The Mothballed Spaceship

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I began writing Deathworld in 1956 in Mexico, con­tinued it in England and Italy, and finally finished it in New York in 1957. All along the way it was a col­laboration with John Campbell. Since 1 had already sold him a short story or two, I felt bold enough to ask him to comment on an outline of a novel—my first—that I was struggling with. His answering letter was longer than my outline. He suggested ideas I had never considered, permutations never thought of—and all within the struc­ture of my outline. Emboldened, I wrote 10,000 words and sent them to him and received comment afresh. Still fearful of the novel length, I sent him 30,000 words when I had done them, only to receive an irate grumble that he thought this was the whole thing and was put out he couldn't finish reading it. With this firm kick I finally finished the thing and took it to the post office and re­ceived, practically by return mail, a check for $2,100. I had sold my first serial to Astounding.

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