Desperate for money, he searched for a quick source of income. While most pulps of the time were slow to pay, the recently restarted "Astounding" was an exception. However, they did not accept novels, so Williamson submitted three short stories and a novelette. Learning that they were also accepting novels for serialization, he sent in "The Legion of Space", which was published as an anthology in six parts. It quickly became a genre favorite, and was quickly collected into a hardcover.