The most influential impact narrative of the interwar years was When Worlds Collide by Edwin Balmer and Philip Wylie, serialised in 1932 and published in book form the following year. Balmer, the editor of Redbook magazine, had a talent for thrilling plots but no ability to execute them. He found the perfect collaborator in Wylie, an ambitious writer and keen amateur scientist. While working in Hollywood in the early 1930s, Wylie befriended atomic physicists at the California Institute of Technology, whom he later consulted on aspects of When Worlds Collide.