num_pages: 544
description: [Astounding] is a major work of popular culture scholarship that science fiction fans will devour.  Publishers WeeklyAlec Nevala-Lee has brilliantly recreated the era. . . . A remarkable work of literary history.  Robert SilverbergScience 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-Lees superb scholarship and insight have made the seemingly impossible a radiant and irreplaceable gift.Barry N. Malzberg author of Beyond ApolloAstounding is the landmark account of the extraordinary partnership between four controversial writersJohn W. Campbell Isaac Asimov Robert A. Heinlein and L. Ron Hubbardwho 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 authorhe wrote the story that was later filmed as The Thingand 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 fameand infamyas 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 Drawing on unexplored archives thousands of unpublished letters and dozens of interviews Alec Nevala-Lee offers a riveting portrait of this circle of authors their work and their tumultuous private lives.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 Doa 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 Campbells 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.
language: English
title: Astounding: John W. Campbell, Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein, L. Ron Hubbard, and the Golden Age of Science Fiction
publisher: Dey Street Books