Editing career

Tremaine hired Campbell to succeed him[17] as the editor of

Astounding from its October 1937 issue.[11][18][19] Campbell was
not given full authority for Astounding until May 1938,[20] but had
been responsible for buying stories somewhat
earlier. [Note 1][18][19][22] He began to make changes almost
immediately, instigating a "mutant" label for unusual stories, and in
March 1938 changing the title from Astounding Stories to
Astounding Science-Fiction.

Lester del Rey's first story, in March 1938, was an early find for
Campbell, and in 1939, he published such an extraordinary group of
new writers for the first time that the period is generally regarded as
the beginning of the "Golden Age of Science Fiction", and the July
1939 issue in particular.[Note 2] The July issue contained A. E. van
Vogt's first story, "Black Destroyer", and Asimov's early story
"Trends"; August brought Robert A. Heinlein's first story, "Life- Campbell as depicted in the January
1932 issue of Wonder Stories
Line", and the next month Theodore Sturgeon's first story appeared.

Also in 1939, Campbell started the fantasy magazine Unknown (later

Unknown Worlds).[24] Although Unknown was canceled after only
four years, a victim of wartime paper shortages, the magazine's
editorial direction was significant in the evolution of modern
fantasy.[25]

Influence
The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction wrote: "More than any other
individual, he helped to shape modern sf",[2] and Darrell Schweitzer
credits him with having "decreed that SF writers should pull
themselves up out of the pulp mire and start writing intelligently, for
adults."[26] After 1950, new magazines such as Galaxy Science
Fiction and The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction moved in
different directions and developed talented new writers who were
not directly influenced by him. Campbell often suggested story ideas
to writers (including "Write me a creature that thinks as well as a
man, or better than a man, but not like a man" [27]), and sometimes The first installment of Campbell's
asked for stories to match cover paintings he had already bought. serial "Uncertainty" took the cover of
the October 1936 issue of Amazing
Campbell had a strong formative influence on Asimov and Stories
eventually became a friend.[28] Asimov said of Campbell's influence
on the field:

By his own example and by his instruction and by his

undeviating and persisting insistence, he forced first
Astounding and then all science fiction into his mold. He
abandoned the earlier orientation of the field. He
demolished the stock characters who had filled it;
eradicated the penny dreadful plots; extirpated the
Sunday-supplement science. In a phrase, he blotted out