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Campbell, H J

Entry updated 12 September 2022. Tagged: Author, Editor.

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(1925-1983) UK research chemist (a Fellow of the Chemical Society), author and editor. He was active in Fandom during the early 1950s as Bert Campbell. After writing some science articles he gradually branched out into the world of sf, as well as selling line drawings to many magazines, including Amateur Photographer and Television Weekly. He scripted the Daily Herald cartoon series Captain Universe and served as technical editor and then editor 1952-1956 of Authentic Science Fiction, contributing many scientific articles to the magazine, which in general improved under his editorship. He also edited Tomorrow's Universe (anth 1953), Sprague de Camp's New Anthology (coll 1953), Authentic Science Fiction Handbook (1954 chap), mostly containing definitions of scientific terms, and Authentic Book of Space (anth 1954), which last was a mixture of articles and stories. Increased pressure of research work forced him to leave the field in 1956; he gained a PhD in Chemistry in 1957, and from that point concentrated on writing textbooks.

His own fiction was not, perhaps, of substantial interest, but his work was never incompetent. His two series written under the House Name Roy Sheldon – the Shiny Spear sequence beginning with Phantom Moon (1951) and ending with House of Entropy (1953), and the Magdah sequence of Prehistoric SF tales comprising Mammoth Man (1952) and Two Days of Terror (1952) – are perhaps his most sustained efforts, though The Moon Is Heaven (1951) is a pleasing example of Recursive SF, and incorporates a portrait of Arthur C Clarke. [SH/MJE]

see also: Entropy; Great and Small.

Herbert James Campbell

born London: 18 November 1925

died Somerset: September 1983

works

series

Magdah

Shiny Spear

individual titles

individual titles as by Roy Sheldon

Moment Out of Time below is possibly but not certainly by Campbell.

works as editor

links

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