The Most Important Men In Science Fiction 

I was just about to argue that Moorcock deserved a mention for shepherding in the New Wave, but then you mentioned Moorcock and the New Wave. Well played, sir.

The late Gardner Dozois would definitely deserve a mention - for 30 plus years he edited the annual compilation of Best New SF. This used to be an automatic purchase for me as it gave you a state of the art for science fiction that year as well as showcasing the best of that years short stories.

I just remember in the 80's Heavy Metal, probably the last great pulp fiction

j w campbell also wrote 'who goes there?', which culminated in j carpenters 'the thing' so hats off to him.

Was wondering when you’d be back in the chair again... I’ll expand the mention of Harlan Ellison: the two Dangerous Vision collections are still amazing to this day. Great New Wave primers. Not only for the great stories by all those authors, I also love Harlan’s introductions.

Lester del Rey. MDC: Always great content.

It's you Moid Sick looking book shelf btw

I highly recommend William Gibson's short story "The Gernsback Continuum".

Not a coffee, not merch, not a Patreon. Still, thanks for what you do mate!

The husband and wife team of Elsie and Donald A. Wollheim deserve some mention! I always looked for those singular yellow spined paperback covers back in the day. DAW... Another great video, Moid!!!

What a great surprise! I saw the thumbnail pop up when 10 other prisoner thumbnails kept popping up. . . I didn't realize it was you until it popped up at the end of your next video. I'm glad I went back and watched it!

Thanks for the Harlan Ellison shout out. His work on Dangerous Visions was very influential.

Took me awhile to watch this one, sorry. I don't get to watch you reviews anymore but I absolutely love these investigations into the history and bases of Sci-fi and Science fiction. Great job as usual. Keep it up. I consider you the ancient monks that preserved knowledge during the "Dark Ages". And these are some dark ages. We of the cult are depending on you.

Is that a pig wearing boots in the background? Wonderfully random.😂😂😂😮

Years ago I purchased a book by Brian Aldiss & David Wingrove called "Trillion Year Spree" which was a reprinting and expansion of their earlier Science Fiction history "Billion Year Spree". That sparked a even more passionate admiration for various Science Fiction authors that they wrote about. They also gave props to Hugo Gernsbeck and Joseph W. Campbell. Your videos are like streaming versions with their own POVs that stand alongside this literary work and I really appreciate how you are bringing back the sense of wonder I had when I started reading books by authors I had never heard of before (ex. Olaf Stapledon). Please keep up the entertaining and informative work!

Elric of Melnibone should receive more recognition. In an insanely interesting dark fantasy world that actually inspired our current conception of what dark fantasy is. Do you like sad boys with large swords fighting monsters? Elric is your guy. Also The Witcher has a lot to answer for!

Besides Dozois, I believe you might want to look into Publisher Elizabeth Rosalind "Betsy" Wollheim at DAW.

I thought because of the thumbnail that three persons would be mentioned in the video, but fair enough analysis on why we have to thank Gernsback and Campbell for laying the foundations for everything that came afterwards. Great video anyway.

Top notch videoing.

Nice job, Moid. I enjoyed it quite a bit.

Is he wearing a shoulder holster to protect his books from firemen? - I protect my books from followers of Campbell.

Science Fiction as big business - selling American stories to the English reading humans. [pioneer, frontier tales with upgraded six-shooters and iron horses] Other languages are available and the world view coming out of other peoples can be quite rewarding as well?

Let's not forget Delany - a major figure as author, editor, and teacher.

Wow your new library looks very swish! Are you planning a new library tour soon?

For good or ill, I'd say George Lucas. I'd argue that he took the B-movie/camp aspect of science fiction and meddled it with the high brow aspect of science fiction and turned the art form from a niche market to probably the most popular genre of entertainment of the past 50 years that greatly impacted the visual and written art of science fiction.

Hey Mood, just thought I'd let you know that MDC will be my first and possibly only Patreon/Cult that I'll be joining on Friday. One of my fathers day presents.

Wait, before the video tells me, I'm going to guess that it's Hugo Gernsback and John Campbell. [After watching] Well, whaddayaknow, I was right!

awesome video as usual 👍

Science fiction is a literary tradition that was apparently defined by Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein", a Gothic romance made palpable by a weird scientific conceit. H.G. Wells later redefined familiar SF tropes, even if he didn't invent all of them, and made them recognisable before there was a science fiction genre. At the time of the pulp magazines, the old literary tradition was still being kept alive by authors like Olaf Stapleton, the two realms seeming to parallel each other without having any real relationship. Their influence on the modern genre is probably just as great as the men you profiled, but without them, it wouldn't have become a genre. Science fiction might have still been written if it hadn't have become a genre, but it's impact would have been less powerful.

"...L Ron Hubbard..." WHAT?!? "...we'll cut that bit out..." Well played

What happened to all your old videos? I went to go look for a bunch of them and could not find them.

Have you moved Moid? looks like a new library in the background!? where's the tour?

The Campbell era was a phenomenal nursery for pukka ess eff writers. Remarkable stuff.

Even though ive read far more Philip Jose Farmer id say Philip K Duck is the most influential scifi writer

That would be Outlaw Bookseller

Ooh so that's why it's call the HUGO award.... Brilliant

Yeah it was a great time for both inventiveness & conservatism to stitch new ideas to old prejudices as though adding sugar to a new & effective if bitter tasting medicine akin to rolling out the mRNA vaccines for free while still compensating the pharmaceutical companies having researched, tested & produced them to successfully combat a worldwide pandemic. I.e., early to mid 20th century Western modernism resonates so strongly I think because we are experiencing a new modernist era today not really a still maturing postmodernist era.

It's a shame there are so many terrible people with small minds in Sci-Fi, Horror and Fantasy

Interesting video, thanks Moid. Quick question, recently went to re-watch your Peter Watts interview but all your old content is gone, has it all migrated to Patreon only?

Gernsback and Campbell for sure. To me the program is complete until 1960. Science Fiction was not completely transformed until those authors Campbell would not buy from had a market to sell too. The main figure here would H. L. Gold who established the magazine Galaxy. Gold bought from Ray Bradbury and Philip K Dick when Campbell would not. Authors that Campbell bought in the 1940s submitted work he would not buy. Especially true of Theodore Sturgeon (More Than Human), Robert Heinlein (Puppet Masters), Isaac Asimov (Caves Of Steel), just a few authors who had sold to Campbell before but found an editor in Gold open to new ideas. Alfred Bester had published in Astounding, but now his best two novels The Demolished Man and The Stars My Destination appeared in Galaxy. Galaxy featured Damon Knight , Fred Pohl, C.M.Kornbluth, Damon Knight, Cordwainer Smith, ... others..... Goodness Gold even published Kurt Vonnegut ! Galaxy was a market for new ideas in science fiction that Campbell was not open to. (One notes that during the 1950s that the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction was also influential in new SF. A few other markets made their contribution too.) By 1960 just about every idea had been explored , even tho there was a New Wave to come, but it was Gold who had cleared the way for that.

What do you call someone from Luxembourg? Hugo Gernback. Only person from that country I can name!

It is totally you, Moid!

Why the diss on L. Ron Hubbard? L. Ron Hubbard is one of my favorite authors! Forget about Scientology for a moment and read some of his Science Fiction and Fantasy stories. I’ve enjoyed all of his fiction, and Battlefield Earth is my favorite Science Fiction novel. Again, forget about the movie, which was a disaster. Battlefield Earth, the book is an excellent read. I have it on audiobook. At least twice when I’ve listened to the book, and when it was finished, I thought to myself, “Wow, that was great. What should I listen to next?” I started listening to Battlefield Earth again. Back to back, 40 hours each time. Such a fun story!

Hey Moist, the wit and sarcasm of today's sci-fi makes even the best classics feel kinda dull.

It might be You…

Did you nuke your old content?

Why are you dressed as Magnum PI?

You’re a special man, Moid. It could be you. Don’t listen to that bland-voiced factotum in the background.