A. E. van Vogt was recognized as a major science-fiction talent with the publication of his first story, "Black Destroyer," in the July 1939 issue of Astounding Science-Fiction. (It was later to become part of The Voyage of the Space Beagle, 1950.) This verdict was confirmed the following year when his first novel, Slan, was serialized in the same magazine (September-December). Within a year and a half he had become an important figure in science fiction, the only writer at that time approximating the stature of Robert A. Heinlein; and, after Heinlein had left for World War II, van Vogt easily and happily dominated Astounding Science-Fiction, the most important science-fiction magazine of its day, for some years.

Alfred Elton van Vogt was born on a farm near Winnepeg, Manitoba, Canada. His father seems to have been of unstable financial character and the writer's early life was marked by frequent migrations...