2
at that time occupied with the significance of atomic energy and nuclear physics.
For the next seven years, Campbell, bolstered by a scientific background that ran from childhood experiments, to study at Duke University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, wrote and sold science-fiction, achieving for himself an enviable reputation in the field.
In 1937 he became the editor of Astounding Stories magazine and applied himself at once to the task of bettering the magazine and the field of s-f writing in general. His influence on science-fiction since then cannot be underestimated. Today he still remains as the editor of that magazine's evolved and redesigned successor, Analog.
THE BLACK STAR PASSES
JOHN W. CAMPBELL
ACE BOOKS, INC. 1120 Avenue of the Americas New York, N.Y. 10036
THE BLACK STAR PASSES
Copyright, 1953, by John W. Campbell, Jr.
Copyright, 1930, by Experimenter Publications, Inc.
An Ace Book, by arrangement with the author.
Cover art by Jerome Podwil.
Printed in U.S.A.
Contents
Introduction 7
BOOK ONE
Piracy Preferred 11
BOOK TWO
Solarite 71
BOOK THREE
The Black Star Passes 145
[Illustration]
INTRODUCTION
These stories were written nearly a quarter of a century ago, for the old Amazing Stories magazine. The essence of any magazine is not its name, but its philosophy, its purpose. That old Amazing Stories is long since gone; the magazine of the same name today is as different as the times today are different from the world of 1930.
Science-fiction was new, in 1930; atomic energy was a dream we believed in, and space-travel was something we tried to understand better. Today, science-fiction has become a broad field, atomic energy--despite the feelings of many present adults!--is no dream. (Nor is it a nightmare; it is simply a fact, and calling it a nightmare is a
