John W. Campbell took over Astounding Stories in October 1937 at the age of 27. He held the editor’s chair for thirty-four years, until his death in 1971, and the field he inherited barely resembles the one he left behind. Historians mark the start of the “Golden Age of Science Fiction” not with a year but with an issue: July 1939, the month Campbell’s editorial instincts fully clicked into place and the writers he would spend a career shaping began arriving in his slush pile.
