Cleve Cartmill (1908 - 1964) was an American author who specialized in writing science fiction short stories. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the He is best remembered for what is sometimes referred to as "the Cleve Cartmill affair",[1][2] when his 1944 story Deadline attracted the attention of the FBI due to its detailed description of a nuclear weapon similar to that being developed by the highly classified Manhattan Project. A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from Nuclear reactions either fission or a combination of fission and fusion. The World War II Manhattan Project developed the first Nuclear weapon (atomic bomb
Before embarking on his career as a writer for pulp magazines, Cartmill had a number of jobs including newspaperman, radio operator and accountant, as well as a short spell at the American Radium Products Company. Pulp magazines (or pulp fiction; often referred to as "the pulps" were inexpensive Fiction magazines A journalist (also called a newspaperman) is a person who practices Journalism, the gathering and dissemination of information about current events trends Old-Time Radio (OTR and the Golden Age of Radio refer to a period of Radio programming lasting from the proliferation of radio broadcasting in the early 1920s until An accountant is a practitioner of Accountancy, which is the measurement disclosure or provision of assurance about financial information that helps managers investors Radium (ˈreɪdiəm is a radioactive Chemical element which has the symbol Ra and Atomic number 88 [3] Many of his earliest stories, from 1941 onwards, were published in John W. Campbell's magazines Unknown and Astounding Science Fiction. John Wood Campbell Jr (June 8 1910 – July 11 1971 was an important Science fiction editor and writer Unknown (also known as Unknown Worlds) was a pulp Fantasy fiction magazine, edited by John W Analog Science Fiction and Fact is an American Science fiction Magazine. This was at the start of World War II, when Campbell found himself short of material because many of his regular writers were away on military service (from which Cartmill was exempt for medical reasons[2]). World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including Military service in its simplest sense is service by an individual or group in an Army or other military organization whether as a chosen job or as a result of an involuntary
In 1943, Cartmill suggested to Campbell that he could write a story about a futuristic super-bomb. Campbell liked the idea and supplied Cartmill with considerable background information, gleaned from unclassified scientific journals, on the use of Uranium-235 to make a nuclear fission device. Uranium-235 is an isotope of uranium that differs from the element's other common isotope Uranium-238, by its ability to cause a rapidly expanding fission Nuclear fission is the splitting of the nucleus of an atom into parts (lighter nuclei) often producing Free neutrons and other smaller nuclei which may The resulting story, "Deadline", appeared in the issue of Astounding dated March 1944, which actually appeared early in February of that year. [2] By March 8th it had come to the attention of the Counter-Intelligence Corps, who saw many similarities between the technical details in the story and the research currently being undertaken in great secrecy at Los Alamos. Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL (previously known at various times as Site Y, Los Alamos Laboratory, and Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory) is a Fearing a security breach, the FBI began an investigation into Cartmill, Campbell and some of their acquaintances (including Isaac Asimov and Robert A. Heinlein). Isaac Asimov (c January 2 1920 &ndash April 6 1992 ˈaɪzək ˈæzɪmʌv originally Исаак Озимов but now transcribed into Russian as, was a Russian Robert Anson Heinlein (July 7 1907 – May 8 1988 was an American Novelist and Science fiction Writer. It appears that the authorities eventually accepted the explanation that all the story's material had been gleaned from unclassified sources, but as a precautionary measure they requested that Campbell should not publish any further stories about nuclear technology for the remainder of the war. [2]
Historical interest aside, "Deadline" is not one of Cartmill's best stories, being described by Robert Silverberg as "a klutzy clunker"[2] and by Cartmill himself as "that stinker". [4] According to Silverberg, Cartmill also used the phrase "it stinks" when describing the story to a postman who was acting as an informer for military intelligence. [3]
Apart from the "Deadline" incident, Cartmill's writing career was undistinguished but competent. In his book A Requiem for Astounding, Alva Rogers expresses the opinion that "Cartmill wrote with an easy and colloquial fluidity that made his stories eminently readable". [4] Outside his writing career Cartmill was likely best known, at the time, for being the co-inventor of the Blackmill system of high speed typography. Typography is the art and techniques of arranging type, Type design, and modifying type Glyphs Type glyphs are created and modified using a variety
His son, Matt Cartmill, is a Professor of Biological Anthropology & Anatomy at Duke University and a science writer[5] . Duke University is a private Research University located in Durham, North Carolina, United States.
Bibliography
The Space Scavengers (Major 1975).
Prelude to Armageddon (Darkside Press, 2003). Edited and introduced by John Pelan. John C Pelan (born 1957) is an Author, editor and publisher in the Small press Science-fiction, weird and
References
- ^ Pulp SF magazine's role in atom bomb. Boing Boing.
- ^ a b c d e Silverberg, Robert (September 2003). "Reflections: The Cleve Cartmill Affair: One". Asimov’s Science Fiction.
- ^ a b Silverberg, Robert (October/November 2003). "Reflections: The Cleve Cartmill Affair: Two". Asimov’s Science Fiction.
- ^ a b Rogers, Alva (1964). A Requiem for Astounding. Advent. ISBN 0-911682-16-3.
- ^ M. Cartmill, A View to a Death in the Morning, pg. 205 .
External links
Dapyx Software network: MP3 Explorer | Ebook Manager | Zenithic