Plan-et, utilized the well-worn device of losing his characters in space thus enabling them to stumble upon a world whose inhabitants have remained in suspended animation for 400
billion years; a second sequel, The Interstellar Search, finds the earthmen aiding a planet whose sun is about to become a nova; and in the final story, The Infinite Atom, they arrive home in time to block an invasion by creatures whose previ-ous visits to earth gave rise to the centaur legends. Tremaine rejected all three. He felt that the day of the superscience epic was past and insisted that Campbell stick strictly to Stuart-style stories. Another augury was the mild response to Mother World, a story of the revolt of the oppressed working groups against their fiendish masters, with the planet as the prize, serialized at last in the January, February, and March, 1935, issues of amazing stories as The Contest of the Plants. The three sequels to The Mightiest Machine eventually were published as a Fantasy Press book, The Incredible Planet, in 1949.
Campbell was forced to give full emphasis to Don A. Stuart in a series which he called "The Teachers," but which never was so labeled, beginning in the February, 1935, astounding stories with The Machine. In this story, a think-ing machine that has provided every comfort for man leaves the planet for their own good, forcing them to forage for themselves. This story inspired Jack Williamson's With Fold-ing Hands and its sequel ".. . And Searching Mind," con-cerning robots that overprotect man from every possible injury or error, and from himself.
The Invaders (astounding stories, June, 1935), a sequel to The Machine, describes a mankind reverted to savagery, easily enslaved by the Tharoo, a race from another world.
Rebellion (astounding stories, August, 1935) finds the human race, through selective breeding, growing more intel-ligent than the Tharoo, driving the invaders back off the planet. The foregoing were not primarily mood stories, but they were adult fare—the predecessors of an entirely new type of science fiction.
In Night, a sequel to Twilight, published in the October, 1935, astounding stories, Campbell stirringly returned to the mood story. A man of today moves into the inconceiv-ably distant future, when not only the sun but the stars themselves are literally burnt out. At his presence, machines from Neptune move to serve him, but he recognizes them for what they are: "This, I saw, was the last radiation of the heat of life from an already-dead body—the feel of life and warmth, imitation of life by a corpse," for man and all but the last dregs of universal energy are gone.
"You still wonder that we let man die out?" asked the machine. "It was best. In another brief million years he would have lost his high estate. It was best." Campbell had matured. A civilization of machines, he now understands, is but parody, movement without consciousness. It is not and can never be "the last evolution."
Campbell returned to his home state of New Jersey, in 1935, working at a variety of jobs: the research department of Mack Truck in New Brunswick; Hoboken Pioneer Instru-ments; and finally Carleton Ellis, Montclair, in 1936, setting up residence at Orange, New Jersey, to be near his work. Carleton Ellis, namesake and founder of the firm, had more chemical patents than any man in the world and was a consultant on the subject. He is credited with making the first paint remover that worked. Campbell was able to toler-ate only six months of writing and editing textbooks and technical literature for Ellis, but nevertheless the position gave him discipline in editing and publishing that would soon prove invaluable. Out of work, Campbell accepted the assignment of writing a monthly article on astronomy for Tremaine, plus an occa-sional Stuart story. These activities barely kept food on the table. Campbell's most successful story in 1936 was Frictional Losses (astounding stories, July, 1936), under the
billion years; a second sequel, The Interstellar Search, finds the earthmen aiding a planet whose sun is about to become a nova; and in the final story, The Infinite Atom, they arrive home in time to block an invasion by creatures whose previ-ous visits to earth gave rise to the centaur legends. Tremaine rejected all three. He felt that the day of the superscience epic was past and insisted that Campbell stick strictly to Stuart-style stories. Another augury was the mild response to Mother World, a story of the revolt of the oppressed working groups against their fiendish masters, with the planet as the prize, serialized at last in the January, February, and March, 1935, issues of amazing stories as The Contest of the Plants. The three sequels to The Mightiest Machine eventually were published as a Fantasy Press book, The Incredible Planet, in 1949.
Campbell was forced to give full emphasis to Don A. Stuart in a series which he called "The Teachers," but which never was so labeled, beginning in the February, 1935, astounding stories with The Machine. In this story, a think-ing machine that has provided every comfort for man leaves the planet for their own good, forcing them to forage for themselves. This story inspired Jack Williamson's With Fold-ing Hands and its sequel ".. . And Searching Mind," con-cerning robots that overprotect man from every possible injury or error, and from himself.
The Invaders (astounding stories, June, 1935), a sequel to The Machine, describes a mankind reverted to savagery, easily enslaved by the Tharoo, a race from another world.
Rebellion (astounding stories, August, 1935) finds the human race, through selective breeding, growing more intel-ligent than the Tharoo, driving the invaders back off the planet. The foregoing were not primarily mood stories, but they were adult fare—the predecessors of an entirely new type of science fiction.
In Night, a sequel to Twilight, published in the October, 1935, astounding stories, Campbell stirringly returned to the mood story. A man of today moves into the inconceiv-ably distant future, when not only the sun but the stars themselves are literally burnt out. At his presence, machines from Neptune move to serve him, but he recognizes them for what they are: "This, I saw, was the last radiation of the heat of life from an already-dead body—the feel of life and warmth, imitation of life by a corpse," for man and all but the last dregs of universal energy are gone.
"You still wonder that we let man die out?" asked the machine. "It was best. In another brief million years he would have lost his high estate. It was best." Campbell had matured. A civilization of machines, he now understands, is but parody, movement without consciousness. It is not and can never be "the last evolution."
Campbell returned to his home state of New Jersey, in 1935, working at a variety of jobs: the research department of Mack Truck in New Brunswick; Hoboken Pioneer Instru-ments; and finally Carleton Ellis, Montclair, in 1936, setting up residence at Orange, New Jersey, to be near his work. Carleton Ellis, namesake and founder of the firm, had more chemical patents than any man in the world and was a consultant on the subject. He is credited with making the first paint remover that worked. Campbell was able to toler-ate only six months of writing and editing textbooks and technical literature for Ellis, but nevertheless the position gave him discipline in editing and publishing that would soon prove invaluable. Out of work, Campbell accepted the assignment of writing a monthly article on astronomy for Tremaine, plus an occa-sional Stuart story. These activities barely kept food on the table. Campbell's most successful story in 1936 was Frictional Losses (astounding stories, July, 1936), under the
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