SCIENCE FICTION HISTORY: FBI INVESTIGATES HEINLEIN, ASIMOV, DE CAMP, ASTOUNDING OVER ATOMIC BOMB LEAK

The Cleve Cartmill Controversy - Did Story "Deadline" Leak Atomic Bomb Secrets?

Cleve Cartmill (1908-1964) was a newspaper journalist and freelance science fiction

writer who contributed some fifty novellas, novelettes and short stories to the sf and f pulp magazines of the time. His earliest work appeared in the pages of the legendary 1940s fantasy publication, Unknown Worlds. Today, many of his contributions to this magazine, particularly the short novels "Hell Hath Fury" and "A Bit of Tapestry" (which Robert Silverberg, himself a multi-award winning sf/f writer recently hailed as "nicely done fantasy novellas"), are considered minor masterpieces.

However, Cartmill was a double-threat man, and was equally adept at writing science fiction, consistently placing stories with John W

Campbell, the most demanding editor of his day. Campbell's magazine, Astounding – which spawned the careers of Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein, L. Sprague de Camp, and other Golden Age giants – almost single-handedly moved science fiction from shoot-'em up space opera to serious scientific, sociological and psychological speculation. Campbell brought out the best in Cartmill, resulting in a series of memorable stories that still retain great vigor and resonance today, among them a norish outer space mystery, "Some Day We'll Find You," an attempted revolution against a future theocracy, "With Flaming Swords," the story of a man whose desire to

be a normal, patriotic citizen inadvertently lead to a society's "Overthrow," and an androcentric but highly-amusing meditation on a possible turning point in dim prehistory, "The Link" (all of which you will find in this first-ever collection of his work).

Yet, today Cartmill's memory and reputation rest on one single story, "Deadline," and the controversial events that swirled around its publication in the March 1944 issue of Astounding. In fact, it is possible to make a case for "Deadline" being the most controversial science fiction story ever published – considering that its appearance provoked a full-scale investigation by the FBI. As the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction describes the event: A year before the

explosion of the first atomic bomb, at a time when the weapon's existence and workings were World War II's most closely guarded secret, Cartmill's story described the principle behind the bomb as well as the exact means by which it was exploded.

Someone somewhere in military intelligence must have been a science fiction reader, for not long after the issue of Astounding containing the futuristic spy story, "Deadline," hit the stands, a pair of FBI agents appeared in the office of editor John Campbell demanding everything he knew about the story and its author. It soon became apparent that they suspected Cartmill, and perhaps Campbell, of being an enemy agent who had received classified information from another agent and was using the pages of Astounding to pass this information along to Hitler's Third Reich. Moreover, the agents had discovered that both Campbell and Cartmill had suspicious connections with a trio of men, two of whom worked in research at the Philadelphia Naval Yard, and whom might have been in a position to learn something from someone somehow about the

bomb, while the third member of the trio was involved in suggestive experiments.

As a recently declassified intelligence document discussing the connection between these three men seems to suggest that there is more to their association than met the eye. "It is established that Cartmill is very friendly with [ ], Retired U.S.N.R., who is associated with [ ] at the Philadelphia Navy Yard. This [ ] formerly was doing research work at Columbia University, and he is said to have accepted some material thought to be atomic copper from [ ] in order to measure it in the mass spectroscope at Columbia University. [ ] was advised by [ ] that the device was broken. He never received the material back from [ ]. One [ ] who has written for [ ] Magazine is said to be working with [ ] also. The possibility of the transmittal

through [ ] to Cartmill has not so far been resolved..." (The names were blacked out in the document.)

Who were the members of this suspicious cabal? Here is the document with the names filled in: "It is established that Cartmill is very friendly with [Robert A. Heinlein], Retired U.S.N.R., who is associated with [Isaac Asimov] at the Philadelphia Navy Yard. This [Asimov] formerly was doing research work at Columbia University, and he is said to have accepted some material thought to be atomic copper from [Will F. Jenkins (Murray Leinster)] in order to measure it in the mass spectroscope at Columbia University. [Jenkins] was advised by [Asimov] that the device was broken. He never received the material back from [Asimov]. One [L. Sprague de Camp] who has written for [Astounding] Magazine is

said to be working with [Heinlein] also. The possibility of the transmittal through [Heinlein] to Cartmill has not so far been resolved..."

Well, of course, a pair of more loyal supporters of the U.S. in the war against Hitler's Third Reich than Robert A. Heinlein and Isaac Asimov would be hard to find, and it is not likely that Campbell, Cartmill, de Camp, and Jenkins were far behind. 

[From the top down: Campbell, Heinlein, Asimov, De Camp, Leinster. Sadly no photo of Cartmill could be found.]

Don't miss the concluding part of this blog entry, detailing the outcome of the FBI investigation.  

But you don't have to wait to read "Deadline" the story that started it all. You can read it now in Deadline and Other Controversial SF Classics by Cleve Cartmill - on sale at halfprice, just $2.99 for Kindle at Amazon.

You may also want to read his other two books from FuturesPast Editions:

Murchison & Co., Space Salvagers

(from Thrilling Wonder Stories)

and

Hell Hath Fury 

(a classic from the legendary pulp Unknown)

both also on sale at halfprice, only $2.99!