John Campbell started as a science fiction writer himself in the 1930's. I've read some of his stuff, not bad, but except for "Who Goes There", not truly memorable stuff. He took the position of editor at Astounding Science Fiction magazine sometime before WWII. He quickly moved Astounding up from just another pulp fiction rag to the leading science fiction magazine. He asked his writers for good stories, with plot, with decent characters, and a thought provoking idea. And the writers delivered. Campbell found new writers and encouraged them to write for Astounding. Isaac Asimov, Robert A Heinlein, H. Beam Piper, Hal Clement, James H. Schmitz, Poul Andersen and many others were discovered and brought into science fiction writing by Campbell. On the way, Campbell had plenty of time to explain his ideas about the proper science fiction story. Pretty much everyone came around to Campbell's way of thinking, and science fiction is better for it.
Campbell stayed on at Astounding into the 1970's. He managed to change the name of the magazine to the more respectable sounding Analog Science Fiction.
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