If war had indeed broken out in 1939...

...perhaps today John W. Campbell had been thought of as the most influential 20th C editor of the field of science fiction.

Just back from a very interesting talk by fjm, which wasn't any the worse for being a bit rambling, on the need for some real fact-based literary research on the early sf magazines, challenging all the unspoken community consensus assumptions about what was good and what was bad. I really wish she'll get funding for this study. I'm sure you'll get the chance to hear a later, more mature version of this talk at cons in the future; take it.