John W. Campbell, Jr.

As editor of Astounding Stories, Astounding Science Fiction and Analog from 1937 – 1971, John W. Campbell Jr. helped shape 20^th-century science fiction literature more than any other individual.

A devotee of science fiction magazines from their inception, Campbell began writing stories as a teenager and, by the early 1930s, had a reputation for crafting galactic epics. The climax of his popularity came with The Thing from Another World (1938), a science fiction horror story adapted several times for film, about an Antarctic research station menaced by a shape-changing alien.

After being appointed editor of Astounding Stories in 1937, Campbell wrote almost no fiction. However, he brought to his editorial post a wealth of ideas and a determination to raise the standards of science fiction writing. The careers of some of the genre's greatest talents were nurtured under his leadership, and the magazine's prime years are now commonly referred to as “The Golden Age of Science Fiction.”