All fiction writing begins with an idea, a concept based on an acute observation of the world that can be captured in a new and exciting way. This study of the everyday world yields stories of the love of a couple, a child coming of age, a plane crash in a distant county, or even the stealing of some rare gem, and an author asks: what is the story in this? As the author answers this question, the tales are woven into a newspaper article or a personal essay recounting the event, or even a work of fiction inspired by that daring chase scene seen on TV. However, other observations lend themselves to a different form of writing, providing a different type of inspiration. Rather than asking what the story is, the author of science fiction asks: what if? Though there is no concrete definition of science fiction, in its truest form, it is about more than far-fetched tails of alien species traveling the galaxy or a ship being sucked through a wormhole into a different dimension: it is the exploration of an idea that has not yet become a scientific reality. As the genre developed, authors made science fiction an avenue for expressing their thoughts on political matters. Science fiction grew from a nameless literary form into a defined genre, becoming part of American popular culture as it developed into a medium of social and political expression.

There is no one agreed-upon definition of science fiction. Authors have tried since the 1920s to give the genre a definition, but one has still not been reached (Knight 317). However, there are several concepts that can usually be found in science fiction or "SF," as it is also called. Above anything else, what makes true SF is the incorporation of facts or discoveries that can be explained scientifically. In other words, "When science fiction includes ideas that cannot be explained by science, then it is labeled fantasy" (Datnow 7). Theodore Sturgeon, a leader in the field of science fiction, offers a more comprehensive description­: "A science fiction story is a story built around human beings, with a human problem, and a human solution, which would not have happened at all without its scientific content" (Knight 312). Similarly, Sam Moskowitz, who was recognized during the 1950s as an authority on the history of science fiction, states that science fiction is a branch of fantasy that utilizes, " . . . an atmosphere of scientific credibility for its imaginative speculation in physical science, space, time, social science, and philosophy" (Moskowitz 11). However, there is often confusion about what separates fantasy from science fiction. One manifestation of the undefined area between the two is a sub-genre referred to as "science-fantasy." In this genre, the author is allowed to have one fantastic assumption. In other words, authors of science-fantasy, " . . . don't care whether their gadgets will work or not" (Knight 368). Some noteworthy authors who wrote in this genre are Isaac Asimov (though he was known as an "encyclopedic" science writer), H. G. Wells and Arthur C. Clarke (368). As suggested by science fiction writer and critic Damon Knight, true science fiction can be separated from science-fantasy and other sub-genres, by inserting, " . . . 'speculative' before 'scientific'— it cleanly divides true science fiction from even the best imitations" (312). Science fiction grew to embody many different definitions, with the branches taking on separate names, but the genre can go beyond far-fetched entertainment stories to become a glimpse of a potential future.

Science fiction is not prophecy, only prediction. A science fiction author may talk as if they know exactly what the future will be like, but they don't. An author can predict what might happen in the future, but it's only speculation. A prediction, in this context, is a general statement about the future, which may or may not come to pass. Prophecy, conversely, is a prediction that would be amazing if it came true. In the end, all of the predictions made in science fiction are fake prophecies; the author states the ideas as fact, but does not necessarily believe the concepts are true. (Knight 316-317) Acclaimed author L. Ron Hubbard gives an example of what is science fiction as opposed to prophecy in the introduction to his bestselling novel Battlefield Earth. Hubbard explains:

"Let us take an example: a man invents an eggbeater. A writer later writes a story about an eggbeater. He has not, thereby, written science fiction. Let us continue the example: a man writes a story about some metal that, when twiddled, beats an egg, but no such tool has ever before existed in fact. He has now written science fiction. Somebody else, a week or a hundred years later, reads the story and says, 'Well, well. Maybe it could be done.' And makes an eggbeater. But whether or not it was possible that twiddling two pieces of metal would beat eggs, or whether or not anybody ever did it afterward, the man has still written science fiction." (xvii)

If the man wrote about the possibility of an eggbeater at some point in the future but didn't know if it would actually work, then it would be a prediction. It was predictions that made up a significant amount of science fiction, and those endless possibilities available to authors allowed the genre to develop from its earliest appearance.

The roots of science fiction reach much further back than the name of the genre, coming from three different genres extending as far back as Ancient Greek literature. Homer's Odyssey was perhaps the, " . . . earliest approach to science fiction" (Moskowitz 34). The Odyssey followed the format of a travel tale, and the story has never been surpassed within that field. At the time travel tales developed, the entire world was thought to be the Mediterranean basin, and a sailing ship was enough to take travelers to new and fantastic realms. The lack of geographical knowledge left the distant reaches of the world up to the creativity of the mind, so the writings of the time were just as much extraordinary products of the imagination as the tales of space travel that were to come. Another type of story, which later became a characteristic of the SF genre, was the future utopia. These stories were creative and imaginative, expressing the author's discontent with the state of the world, creating an alternate social system that was more to the author's liking. The third type of story did not emerge until the 1800s, much later than the other two, and the writing in this genre was referred to as "science stories." This type required great knowledge of physical and social sciences so the author could extrapolate fact into a fictitious story. (34-35) When examined separately, each genre had defined traits:

"The old travel tale was primarily looked upon as a literary escape. The prophetic utopia was a literature of political and social reform through philosophical as well as material change. The science story was a kind of experiment in public education through sugar-coated science on the level of the fireside journal." (35)

In the early 1800s, these three types of story came together in what scholars believe to be the first genuine science fiction novel. Mary Wollstonecraft Shelly published her novel Frankenstein in 1818, and it served as the model for SF for the next forty years. (Datnow 8) Frankenstein combined the previously isolated story forms in the field into an almost factual science story, an achievement that made Mary Shelly the most important female writer of 19th century science fiction (Moskowitz 33). Using the three story models, Mary Shelly was able to successfully take scientific ideas and mold them into a novel that commented on the state of the world. Her scientific approach to writing was previously unexplored on such a profound level, and sparked critical responses which moved the fledgling genre forward. After Frankenstein was published, there was a decline in the number of popular Gothic horror stories, and the novel, " . . . paved the way for a transition from superstition and legend to a firm foundation of science as the basic ingredient of successful fantastic literature" (Moskowitz 33). The science fiction genre (though it was not known under that name at the time) continued to develop throughout the 19th century with such authors as Jules Verne, Edgar Allan Poe and H. G. Wells (Knight 310).

H.G. Wells was an influential writer for science fiction in the late-1800s and early-1900s. The time between 1890 and 1910 was a golden age for scientific and science fiction writing. In 1859, Charles Darwin's The Origin of the Species was published, and allowed for more exploration of scientific thought. The philosophical thoughts discussed in the work, " . . . enabled those with a solid grasp of the theories of the day to be able to blend hard scientific fact into stories of the fantastic" (Holmsten and Lubertozzi 87). Wells' first fictitious writing, The Time Machine, came out at the time where, intellectually, science was on the same level the human imagination. In his next story, he asked that question: "What would be the result of science without ethics?" (87). The Island of Dr. Moreau was an instant hit and made Wells famous. The Invisible Man, which followed, also received great acclaim and established that he could make a living as a full-time writer. However, there was still more to be done with Wells' scientific concepts, as explained in The Complete War of the Worlds by editors Brian Holmsten and Alex Lubertozzi:

"Up to this point, Wells had written of sciences that man could explore— zoology, biology, geology, and chemistry. For his next book, he'd take elements of all of those and add to them the final scientific piece: astronomy. What if you combine science with the sky, the stars— with outer space?" (88)

Thus War of the Worlds was born. Wells took all the scientific knowledge of the time and brought it together in a scientific and social commentary unlike any writing to previously emerge, making being from another planet become a reality. The story originally appeared as a nine-part series in the English periodical Pearson's Magazine, beginning with the April 1897 issue. Reader and critic reaction was so positive that War of the Worlds was almost simultaneously released in America in the beginning of 1898. "The book was an immediate commercial and critical success" (89). The War of the Worlds secured Wells as a force in the literary world, where he remained in years to come (90). His lasting writing helped transition science fiction into a new era of popularity and pulp following.

Wells' writing paved the way for people such as Hugo Gernsback, a man considered the father of the modern science fiction genre. Gernsback created a pulp magazine, a periodical with new and shocking material, titled Amazing Stories, which became the world's first sci-fi magazine. However, it did not appear under the name. In 1924, Gernsback sent out 25,000 circulars soliciting subscriptions for what he claimed was a new type of magazine. (Moskowitz 236) The magazine was to feature the stories of Verne, Wells and Poe, and be titled Scientifiction. For the editor, Gernsback selected Dr. T. O'Connor Sloane, who didn't choose stories for the magazine, but rather checked the accuracy of the science. (225) However, Gernsback got so little response from the ads that he did nothing more with the magazine for two years (236). Then, on April 5, 1926, he placed the already fully developed magazine, formatted with letter-sized pages with heavy paper so that the front-to-back thickness of the 96-page magazine was over half an inch, on the stands without any advance notice. Critics reviewed the new periodical enthusiastically. (225-226) After reading an editorial in the June 1926 issue of Amazing Stories, Gernsback realized that there was a market for a sci-fi magazine that he previously did not know existed. In response, he started "Discussions," a forum for science fiction fans to voice their opinion about SF publications of the time. Soon after, Gernsback took a survey of his readers and found that the vast majority desired a more frequent publication. In 1927, he came out with a companion magazine, Amazing Stories Annual. The 100,000 copies of the magazine, priced at fifty cents, almost sold out. With success established, the Amazing Stories Annual became Amazing Stories Quarterly. Over the years, " . . . Gernsback's Experimenter Publishing Company [grew] into a veritable empire of newsstand periodicals . . ." (237). Additional Experimenter publications included Science and Invention magazine, comic books and hardcover books (237). Despite the continued popularity and growth of the science fiction genre, the prosperity of Gernsback's empire came to a sudden end (239).

Despite the halt in Gernsback's momentous success, he moved forward with publishing science fiction. The Experimenter Publishing Company was forced into bankruptcy in 1929 due to a law stating that bankruptcy could be declared based on as little as a late payment. The law was changed, but a week too late to do Gernsback any good. However, he was not deterred, and sent out a series of circulars announcing that his new Stellar Publishing Company would print Everyday Mechanics for readers of Science and Invention and Science Wonder Stories for those who read Amazing Stories. (Moskowitz 239-240) As a response to the ads, "Over 8,000 subscriptions poured in, so respected was the Gernsback name" (240). Then, in 1929, Gernsback gave a name to the genre he helped make popular: "science fiction" (11). Amazing Stories provided an outlet for budding sci-fi writers, some of who went on to become famous, and also contributed to forward movement of the genre by making it accessible to a wider audience.

One of Gernsback's authors, John W. Campbell, went on to edit his own science fiction magazine. Campbell recognized that science fiction was growing, and modified the magazine to grow with it. As the editor of the magazine, Campbell changed the name several times, from Astounding, to ASTOUNDING Stories, ASTOUNDING Science Fiction, Astounding Science Fiction, ASTOUNDING Science Fiction, and finally to ANALOG Science Fiction— Science Fact. In 1937, the magazine was said to bring a, " . . . realistic view of scientists into science fiction" (Knight 46). Some writers who worked for Campbell's magazine are still renowned in present times, including Robert A. Heinlein and Isaac Asimov. With fame acquired, authors were able to begin publishing outside of pulp magazines, allowing the SF genre to develop further. (45-46)

In 1947, Robert A. Heinlein became the first sci-fi author to publish in a non-pulp magazine. Heinlein got his start in 1939 when he saw an ad for John W. Campbell's Astounding Science Fiction, and submitted a short story entitled "Life-Line." Campbell purchased the story for $70. (Datnow 11) Heinlein continued to write stories for Campbell, and once told him he wrote for the money, but in reality his stories (especially his young adult novels) captured his hopes and dreams. The series of young adult novels began with Rocket Ship Galileo in 1947, which was soon followed by Space Cadet in 1948. (17-18) In his novel Treasure Island, Heinlein ventured outside of the solar system, but never abandoned Einstein's physics. This was in part accomplished by careful wording, so rather than "space warps," he, " . . . assumed something called 'anomalies' in space— sectors where multidimensional space is folded back on itself like a crumpled sheet of paper" (Knight 92). This was key in giving science fiction scientific credibility. In the 1960s, Heinlein's writing shifted towards fantasy expressing his political and social opinions. A major novel from this period was Starship Troopers in 1959. (Datnow 19) Also during this period, " . . . Heinlein wrote his classic work of science fiction, Stranger in a Strange Land ([published in] 1961). It became his best-known work and won a 1962 Hugo Award" (19). The book sold two million copies, and is still read an appreciated today (19). In part, Heinlein's science fiction had great lasting appeal because many of the stories took place just far enough outside reality for a reader from any time to connect to the story. In that way, Heinlein's social and political commentary was timeless, and readers from any time could pull out the message in his stories.

Success in science fiction was also achieved by Heinlein's friend, Isaac Asimov, who greatly contributed to the progress of literary science fiction, but was also known for his ability to explain complex scientific ideas in an easily accessible way (Datnow 19). Isaac Asimov rose from a poor immigrant to become one of the most influential writers in America. Asimov first became interested in SF in the 1920s at an early age when he read pulp magazines that were for sale in his father's candy store. As he grew older, he wrote fan letters to magazines, giving his thoughts on what he read. Soon, he began submitting his own stories to John W. Campbell, the editor of Astounding Science Fiction. For his first submission, he went down to Campbell's office, where Campbell met him and gave him advice and encouragement. Though the first story was rejected, Asimov continued writing and submitting throughout high school and college, as Campbell began publishing his work. At the age of 19, Asimov joined a SF fan club called Futurians, where he met life-long friends, to-be famous authors Fredrik Pohl and Robert Heinlein. By 1941, Asimov began writing some of his most famous works: "Nightfall," the Robot series, and the Foundation series. According to Claire L. Datnow, "Nightfall" is considered his best story, and perhaps even the best SF story of all time. All of his robot stories were collected into the 1950 I, Robot, which became very popular. Even more popular was the Foundation series. After these two series, and the Lucky Starr series, he wrote almost no fiction, and rather wrote non-fiction books on science, history, humor and literature, and was nicknamed the "Great Explainer" because of his ability to explain complex things simply. In 1958 Asimov wrote a column for The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, which won a Hugo Award for "adding science to science fiction" (Datnow 30). Then in 1976 he started his own magazine, Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, the first new sci-fi magazine since 1955. By the end of his life, Asimov was honored with Hugo, Nebula (awarded annually by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America), Grand Master awards, and many honorary degrees. (30-32) These awards are the recognition for the greatest minds in the field of science fiction writing, and are given to those with the greatest vision, identifying the works that remain true to the spirit of the genre.

One of these visionary writers was Frank Herbert. Before writing his most famous work, the acclaimed Dune series, Herbert was never recognized as a major science fiction writer, but the novel brought him lasting fame and popularity. Herbert got his original inspiration for the story while writing an article for the United States Department of Agriculture's control of sand dunes along the Oregon coast. Simultaneously, he was working on a story about religious cults taking over people's lives, and the ideas of dunes and religion collided, " . . . [sparking] the idea for what became his masterpiece" (Datnow 56). Herbert took five years to plan the first book before he began writing. The books in the original series were Dune (published in 1965), Dune Messiah (published in 1969) and Children of Dune (published in 1976). Dune is based on the science of ecology, the study of living things and the environment. "Dune tells the story of the ecological restoration of a desert planet through a violent religious war" (57). It was the first science fiction novel with an ecological theme based on scientific facts, and inspired other authors to explore ecological SF. Herbert spent many years studying ecology, sociology and religion, and his deep knowledge of the subjects allowed him to create a rich, believable desert world of Arrakis for his readers. In Dune, Herbert destroyed his hero, Paul Atreides, which upset science fiction fans, but, " . . . Herbert, the storyteller, wanted his readers to think about the danger of blindly following a leader without asking questions" (58). This social comment was applicable in any time period and remains captured in Herbert's science fiction. His writing forced readers to open their minds and stretch their thoughts to higher levels. Dune won a 1965 Nebula Award and a 1966 Hugo Award, and the works are, " . . . justly regarded as literary masterpieces" (59). Even after decades, "Many believe that Dune is the greatest work of fiction ever written" (59). The first three books sold millions of copies and were translated into many languages. The success of the series opened doors for writers and made publishers more willing to increase the number of paid sci-fi writers. Herbert's work is still regarded as a powerful influence and inspiration for science fiction. (56-59)

The writing of science fiction authors has had a lasting effect on American popular culture. In the 1960s during the time Herbert published Dune, science fiction showed every sign of moving forward, with over 1200 science fiction and fantasy books published each year. The genre went through fifty years of development with the help of pulp comics and people like Gernsback, and was ready to make an emergence into the mainstream. (Knight 366-367) Critics used to refer to sci-fi as "pseudo science" or "Buck Rogers stuff," but such labeling stopped (310-311). "Nowadays, the term 'science fiction' has wide currency, and has even lost most of its raffish connotations" (311). Other industries embraced science fiction, as well. In 1950, Heinlein's novel Rocket Ship Galileo was turned into a movie, Destination Moon, and another of his novels, Space Cadet, became a TV serial, Tom Corbett: Space Cadet. Some of the Top Ten money-making films were science fiction, including E.T., the Star Wars trilogy, Terminator 2 and Independence Day. These films all followed the "Boys Own Adventure" formula that began in the pulp magazines of the 1920s and 1930s. (Disch 2) This form appealed to the primary audience of SF, adolescent males, and low budget SF movies of the 1950s and 1960s were created to appeal to this audience at drive-in movies. (3) As children of earlier generations matured, they transitioned from comic books to pulp magazines, such as Amazing Stories; now adolescents go from television to the computer, medias filled with SF. Over the years, " . . . science fiction has come to permeate [American] culture to such a degree that its basic repertory of images— rocket ships and robots, aliens and dinosaurs— are standard items in the fantasy life of any preschooler" (1). Most of the science fiction and fantasy is juvenile, but there is some SF for every taste because the field is so large, it allows for the publishing of new and innovative writers (Knight 367). Science fiction is "Made in America," and it is the American culture that holds the future for the genre (Disch 2). Just as well, the genre serves to warn about the dangers of other aspects of the culture. One year before the first nuclear bomb was detonated, Campbell described what would happen if a bomb went off in an interview with the New Yorker. He cautioned, "[Dinosaurs] are extinct— as we may soon be ourselves, thanks to the bomb" (80). The dread of a threat to humanity is captured in the science fiction in society, and the genre allows authors to offer a word of caution through a work of fiction. The words of the authors share basis in fact just as their writing, and the situations they describe might one day come true just like their science that for the time being is fiction. As the genre of science fiction moves forward, it continues to have a lasting effect on American culture.

As it became part of American popular culture, science fiction developed into a lasting medium for political and social expression. Science fiction began long before it bared the name of the modern genre, but the power of the early science fiction writing is still felt today. Mary Shelly's Frankenstein was a landmark of its time and is still regarded as such in modern times. It not only brought together three previously separate genres, but made political and social comments with scientific backing. H. G. Wells crafted a story where he discussed ethics, and commented on the state of the science of his time. He succeeded in creating a reality in which Mars invaded Earth, and, however farfetched his stories were, Wells made his readers believe it was possible. This demonstrates the power that science fiction has in American society, showing that people can believe that which goes against the norm and how people allow themselves to be taken into a different realm. That is the strength of science fiction; when the facts of the story are truly grounded in science, as they are in genuine science fiction, the story can become reality. In the pulp magazines of the 1920s and 1930s, writers were given a place to voice their opinions through their writing. These same writers went on to write novels that brought up political and social discussion. Their commentary on the world and its state is still true today, and modern industries have embraced the stories of the past and created new works in different medias. The further science and technology progress, the more venues are opened for those who ask "what if?" to bring their visions to life. Science fiction can be seen everywhere today, and remains a thought-provoking and influential part of American popular culture.