SCHMIDT, Stanley (Albert)

(1944-)

   US editor, writer and academic, with a PhD in physics (1969), which he taught until 1978. In that year he became editor of Analog, a position which in 1992 he retains, occupying his role in the forthright manner established by John W. CAMPBELL Jr, his most famous predecessor, but more quietly. He began publishing his own sf with "A Flash of Darkness" for ASF in 1968. His first novel, Newton and the Quasi-Apple(1970 ASF; exp 1975), is a HARD-SF exploration in PHYSICS set on a primitive planet where Newton's principles are being independently discovered, raising questions as to what kinds of knowledge are helpful - and when. The Sins of the Fathers (1976) and its sequel, Lifeboat Earth (fixup 1978), perhaps overcomplicatedly invoke an exploding Galaxy, TIMETRAVEL and more new physics in their presentation of an ALIEN race whose effective social engineering challenges Earth (SOCIOLOGY). Tweedlioop (1986) again submits an alien - here through shipwreck - to humanPERCEPTIONS, this time those of a young woman; she falls in love. Throughout his writing career, which has become less active since 1978, SS has written clear-cut tales within which nest solvable problems, and in the telling of which cogently argued hard-sf concepts are given fair play. His editorship of Analog has been similarly clear-cut, and he hasmaintained the journal as the primary outlet for thrusting, extroverted, problem-solving sf tales of a sort that, for many readers, continues to occupy the high road of sf. He has edited several anthologies spun-off from the journal or from UNKNOWN, its stablemate from half a century earlier.

   JC

   As Editor: The Analog Anthology \#1: Fifty Years of the Best (anth 1980) and \#2: Readers' Choice (anth 1982); Analog's Golden Anniversary Anthology (anth 1981); Analog Yearbook II (anth 1981); Analog's Lighter Side (anth 1982); Children of the Future (anth 1982); Analog: Writers' Choice (anth 1983) and Writers' Choice, Vol II (anth 1984); War and Peace: Possible Futures from Analog (anth 1983); Aliens from Analog (anth 1983); From Mind to Mind: Tales of Communication from Analog (anth 1984); Analog's Expanding Universe (anth 1986); 6 Decades:The Best of Analog (anth 1987); Unknown (anth 1988); Unknown Worlds: Tales from Beyond (anth 1988) with Martin H. GREENBERG.

   See also: ASTOUNDING SCIENCE-FICTION; CHILDREN IN SF.