{"id":75,"date":"2026-09-01T14:20:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T12:20:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/virtual-sf.com\/?page_id=75"},"modified":"2026-09-01T14:21:55","modified_gmt":"2026-09-01T12:21:55","slug":"3-the-golden-age","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/virtual-sf.com\/?page_id=75","title":{"rendered":"3. The Golden Age"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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The History of Science Fiction \u2013 1940s and 1950s<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

For most scholars and fans, the Golden Age of Science Fiction describes the era of science fiction writing from the end of the 1930s to around 1950. During this time, a specific form of sf came into being that challenged the prejudices of literary inferiority and juvenile escapism which had haunted 1920s and 1930s sf writing. Indisputably the most influential editor of this time is Astounding Science Fiction<\/em>\u2018s John W. Campbell, who took over editorship in 1938 and almost single-handedly brought to fame some of the genres most influential writers like Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein, Theodore Sturgeon, Clifford D. Simak or A.E. Van Vogt. It is due to his vision that science fiction was from the 1940s on not seen as a collection of adventure stories for teenage boys but rather, as Brian Attebery notes, as fiction that could transport Campbell\u2019s \u201cvision of the orderly, knowable universe and the place of the scientifically minded man within it\u201d (38). In his mind, sf stories could smoothly integrate scientific knowledge and prophecy into a sound narrative without referring back to contemporary times explicitly or the simplistic need to mimic other literary genres (i.e. adventure stories or romances). Thus, Campbell searched for authors that would, as Lester del Rey once put it, \u201clive in their futures. And he wanted those futures to be livable. The time to visit futures that were only stage fronts was over\u201d (cited in Westfahl 184). And even though Campbell\u2019s own editorial skill and critical vision waned in the 1950s, his influence and the style of writing that his vision inspired has shaped the genre until today. A new style of writing and a sort of counter-movement to Campbell\u2019ian sf would only occur in the 1960s thus effectively tying the 1950s to its forerunners of the Golden Age.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Gary Westfahl\u2019s lecture does not provide us with just one Golden Age and a historical account of Campbell and his influence on the genre. Rather, Westfahl argues, there are \u201cThree Golden Ages\u201d that shaped the genre and that need to be addressed by an sf historian; Campbell\u2019s being only one of them. Thus, the lecture provides an interesting overview of three very different strands of writing in the 1940s \u2013 all of which could be viewed as science fiction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Lecture<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

This is the lecture \u201cThe Three Golden Ages of  Science Fiction (1940s \u2013 1950s)\u201d by Prof. Dr. Gary Westfahl (University of La Verne):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Videofile \u2013 MP4<\/h5>\n\n\n\n