Golden Age of Science Fiction
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The Golden Age of Science Fiction, often recognized as a period from the early 1940s through the 1950s, was an era during which the science fiction genre gained wide public attention and many classic science fiction stories were published. The saying "The golden age of science fiction is twelve", from the science fiction fan Peter Graham [Hartwell 1996], means that many readers use "golden age" to mean the time when they first developed a passion for science fiction, often in adolescence.
Prominent Golden Age authors
Many fans of the '40s and '50s would have named A. E. van Vogt, Robert A. Heinlein, and Isaac Asimov as the three greatest science fiction writers. Beginning in the late 1930s, a number of highly influential science fiction authors began to emerge, including:
- Poul Anderson
- Alfred Bester
- Leigh Brackett
- Fredric Brown
- Ray Bradbury
- Arthur C. Clarke
- Hal Clement
- L. Sprague de Camp
- Lester del Rey
- Philip K. Dick
- Gordon Dickson
- Philip José Farmer
- L. Ron Hubbard
- C. M. Kornbluth
- Henry Kuttner
- Fritz Leiber
- Walter M. Miller, Jr.
- C. L. Moore
- Chad Oliver
- Frederik Pohl
- Ross Rocklynne
- Eric Frank Russell
- Robert Silverberg
- Clifford D. Simak
- E. E. 'Doc' Smith
- Theodore Sturgeon
- William Tenn
- Jack Vance
From Gernsback to Campbell
One leading influence on the creation of the Golden age was John W. Campbell, who became legendary in the genre as an editor and publisher of many science fiction magazines, including Astounding Science Fiction. Under Campbell's editorship, science fiction developed more realism and psychological depth to characterization than it exhibited in the Gernsbackian "super science" era. The focus shifted from the gizmo itself to the characters using the gizmo. The July 1939 issue of Astounding Science Fiction [link] containing the first published stories of both A. E. van Vogt and Isaac Asimov is widely considered to be the start of the Golden Age of science fiction.
Cultural significance
As a phenomenon that affected the psyches of a great many adolescents during World War II and the ensuing Cold War, science fiction's Golden Age has left a lasting impression upon society. The genre, particularly during its Golden Age, had significant, if somewhat indirect, effects upon leaders in the military, information technology, Hollywood and science itself, especially biotechnology and the pharmaceutical industry.
The impression of many parents at the time, however, was often tinged with dismay and intolerance, sometimes sparked by the racy cover illustrations of pulp science fiction. The stereotypical cover of a science fiction pulp magazine depicted a brass-bikini-clad woman at the mercy of a bug-eyed monster.
See also
External links
- [CS.colorado.edu] - 'Astounding SF Golden Age Authors'
- [InfinityPlus.co.uk] - 'Fear of Fiction: Campbell's World and Other Obsolete Paradigms', Claude Lalumière
- [NVCC.edu] - 'A History of Science Fiction: the Golden Age'
- [SciFi.com] - 'John W. Campbell's Golden Age of Science Fiction: An irreplaceable documentary illuminates the man who invented modern science fiction', Paul Di Filippo
- [TestermanSciFi.org] - 'The "Golden Age" of Science Fiction (circa 1930-1959)'
- [Tor.com] - 'Age of Wonders Chapter One: The Golden Age of Science Fiction is Twelve', David G. Hartwell (October, 1996)
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