Editing Theodore Sturgeon (section)

===1950s: The boom years===
Although the bulk of Sturgeon's short story work dated from the 1940s and '50s, his original novels were all published between 1950 and 1961. Disliking arguments with [[John W. Campbell]] over editorial decisions, Sturgeon only published one story in ''Astounding'' after 1950.<ref name="latham2009">{{Cite book |title=The Routledge Companion to Science Fiction |last=Latham |first=Rob |publisher=Routledge |year=2009 |isbn=9781135228361 |editor-last=Bould |editor-first=Mark |pages=80–89 |chapter=Fiction, 1950-1963 |editor-last2=Butler |editor-first2=Andrew M. |editor-last3=Roberts |editor-first3=Adam |editor-last4=Vint |editor-first4=Sherryl |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=y7CNAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA80 |access-date=2020-10-20 |archive-date=2024-01-05 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240105045255/https://books.google.com/books?id=y7CNAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA80#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref> He did, however, take very seriously Campbell's enthusiasms for [[psionics]] and for [[L. Ron Hubbard]]'s [[Dianetics]] (even before it became the [[Church of Scientology]] in 1953). Sturgeon was [[Auditing (Scientology)|"audited"]] by Campbell himself, and according to [[Alec Nevala-Lee]], he became more devoted to it than any other science fiction writer other than [[A.E. van Vogt]].<ref>[[Alec Nevala-Lee|Nevala-Lee, Alec]] (2018), ''Astounding: John W. Campbell, Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein, L. Ron Hubbard, and the Golden Age of Science Fiction'', New York: Dey Street Books/HarperCollins, p. 280. "Apart from van Vogt, the writer who took dianetics the most seriously was Sturgeon..."</ref> He became a trained auditor and defended the Church for decades.

Sturgeon published the "first stories in science fiction which dealt with homosexuality, '[[The World Well Lost]]' [June 1953] and 'Affair with a Green Monkey' [May 1957]",<ref>Duncan, David D. (1979). [http://www.physics.emory.edu/faculty/weeks//misc/duncan.html "The Push from Within: The Extrapolative Ability of Theodore Sturgeon"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191019010650/http://www.physics.emory.edu/faculty/weeks//misc/duncan.html |date=10-19-19}}. First published 1979, print. Retrieved 2020-03-20.<br /> Quote: "first stories in science fiction which dealt with homosexuality, 'The World Well Lost' and 'Affair With a Green Monkey{{'"}}</ref> and sometimes put gay [[subtext]] in his work, such as the back-rub scene in "[[Shore Leave (Star Trek: The Original Series)|Shore Leave]]",<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Hageman|first1=Andrew|title=A generic correspondence: Sturgeon–Roddenberry letters on sf, sex, sales and ''Star Trek''|journal=Science Fiction Film & Television|date=2016|volume=9|issue=3|pages=473–478|doi=10.3828/sfftv.2016.9.15|s2cid=193714832 |doi-access=}}</ref> or in his Western story, "Scars".<ref name="UW pg. 203">{{cite book|first1=Eric|last1=Garber|first2=Lyn|last2=Paleo|title=Uranian Worlds: A Guide to Alternative Sexuality in Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror|edition=2nd|page=[https://archive.org/details/uranianworldsgui0000garb/page/203/mode/2up?q=Scars 203]|url=https://archive.org/details/uranianworldsgui0000garb|url-access=registration|location=Boston|publisher=G K HallA|year=1990|isbn=0-8161-1832-9<!-- printed without leading 0-->}}</ref> 

[[Carl Sagan]] later described "To Here and the Easel" (1954) as "a stunning portrait of personality disassociation as perceived from the inside", and further said that many of Sturgeon's works were among the "rare few science‐fiction novels [that] combine a standard science‐fiction theme with a deep human sensitivity".<ref name="sagan19780528">{{Cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1978/05/28/archives/growing-up-with.html |title=Growing up with Science Fiction |last=Sagan |first=Carl |date=1978-05-28 |work=The New York Times |access-date=2018-12-12 |page=SM7 |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331 |archive-date=2018-12-11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181211180058/https://www.nytimes.com/1978/05/28/archives/growing-up-with.html |url-status=live }}</ref>
According to science fiction writer [[Samuel R. Delany]], a friend of Sturgeon's,<ref name="Noël">{{cite interview |last=Sturgeon|first=Noël |title=Interview with Noël Sturgeon |url=https://middletownpubliclib.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Discussion-about-Theodore-Sturgeon.pdf |date=November 2019}}</ref> Sturgeon was bisexual.<ref name="Delany">{{cite interview |last=Delany |first=Samuel |subject-link=Samuel R. Delany |interviewer=Alex Wermer-Colan |title=Stonewall, Before and After |url=https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/stonewall-before-and-after-an-interview-with-samuel-r-delany/ |magazine=Los Angeles Review of Books |date=July 6, 2019}}</ref>

Though not as well known to the general public as contemporaries like [[Isaac Asimov]] or [[Ray Bradbury]], Sturgeon became well known among readers of mid-20th-century science fiction anthologies. At the height of his popularity in the 1950s he was the most anthologized English-language author alive.<ref name="Engel_1994">
{{cite book
  | last = Engel
  | first = Joel
  | title = Gene Roddenberry: The Myth and the Man Behind Star Trek
  | publisher = Hyperion
  | page = [https://archive.org/details/generoddenberrym00enge/page/92 92]
  | isbn = 0786860049
  | date = June 1, 1994
  | quote = Theodore Sturgeon, the most anthologized writer in the English language but one who'd never written for television before ''Star Trek'', received several long letters and memos from Roddenberry.
  | url = https://archive.org/details/generoddenberrym00enge/page/92
  }}</ref><ref name="Meehan_1998">
{{cite book
  | last = Meehan
  | first = Paul
  | title = Saucer Movies: A UFOlogical History of the Cinema
  | publisher = Scarecrow Press
  | page = 166
  | isbn = 0810835738
  | date = November 1, 1998
  | quote = Veteran science fiction writer Theodore Sturgeon, reportedly the most anthologized science fiction writer of all time, wrote the teleplay adaptation of his own short story for the ABC-TV movie ''Killdozer'' (1974).
}}</ref> 

Three Sturgeon stories were adapted for the 1950s NBC radio anthology ''[[X Minus One]]'': "[[A Saucer of Loneliness]]" (broadcast twice), "The Stars Are the Styx" and "Mr. Costello, Hero". 

Sturgeon was a member of the all-male literary banqueting club the [[Trap Door Spiders]], which served as the basis of [[Isaac Asimov]]'s fictional group of mystery solvers the [[Black Widowers]].  In 1959, Sturgeon moved to [[Truro, Massachusetts]] where he met and became friendly with a then unknown [[Kurt Vonnegut, Jr]]. (Sturgeon was the inspiration for the recurrent character of [[Kilgore Trout]] in Vonnegut's novels.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.flf.com/mnight/aol_qa.htm |title=Interview with Vonnegut |access-date=2013-04-04 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19980115150204/http://www.flf.com/mnight/aol_qa.htm |archive-date=January 15, 1998 }} "I think it's funny when someone is named after a fish"</ref>)

In 1959, he began to write book reviews for [[National Review]], and continued until 1973.