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Astounding Science Fiction September 1956 Vol. LVIII No. I
Science fiction periodical
162 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 1956
6 people want to read
About the author
John W. Campbell Jr.
779 books283 followersJohn Wood Campbell, Jr. was an influential figure in American science fiction. As editor of Astounding Science Fiction (later called Analog Science Fiction and Fact), from late 1937 until his death, he is generally credited with shaping the so-called Golden Age of Science Fiction.
Isaac Asimov called Campbell "the most powerful force in science fiction ever, and for the first ten years of his editorship he dominated the field completely."
As a writer, Campbell published super-science space opera under his own name and moody, less pulpish stories as Don A. Stuart. He stopped writing fiction after he became editor of Astounding.
Known Pseudonyms/Alternate Names:
Don A. Stuart
Karl van Campen
John Campbell
J. W. C., Jr.
John W. Campbell
John Wood Campbell
Isaac Asimov called Campbell "the most powerful force in science fiction ever, and for the first ten years of his editorship he dominated the field completely."
As a writer, Campbell published super-science space opera under his own name and moody, less pulpish stories as Don A. Stuart. He stopped writing fiction after he became editor of Astounding.
Known Pseudonyms/Alternate Names:
Don A. Stuart
Karl van Campen
John Campbell
J. W. C., Jr.
John W. Campbell
John Wood Campbell
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
April 20, 2018
CONTENTS
◾Fiction:
▪️"Pandora's Planet" - Christopher Anvil
▪️"Margin of Profit" - Poul Anderson
▪️"The Swamp Was Upside Down" - Murray Leinster
▪️"Dust Rag" - Hal Clement
▪️"Mind for Business" - Robert Silverberg
◾Special Feature (Non-fact Article):
▪️"Pate de Foie Gras" - Isaac Asimov
◾Readers' Departments:
▪️"The Editor's Page" - John W. Campbell, Jr.
▪️"The Reference Library" - P. Schuyler Miller
This is one of the issues of Astounding Science Fiction that made it look like the magazine was being edited by ditto marks. The Anderson, Anvil, and Silverberg stories all were about people from Earth in competition with humanoids from other planets; in each of them, people from Earth proved to be more intelligent and shrewder. (I could have said "men from Earth" since, except for a couple of sexy walk-on parts in "Margin of Profit," there are no women in any of these stories. In fact, the only female of any significance in the entire magazine is the goose in "Pate de Foie Gras.")
I don't think that any of the fiction here is particularly good. Christopher Anvil seemed to write "Pandora's Planet" over and over, some times better, some times worse. When he was wasn't writing this story, Eric Frank Russell or Gordon Dickson wrote it - and better than Anvil did.
Poul Anderson wrote a lot of stories about mankind as merchants, usually involving the Polesotechnic League. In "Margin of Profit," the main character is fat, brave, avaricious, wily Nicholas van Rijn. (The "van Rijn" name was, obviously, borrowed from Rembrandt.) This is an "I have a solution, now I just have to come up with a problem" story, in which van Rijn's brilliant solution depends entirely on starship staffing numbers that Anderson made up to make the solution work. It's a mildly entertaining story at best.
In "Mind for Business," Robert Silverberg has another tale of how the men of Earth are bold, shrewd, and enormously greedy, all of which are considered positive qualities. This is the young Silverberg writing cookie-cutter fiction.
John Campbell and the illustrator H. R. van Dongen combined in an effort to ruin Hal Clement's story "Dust Rag" by showing a picture of the sought-after solution to a much more genuine problem than the one in "Margin of Profit." I didn't find the story particularly interesting anyway, but the silly (even if unintentional) sabotage didn't help.
Like "Dust Rag," Murray Leinster's story "The Swamp Was Upside Down" is genuinely science fiction. This is another story of a scientific problem (more than one, actually) that puts many lives in danger. I have no idea whether Leinster's solution would hold water, but it sounds convincing.
Isaac Asimov's "Pate de Foie Gras" is about a goose that lays golden eggs. (The word "pâté" is consistently spelled "pate" throughout.)
John Campbell's editorial opinions show up twice in the book reviews as well as in the editorial, "I Try to Have an Open Mind." The editorial becomes yet another statement of Campbell's enthusiastic embrace of psi phenomena.
His first comments in "The Reference Library" are in answer to P. Schuyler Miller's discussion of what was then a very hot issue in SF circles, "Who killed science fiction?" Campbell says that what has been largely done away with was "a number of cowboys wearing space helmets," but that real science fiction survives. In this issue of the magazine, consisting of tired and tiring stories, Campbell states, "For genuine science-fiction, author, editor and reader alike must do research - and that means try the unknown, the uncertain, the unreliable, the untried."
P. Schuyler Miller says that Robert Bloch's theory was that science fiction movies were so bad that they turned people away from science fiction altogether. Miller mentions two such films, Forbidden Planet and Invasion of the Body Snatchers, both of which, as I write this in 2018, are regarded now as major science fiction films. Miller also says that science fiction magazines got poor and unreliable distribution, that publishers were reluctant to classify books as science fiction, and, primarily, that most Americans at that time didn't read any books.
As for books Miller reviews in this issue, he especially liked The Power by Frank M. Robinson, Forbidden Area by Pat Frank, and The World Jones Made by Philip K. Dick.
Campbell also wrote one of the book reviews, about A Scientific Report on "The Search for Bridey Murphy," edited by Dr. Milton V. Kline. Campbell says that this book attacks the use of hypnosis in the Bridey Murphy affair, which he defends. (The Search for Bridey Murphy by Morey Bernstein was a highly popular and much-criticized book about a woman allegedly recalling a past life under hypnosis.)
Interior art is by Frank Kelly Freas and H.
R. van Dongen. The cover is by Kelly Freas.
◾Fiction:
▪️"Pandora's Planet" - Christopher Anvil
▪️"Margin of Profit" - Poul Anderson
▪️"The Swamp Was Upside Down" - Murray Leinster
▪️"Dust Rag" - Hal Clement
▪️"Mind for Business" - Robert Silverberg
◾Special Feature (Non-fact Article):
▪️"Pate de Foie Gras" - Isaac Asimov
◾Readers' Departments:
▪️"The Editor's Page" - John W. Campbell, Jr.
▪️"The Reference Library" - P. Schuyler Miller
This is one of the issues of Astounding Science Fiction that made it look like the magazine was being edited by ditto marks. The Anderson, Anvil, and Silverberg stories all were about people from Earth in competition with humanoids from other planets; in each of them, people from Earth proved to be more intelligent and shrewder. (I could have said "men from Earth" since, except for a couple of sexy walk-on parts in "Margin of Profit," there are no women in any of these stories. In fact, the only female of any significance in the entire magazine is the goose in "Pate de Foie Gras.")
I don't think that any of the fiction here is particularly good. Christopher Anvil seemed to write "Pandora's Planet" over and over, some times better, some times worse. When he was wasn't writing this story, Eric Frank Russell or Gordon Dickson wrote it - and better than Anvil did.
Poul Anderson wrote a lot of stories about mankind as merchants, usually involving the Polesotechnic League. In "Margin of Profit," the main character is fat, brave, avaricious, wily Nicholas van Rijn. (The "van Rijn" name was, obviously, borrowed from Rembrandt.) This is an "I have a solution, now I just have to come up with a problem" story, in which van Rijn's brilliant solution depends entirely on starship staffing numbers that Anderson made up to make the solution work. It's a mildly entertaining story at best.
In "Mind for Business," Robert Silverberg has another tale of how the men of Earth are bold, shrewd, and enormously greedy, all of which are considered positive qualities. This is the young Silverberg writing cookie-cutter fiction.
John Campbell and the illustrator H. R. van Dongen combined in an effort to ruin Hal Clement's story "Dust Rag" by showing a picture of the sought-after solution to a much more genuine problem than the one in "Margin of Profit." I didn't find the story particularly interesting anyway, but the silly (even if unintentional) sabotage didn't help.
Like "Dust Rag," Murray Leinster's story "The Swamp Was Upside Down" is genuinely science fiction. This is another story of a scientific problem (more than one, actually) that puts many lives in danger. I have no idea whether Leinster's solution would hold water, but it sounds convincing.
Isaac Asimov's "Pate de Foie Gras" is about a goose that lays golden eggs. (The word "pâté" is consistently spelled "pate" throughout.)
John Campbell's editorial opinions show up twice in the book reviews as well as in the editorial, "I Try to Have an Open Mind." The editorial becomes yet another statement of Campbell's enthusiastic embrace of psi phenomena.
His first comments in "The Reference Library" are in answer to P. Schuyler Miller's discussion of what was then a very hot issue in SF circles, "Who killed science fiction?" Campbell says that what has been largely done away with was "a number of cowboys wearing space helmets," but that real science fiction survives. In this issue of the magazine, consisting of tired and tiring stories, Campbell states, "For genuine science-fiction, author, editor and reader alike must do research - and that means try the unknown, the uncertain, the unreliable, the untried."
P. Schuyler Miller says that Robert Bloch's theory was that science fiction movies were so bad that they turned people away from science fiction altogether. Miller mentions two such films, Forbidden Planet and Invasion of the Body Snatchers, both of which, as I write this in 2018, are regarded now as major science fiction films. Miller also says that science fiction magazines got poor and unreliable distribution, that publishers were reluctant to classify books as science fiction, and, primarily, that most Americans at that time didn't read any books.
As for books Miller reviews in this issue, he especially liked The Power by Frank M. Robinson, Forbidden Area by Pat Frank, and The World Jones Made by Philip K. Dick.
Campbell also wrote one of the book reviews, about A Scientific Report on "The Search for Bridey Murphy," edited by Dr. Milton V. Kline. Campbell says that this book attacks the use of hypnosis in the Bridey Murphy affair, which he defends. (The Search for Bridey Murphy by Morey Bernstein was a highly popular and much-criticized book about a woman allegedly recalling a past life under hypnosis.)
Interior art is by Frank Kelly Freas and H.
R. van Dongen. The cover is by Kelly Freas.
Displaying 1 of 1 review