L. Sprague de Camp
By Michael N.
Geselowitz, Ph.D.,
IEEE History Center, Rutgers University
Fans of science
fiction and fantasy, especially those who
came of age in the 1970s or earlier, will
know the name L. Sprague de Camp. Beginning
in 1937, in a career that spanned over 50
years, de Camp published dozens of books in
both science fiction and fantasy. In
addition to that distinction (few authors
publish successfully in both of these
genres, despite their close connection), de
Camp published historical fiction and
nonfiction as well. In the nonfiction
category, he wrote popular books on science
and invention and also biographies of
pioneering fantasy writers. He was, in fact,
instrumental in making the study of fantasy
accepted as a serious pursuit. Also on the
fantasy side, he is perhaps best known for
rescuing from obscurity the Conan novels of
Robert Howard and then writing authorized
sequels.
In 1996, he
managed to document his full life (he died
in 2000, three weeks shy of his 93rd
birthday) in his autobiography, Time and
Chance: An Autobiography (Donald M.
Grant Publishers, Hampton Falls, NH), which
won a Nebula Award (just one of his many
prizes in science fiction and fantasy
arenas). Fans who have not read this book,
however, may not realize that, like his more
famous colleague, Isaac Asimov, a biochemist
also known for writing both science fiction
and science nonfiction, de Camp had a
technical background. He started out, in
fact, as an engineer! And he and Asimov, it
turns out, were to participate together in
an interesting if little known chapter in
engineering history…one that truly
demonstrates the interplay between
engineering and popular culture.
Heinlein, de
Camp and Asimov at the Philadelphia Naval
Base, 1943; courtesy
Wikipedia
First, more on
de Camp’s background: Born into an affluent
New York family, he attended first Trinity
School then a rustic boarding school. After
his parents divorced, he moved with his
mother to southern California, where he
attended Hollywood High School. There, he
was (in another IEEE-related coincidence!)
one of the 1,500 high-scoring high-school
students studied by Lewis M. Terman of
Stanford University. A strong student in
math and science, de Camp hoped to attend
UCLA to study paleontology, but his family
convinced him that engineering was a better
career — so he enrolled at Cal Tech! After
graduating Tech in 1930 with a Bachelors
Degree in mechanical engineering, de Camp
attended summer school at MIT and then
attended Stevens Institute of Technology
from which he received a Masters Degree in
1933. With the Depression at its greatest
depth, de Camp got a series of jobs doing
technical writing and teaching, and it was
then that the writing bug bit him and that
he thought he might be able to make it as a
full-time writer of science fiction. Back in
New York, he began to write and publish
stories, and to move in science fiction
circles. However, he still required a
day-time job and so, in 1938, he took a
temporary position with IEEE’s sister
society, the ASME (!), editing the new
edition of their Catalogue of Mechanical
Equipment. Then World War II intervened.
When the war
broke out, the United States put a lot of
emphasis on scientific and technological
research and development as a way to win the
conflict. The Manhattan Project, the Rad Lab
at MIT, and the Jet Propulsion Lab, among
others, are all well known. Less famous is a
small Navy lab in Philadelphia, but its
connection to popular culture may be unique
among these efforts.
The science
fiction author Robert Heinlein, as it
happens, was also trained as an engineer —
at the United States Naval Academy in
Annapolis — and had served as an officer in
the U.S. Navy doing radio work from 1929
until 1934, when he was discharged for
medical reasons. As the war broke out, an
old classmate of his from Annapolis, A. B.
Scoles, was put in charge of what became the
Naval Air Material Center of the Naval
Aircraft Experimental Station at the
Philadelphia Naval Base. Scoles knew that
his old friend Heinlein was both an engineer
and a creative science-fiction writer. What,
he thought, if Heinlein could recruit other
science fiction writers who had technical
backgrounds, and let them combine their
creativity and far-sightedness in weapons
research? So, he contacted Heinlein.
Heinlein contacted de Camp, who was almost a
full-time writer, and Asimov, who was a
graduate student in biochemistry writing
part-time — they all already knew each other
through science fiction circles — and the
three went down to Philadelphia to begin
work. Asimov and Heinlein remained civilian
engineers for medical reasons, but de Camp
was commissioned in the Navy. Scoles
established a new subdivision for them, the
Materials Laboratory. De Camp’s work
primarily concerned experimentation in the
Cold and Altitude rooms. He was so
successful that towards the end of the war
he was pulled off the bench and made
secretary of the War Production Committee
and an assistant to the Patent Committee for
the whole Center.
After the war,
he was determined to return to writing full
time, and his engineering background
continued to influence his science fiction —
Rogue Queen (1957) for example,
includes a subplot of intergalactic
technology transfer being used for military
purposes. It also continued to follow him in
other areas. Until the early 1960s, he found
it necessary to support his growing family
(he had married in 1940 and ultimately had
two sons) by sometimes writing on commission
or taking salaried writing positions in
addition to his freelance writing. He wrote
at various times for The Telephone News,
the Bell Company house organ (!), for Voice
of America doing stories on the prowess of
American science, for an advertising firm,
and even for some local newspapers. One of
his commissioned books was actually a
history of technology — a textbook on the
history of naval weapons for the U.S. Naval
Reserve (1948). This experience contributed
to his eventual writing of a popular
nonfiction book, The Ancient Engineers
(1963), and enhancing technological literacy
through promoting the history of science and
technology became one of his hallmarks
besides fantasy. In fact, this is when his
career took off, and he was able to write
full-time and become the figure we remember
today…engineering and popular culture
combined in one icon.
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