Next year will mark the 90th anniversary of Astounding Science Fiction, known these days as Analog.  To mark the occasion, editor Trevor Quachri will be reprinting one story from each decade, starting with the 1940s and going through the 1990s.  Anything later than the nineties, Quachri says, is too recent. More time will be needed to determine what the true classics will be.  All right, I can go along with that, no problem.

There will also be no stories reprinted from the 1930s. The reasoning here is that the identity hadn’t really formed yet.  That sounds a lot like John Campbell hadn’t yet put his imprint on the magazine.  Considering Quachri was in full support of changing the name of the Campbell Award earlier this year, I find this an interesting position to take.  It’s his magazine, and he’s the editor, so I’m not going to make an issue of it. There are some writers from the Clayton days in the 30s who went on to have successful careers after Street & Smith took over the magazine, such as Clifford D. Simak, Jack Williamson, Edmond Hamilton, and Campbell himself. Continue reading →