 Walter Miller was a prolific writer of science fiction short stories ; by 1955 he had published over 30 stories in such magazines as Astounding Science Fiction , Amazing Stories , and Fantastic Adventures . Significant themes of his stories included loss of scientific knowledge or " socio @-@ technological regression and its presumed antithesis , continued technological advance " , its preservation through oral transmission , the guardianship of archives by priests , and " that side of [ human ] behavior which can only be termed religious . " These thematic elements , combined with the growing subgenre of the " post @-@ disaster " story and Miller 's own World War II experiences , set the stage for the short story that would become the opening section of A Canticle for Leibowitz . 
