Ron Hubbard—who set off a revolution in science fiction and forever changed our world. 

This remarkable cultural narrative centers on the figure of John W. Campbell, Jr., whom Asimov called “the most powerful force in science fiction ever.” Campbell, who has never been the subject of a biography until now, was both a visionary author—he wrote the story that was later filmed as The Thing—and the editor of the groundbreaking magazine best known as Astounding Science Fiction, in which he discovered countless legendary writers and published classic works ranging from the I, Robot series to Dune. Over a period of more than thirty years, from the rise of the pulps to the debut of Star Trek, he dominated the genre, and his three closest collaborators reached unimaginable heights. Asimov became the most prolific author in American history; Heinlein emerged as the leading science fiction writer of his generation with the novels Starship Troopers and Stranger in a Strange Land; and Hubbard achieved lasting fame—and infamy—as the founder of the Church of Scientology. 

Drawing on unexplored archives, thousands of unpublished letters, and dozens of interviews, Alec Nevala-Lee offers a riveting portrait of this circle of authors, their work, and their tumultuous private lives. With unprecedented scope, drama, and detail, Astounding describes how fan culture was born in the depths of the Great Depression; follows these four friends and rivals through World War II and the dawn of the atomic era; and honors such exceptional women as Doña Campbell and Leslyn Heinlein, whose pivotal roles in the history of the genre have gone largely unacknowledged. For the first time, it reveals the startling extent of Campbell’s influence on the ideas that evolved into Scientology, which prompted Asimov to observe: “I knew Campbell and I knew Hubbard, and no movement can have two Messiahs.” It looks unsparingly at the tragic final act that estranged the others from Campbell, bringing the golden age of science fiction to a close, and it illuminates how their complicated legacy continues to shape the imaginations of millions and our vision of the future itself.

"Enthralling…A clarion call to enlarge American literary history.” — Washington Post

“Engrossing, well-researched… This sure-footed history addresses important issues, such as the lack of racial diversity and gender parity for much of the genre’s history.” — Wall Street Journal

“A gift to science fiction fans everywhere.” — Sylvia Nasar, New York Times bestselling author of A Beautiful Mind

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062571953
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	07/30/2019
Pages:	544
Sales rank:	449,209
Product dimensions:	5.30(w) x 7.90(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Alec Nevala-Lee was born in Castro Valley, California, and graduated from Harvard University with a bachelor’s degree in classics. He was a 2019 Hugo and Locus Award finalist for Astounding: John W. Campbell, Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein, L. Ron Hubbard, and the Golden Age of Science Fiction, which was named one of the best books of the year by The Economist, and is the author of three novels, including The Icon Thief. His nonfiction has appeared in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Salon, The Daily Beast, Longreads, The Rumpus, Public Books, and the San Francisco Bay Guardian, and his short stories have been published in Analog Science Fiction and Fact, Lightspeed, and The Year’s Best Science Fiction. He lives with his wife and daughter in Oak Park, Illinois. 

Table of Contents

Prologue: Asimov's Sword 1

Part I Who Goes There? (1907-1937) 15

1 The Boy from Another World (1910-1931) 17

2 Three Against the Gods (1907-1935) 35

3 Two Lost Souls (1931-1937) 53

Part II Golden Age (1937-1941) 71

4 Brass Tacks (1937-1939) 73

5 The Analytical Laboratory (1938-1940) 99

6 In Times to Come (1939-1941) 127

Part III The Invaders (1941-1945) 149

7 A Cold Fury (1941-1944) 151

8 The War of Invention (1942-1944) 175

9 From "Deadline" to Hiroshima (1944-1945) 191

Part IV The Double Minds (1945-1951) 215

10 Black Magic and the Bomb (1945-1949) 217

11 The Modern Science of Mental Health (1945-1950) 241

12 The Dianetics Epidemic (1950-1951) 267

Part V The Last Evolution (1951-1971) 297

13 A Fundamental Attack on the Problem (1951-1960) 299

14 Strangers in a Strange Land (1951-1969) 327

15 Twilight (1960-1971) 353

Epilogue: Beyond This Horizon 381

Acknowledgments 409

Notes 413

Bibliography 499

Index 509

Editorial Reviews

An amazing and engrossing history...Insightful, entertaining, and compulsively readable.” — George R. R. Martin

“Alec Nevala-Lee has brilliantly recreated the era eighty years ago when a handful of dedicated writers and one extraordinary editor gave American science fiction its modern shape. It is a remarkable work of literary history.” — Robert Silverberg, Grand Master of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America

“A gift to science fiction fans everywhere.” — Sylvia Nasar, New York Times bestselling author of A Beautiful Mind

“Science fiction has been awaiting this history/biography for more than half a century....Here it is. This is the most important historical and critical work my field has ever seen. Alec Nevala-Lee’s superb scholarship and insight have made the seemingly impossible a radiant and irreplaceable gift.” — Barry N. Malzberg, author of Beyond Apollo

“Astounding has taught me things I didn’t know; put in context things I did know; and corrected things I thought I knew. This is a wonderful, well-written book; a delight to read.” — David Drake, author of Hammer’s Slammers

“Astounding is a sharp and detailed history of some of the major players in one of the most significant periods in modern science fiction. Highly recommended!” — Greg Bear, author of Blood Music

“A riveting read—a journey to another dimension, one that tells us a lot about creativity, human resilience, and even American exceptionalism. The book is a must read for lovers of science fiction, to be sure, but really for anyone interested in culture, and how it jumps, bounces, and changes.” — Cass R. Sunstein, New York Times bestselling author of The World According to Star Wars, and Robert Walmsley University Professor at Harvard Law School

“This is a fascinating, well-written, and deeply researched account of the golden age of science fiction. The lives of the writers are every bit as compelling as their best stories and Nevala-Lee brings them alive.” — Jon Atack, author of Let’s Sell These People a Piece of Blue Sky: Hubbard, Dianetics and Scientology

“An indispensable book for anyone trying to understand the birth and meaning of modern science fiction in America from the 1930s to the 1950s” — The Economist

“Engrossing, well-researched… This sure-footed history addresses important issues, such as the lack of racial diversity and gender parity for much of the genre’s history.” — Wall Street Journal

“Enthralling…A clarion call to enlarge American literary history.” — Washington Post

“A captivating cultural history… fascinating and complex… reads with the immediacy of a good novel… Nevala-Lee has managed to distill the essence of their stories into a compelling tale of ambition, idealism and opportunism that should fascinate even those who have never read much science fiction at all.” — Chicago Tribune

“[Astounding] is a major work of popular culture scholarship that science fiction fans will devour.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“A laser-sharp study of science fiction’s golden age, the product of a small circle of writers and their guiding editor...Nevala-Lee’s warts-and-all look is a welcome contribution to the study of popular literature.”   — Kirkus Reviews

“A thoroughgoing scholarly effort… A chatty, slightly gossipy popular biography. Nevala-Lee approaches the four subjects with a full understanding of their status and importance, but treats them as human beings with their own constellations of talents and flaws… You don’t want to miss this one.” — Analog Science Fiction and Fact

“Excellent… Ingenious… The story that Nevala-Lee pieces together here has never quite been assembled in such a detailed, balanced, and clearly written way… As literary and cultural history, Astounding may well stand as the definitive account of this important era in the growth of modern SF.”
— Locus

“[Astounding] is a rich, gripping cultural and historical study of how a small cadre of talents in a minor commercial genre became some of the most influential figures of the second half of the twentieth century.”  — Nature

“This wonderfully researched, expansive biography — humor, perspective, depth all much a part of it — is a document of things all but lost to time’s slurry, the portrait of a great editor in tandem with that of a genre’s maturation.” — Fantasy and Science Fiction

“Alec Nevala-Lee’s Astounding is an essential and long-overdue history of the golden age of science fiction, as reflected through the prism of some of its most significant contributors...it is an astounding history, and essential guide to a defining era of science fiction.” — B&N Sci-Fi & Fantasy Blog

“[Astounding] is an expansive industry drama...but the real treat of the book is [Nevala-Lee’s] dogged efforts to make these authors feel like the imperfect, egotistic, and philosophically-biased people who made such a lasting impact on the genre.” — SyFy.com

“exhaustive, well-researched examinations...[an] engrossing history” — The Verge

“A mighty work of scholarship” — Dallas News

“[An] illuminating biography...Astounding is a captivating read” — John DeNardo, Kirkus

From the Publisher

Astounding has taught me things I didn’t know; put in context things I did know; and corrected things I thought I knew. This is a wonderful, well-written book; a delight to read.

David Drake

An amazing and engrossing history...Insightful, entertaining, and compulsively readable.

George R. R. Martin

“Astounding is a sharp and detailed history of some of the major players in one of the most significant periods in modern science fiction. Highly recommended!

Greg Bear

Alec Nevala-Lee has brilliantly recreated the era eighty years ago when a handful of dedicated writers and one extraordinary editor gave American science fiction its modern shape. It is a remarkable work of literary history.

Robert Silverberg

[Astounding] is an expansive industry drama...but the real treat of the book is [Nevala-Lee’s] dogged efforts to make these authors feel like the imperfect, egotistic, and philosophically-biased people who made such a lasting impact on the genre.

SyFy.com

Enthralling…A clarion call to enlarge American literary history.

Washington Post

[Astounding] is a rich, gripping cultural and historical study of how a small cadre of talents in a minor commercial genre became some of the most influential figures of the second half of the twentieth century.” 

Nature Lib

Excellent… Ingenious… The story that Nevala-Lee pieces together here has never quite been assembled in such a detailed, balanced, and clearly written way… As literary and cultural history, Astounding may well stand as the definitive account of this important era in the growth of modern SF.”

Locus

A captivating cultural history… fascinating and complex… reads with the immediacy of a good novel… Nevala-Lee has managed to distill the essence of their stories into a compelling tale of ambition, idealism and opportunism that should fascinate even those who have never read much science fiction at all.

Chicago Tribune

exhaustive, well-researched examinations...[an] engrossing history

The Verge

A mighty work of scholarship

Dallas News

A thoroughgoing scholarly effort… A chatty, slightly gossipy popular biography. Nevala-Lee approaches the four subjects with a full understanding of their status and importance, but treats them as human beings with their own constellations of talents and flaws… You don’t want to miss this one.

Analog Science Fiction and Fact

[Astounding] is a rich, gripping cultural and historical study of how a small cadre of talents in a minor commercial genre became some of the most influential figures of the second half of the twentieth century.” 

Nature

Enthralling…A clarion call to enlarge American literary history.

Washington Post

A captivating cultural history… fascinating and complex… reads with the immediacy of a good novel… Nevala-Lee has managed to distill the essence of their stories into a compelling tale of ambition, idealism and opportunism that should fascinate even those who have never read much science fiction at all.

Chicago Tribune

★ 04/30/2018
The golden age of science fiction, spanning the years 1939 to 1950, gets an authoritative examination in this fascinating appraisal of its key players. The primary focus is John W. Campbell, editor of Astounding Science Fiction magazine, and the three very different writers who served him best: Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein, and L. Ron Hubbard. The author credits Campbell with turning science fiction “from a literature of escapism into a machine for generating analogies” and using his magazine as “a laboratory in which his writers could work out scenarios for the future.” That helped to conjure countless works of groundbreaking fiction, but after the dropping of the atomic bomb seemed to validate science fiction as prophecy, it drove Campbell into embracing dubious fringe beliefs, including dowsing and astrology, in his search for new intellectual breakthroughs. Nevala-Lee gives abundant insight into the authors’ careers, revealing how Asimov first acquired his love of fiction as a lonely child working at his family’s Brooklyn candy store, while Heinlein chanced into writing as a fallback career after a period of passionate involvement in Upton Sinclair’s failed 1934 California gubernatorial campaign. This book is a major work of popular culture scholarship that science fiction fans will devour. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly

A gift to science fiction fans everywhere.

Sylvia Nasar

Engrossing, well-researched… This sure-footed history addresses important issues, such as the lack of racial diversity and gender parity for much of the genre’s history.

Wall Street Journal

This is a fascinating, well-written, and deeply researched account of the golden age of science fiction. The lives of the writers are every bit as compelling as their best stories and Nevala-Lee brings them alive.

Jon Atack

An indispensable book for anyone trying to understand the birth and meaning of modern science fiction in America from the 1930s to the 1950s

The Economist

A riveting read—a journey to another dimension, one that tells us a lot about creativity, human resilience, and even American exceptionalism. The book is a must read for lovers of science fiction, to be sure, but really for anyone interested in culture, and how it jumps, bounces, and changes.

Cass R. Sunstein

Science fiction has been awaiting this history/biography for more than half a century....Here it is. This is the most important historical and critical work my field has ever seen. Alec Nevala-Lee’s superb scholarship and insight have made the seemingly impossible a radiant and irreplaceable gift.

Barry N. Malzberg

Engrossing, well-researched… This sure-footed history addresses important issues, such as the lack of racial diversity and gender parity for much of the genre’s history.

Wall Street Journal

This wonderfully researched, expansive biography — humor, perspective, depth all much a part of it — is a document of things all but lost to time’s slurry, the portrait of a great editor in tandem with that of a genre’s maturation.

Fantasy and Science Fiction

Alec Nevala-Lee’s Astounding is an essential and long-overdue history of the golden age of science fiction, as reflected through the prism of some of its most significant contributors...it is an astounding history, and essential guide to a defining era of science fiction.

B&N Sci-Fi & Fantasy Blog

[An] illuminating biography...Astounding is a captivating read

John DeNardo

2018-05-15
A laser-sharp study of science fiction's golden age, the product of a small circle of writers and their guiding editor.Many classic-era science-fiction biographies and memoirs, such as Isaac Asimov's three-volume memoir and William H. Patterson Jr.'s two-volume life of Robert Heinlein, make generous mention of the pioneering editor and publisher John W. Campbell, whose Astounding Science Fiction was the flagship magazine of the genre for decades. Sci-fi practitioner Nevala-Lee (Eternal Empire, 2013, etc.) does a solid job of situating Campbell at the head of modern science fiction, a vanguard figure who, though himself a spinner of robots-and-aliens stories, "never became as famous as many of the writers he published." However, Nevala-Lee adds, "he influenced the dreamlife of millions." Generous with dollars and advice—Asimov worriedly informed him that he'd paid too much for an early story, but Campbell had awarded him a bonus—Campbell also was an early champion of Heinlein, Frederik Pohl, and L. Ron Hubbard, becoming involved in Dianetics, the forerunner of Hubbard's Scientology. Nevala-Lee shrewdly writes that after a long absence, Hubbard returned to sci-fi in the 1970s after the release of Star Wars, "even if it owed more to Joseph Campbell than to John." The author's history of science fiction as it developed under Campbell's aegis is first-rate. Campbell himself is problematic, since he was a notorious racist who rejected Samuel Delany's early work, with its African-American lead characters, and who said of Harlan Ellison, who was Jewish, "he's one of the type that earned the appellation ‘kike.' " Those views, as Nevala-Lee observes, eventually "began to infect the magazine," worrying even the far-right leaning of his authors, especially Heinlein. That politics caused a schism in the community as profound as the magazine's transition from Astounding to Analog, of which Asimov wrote, "I have never quite managed to forgive Campbell for the change."Nevala-Lee's warts-and-all look is a welcome contribution to the study of popular literature.

Kirkus Reviews