From: potter@csusac.ecs.csus.edu (Carl Kolchak)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
Subject: decrymation of editor-bashing (was: CHILDREN OF THE ATOM)
Summary: nope, can't be....
Keywords: Don't yell "Sexist Pig!" in a crowded SF magazine!
Date: 8 Apr 92 08:26:12 GMT
Article-I.D.: csusac.1992Apr8.082612.15862
Followup-To: /dev/null
Distribution: usa
Organization: INS, Inc.

Jonathan Lennox said:

> From: jml12@cunixa.cc.columbia.edu (Jonathan M Lennox)
> Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
> Subject: CHILDREN OF THE ATOM--thanks to all who answered
> Message-ID: <1992Apr8.023510.9386@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu>
> Date: 8 Apr 92 02:35:10 GMT
> Organization: Columbia University
> 
   stuff deleted ....

>   According to cozzlab@garnet.berkeley.edu (Dorothy J. Heydt), the
> author was actually a woman, Wilma Shiras, but the editor "corrected"
> the name because he "couldn't believe that a woman had written the
> thing."

  While I bow respectfully to Dorothy Heydt's knowledge of SF history,
this one's impossible for me to believe.  John W. Campbell, Jr., was 
notoriously bigoted, opinionated, and bullheaded, but he was definitely
not sexist!   He was publishing SF by women, articles by women, and 
stories with strong female central characters, *long* before it became
"fashionable."    He's quite capable of having suggested that she 
spell her name as "Wilmar" to get her an unprejudiced reading, but 
I decline to doubt that he *ever* said "couldn't believe that a woman
had written the thing."   Campbell didn't care *where* a good story 
came from, as long as it was *good*.  Campbell cared only about the 
*quality* of a story (presuming he wasn't on one of his bee-in-the-bonnet
gigs at the time!) and busted his tail making suggestions and inventing
changes to improve stories.   I remember Judith Merrill telling me once
about how JWC sent her back a short story, saying "It's not quite the
right kind of story for us, but I bet it would read better if you did
this-and-this-and-this, and I bet it would stand a good chance at 
GALAXY."   And she liked his suggestions, tried them, and got a good,
solid, high-paying sale at GALAXY mag, and JWC continued to buy stories
from her when he felt the concepts suited ASTOUNDING; including a couple
of minor classics that he paid her top rates for without even being 
asked.
 
  It's always been interesting to me that Katherine MacLean and Anne 
McCaffrey started out with stories with predominantly male characters,
but that James Schmitz had been doing stories with female lead characters
since around '48.   (the major point is that Schmitz's characters weren't
*women*, per se, but rather just characters who *happened* to be women.
He wrote about PEOPLE, just people who happened to be women.   Worked 
out well enough, but it's interesting that he was later chastised for
writing about "women who think like men" ..... by WOMEN.  *grin*)

 Look up a couple of nice yarns, "UNWILLINGLY TO SCHOOL" and "THE LOST
 KAFOOZALUM," both credited to "Pauline Ashwell," both of which JWC
 gave lead-story status, and illustration assignments by his two top 
 artists (Schoenherr and Freas).   Some years later, he printed a cover
 story called "THE WINGS OF A BAT," by "Paul Ash." (Again, cover painting
 by John Schoenherr, and lead-story status.)
 
 To this day I don't know whether the "Ash/well" person is M or F, or 
 give a hoot.  I do know that I prefer the two "Ashwell" stories to 
 the later "Ash" stories.

  At any rate, I feel it's wrong to discredit a man who's been on record
 for half a century as being *UN*-prejudiced about the source of a story.