Histories of Science Fiction Fandom

[genebrecht]

Herewith, a thread for the listing, and discussion, of histories of fans, fanzines, fan conventions, etc. devoted to sf (and fantasy). This will be a good place to list books and other sources that tell about the development of sf fandom (starting around 1930), and to comment on such books and other sources. Biographies that give significant attention to fandom may be included, such as Clarke's, even if they are not primarily histories of fandom.

Since I'm starting the thread, I get to pick the low-hanging fruit...

Moskowitz, S. The Immortal Storm. Reputedly bombastic chronicle of early fandom. I hope to read this and comment on it soon.

Warner, H. All Our Yesterdays. A sequel to The Immortal Storm.

Knight, D. The Futurians.

Pohl, F. The Way the Future Was.

Clarke, A. C. Astounding Days.

Perhaps this book belongs, on the famous fan who edited Famous Monsters of Finland:

 

[Extollager]

Welcome to Chrons!

Here's a related thread:

Veteran Readers: From SF and Fantasy to History and Biography

There's also this:

Vintage Tolkien Fanzines

Now, with regard to your suggestion -- a good one -- to compile a bibliography, we could add:

Books:

Fancyclopedia II

H. Warner's A Wealth of Fable (3 vols.)

Lloyd Arthur Eshbach's Over My Shoulder

Rob Hansen's Then: SF Fandom in the UK 1930-1980

Other:

Gary Hunnewell's (Hildifons Took's) Tolkien Fandom Review:
http://efanzines.com/TFR/TolkienFandom2ndEd.pdf

Fancyclopedia III is an online wiki-type source
Fancyclopedia 3 - Fancyclopedia 3

Mimosa (fan-historical fanzine)
Mimosa Web Site main page

Fanhistorical Archive
FanHistorical Archive Collection

--Dale Nelson (fan since 1969)

 

[Extollager]

Perhaps this book belongs, on the famous fan who edited Famous Monsters of Finland:

Did you mean to list something on Forrest J. Ackerman, of Famous Monsters of Filmland? But I like ....of Finland.

 

[BAYLOR]

Herewith, a thread for the listing, and discussion, of histories of fans, fanzines, fan conventions, etc. devoted to sf (and fantasy). This will be a good place to list books and other sources that tell about the development of sf fandom (starting around 1930), and to comment on such books and other sources. Biographies that give significant attention to fandom may be included, such as Clarke's, even if they are not primarily histories of fandom.

Since I'm starting the thread, I get to pick the low-hanging fruit...

Moskowitz, S. The Immortal Storm. Reputedly bombastic chronicle of early fandom. I hope to read this and comment on it soon.

Warner, H. All Our Yesterdays. A sequel to The Immortal Storm.

Knight, D. The Futurians.

Pohl, F. The Way the Future Was.

Clarke, A. C. Astounding Days.

Perhaps this book belongs, on the famous fan who edited Famous Monsters of Finland:

You might also want to Look up Breakfast in the Ruins by Barry N Malzberg

 

[hitmouse]

Breakfast in the Ruins is better known as a Michael Moorcock novel. Requires a bit of digging to get to the Malzberg of the same title.

 

[BAYLOR]

Breakfast in the Ruins is better known as a Michael Moorcock novel. Requires a bit of digging to get to the Malzberg of the same title.

Barry N Malzberg is one the best writer of all time.

 

[Extollager]

Could someone explain how/if a book called Breakfast in the Ruins is pertinent to this thread? Please, let's keep the focus as indicated by the thread title.

 

[Extollager]

Er, I sounded a bit grouchy there -- too late to amend it.

 

[2DaveWixon]

OK, I'll pretend that I never saw it...

 

[2DaveWixon]

For fanhistory, we just cannot overlook all the fanzines...but lordy, how to catalog them...???

 

[dask]

Oh, those darn fans, too enthusiastic for their own good.

 

[Extollager]

For fanhistory, we just cannot overlook all the fanzines...but lordy, how to catalog them...???

Many were fugitive publications, but you can find a lot, especially of more recent production, here:

eFanzines.com

For
2000s: The Creation of Academic Fanzine Libraries
see here:
Fanzine Library - Fanlore

 

[Extollager]

Another one for the bibliography:

Weston, Peter. With Stars in My Eyes: My Adventures in British Fandom. Framingham, Mass.: NESFA Press, 2004.

 

[Extollager]

Here's some information on some old fanzine reprints:

The Fantasy Fan
(#64/100) by Charles Hornig, Thingmaker 2010, 192/96/55pp, boxed
The Fantasy Fan
was one of the most famous fanzines of the 1930s - long forgotten even by most fans of
my aging generation - I'm 73 and got into fandom in the early 1960s. Charles Hornig started much
younger than I did, and published these 18 issues of his fanzine from 1933 to 1935. They are collected
here in facsimile from the originals. Many of the sf writers and editors later to become famous are
represented here - Bob Tucker, Julius Schwartz, Forry Ackerman, Bob Bloch, Clark Ashton Smith,
August Derleth, Virginia Kidd, Eando Binder, Emil Petaja, Robert E Howard, H. P. Lovecraft....
The guy that made these actually gives his name as Lance Thingmaker.... The book is about 6x9 and over an inch thick, facsimile on mostly tan paper, with a few sheets of salmon and green mixed in. The
pagination is by volume - there were 12 issues in Vol.1 and 6 issues in Vol.2. Then in the back he has
also included a copy of HPL's "Supernatural Horror in Literature". But while the sections of that are in
the ToC, there is no Contents of the 18 issues or an index - however, the magazine is indexed in the
Miller/Contento Index of Science-Fiction, Fantasy, and Weird Magazines. Thingmaker explains how he
got the zines, and why he created the book - but does not include any means of contacting him. However
I see that there was no need - he gets 67 hits on Google and seems to be on several of the social networks.
Or any mention of copyright - but since Hornig never claimed even common-law copyright, it must be all
public domain. The collectors that had the original zines are Karen McDonald and Robert E. Lumpkin. I
have done a page-by-page commentary on the contents.

Source:

http://www.fanac.org/fanzines/IGOTS/IGOTS33.pdf

The author is the late Ned Brooks:

Veteran Fan Ned Brooks

 

[Extollager]

Fredric Wertham, a psychiatrist much criticized for his early opposition to gruesome and sadistic comic books, wrote a book on fanzines that may be added to this thread's bibliography.

The World Of Fanzines - A Special Form Of Communication by Wertham M.D., Fredric: Southern Illinois University Press, Carbondale and Edwardsvillie, IL 9780809306190 Hard Cover, First Edition. - West Portal Books

 

[Extollager]

Here are some fanzine reviews by Ted White:

eFanzines.com - Ted White: Fanzine Reviews

 

[Alan Aspie]

Famous Monsters of Finland:

No.

Our monsters are not famous. Or... not outside our country.

Quite often we call them with rude names like "politician" or... well, that's it.

 

[BAYLOR]

Fredric Wertham, a psychiatrist much criticized for his early opposition to gruesome and sadistic comic books, wrote a book on fanzines that may be added to this thread's bibliography.

The World Of Fanzines - A Special Form Of Communication by Wertham M.D., Fredric: Southern Illinois University Press, Carbondale and Edwardsvillie, IL 9780809306190 Hard Cover, First Edition. - West Portal Books

`I would imagine that few of Comic book artists lost their livelihood as a result. What happened to the comic book industry in the 50's was akin to what happened to the movie industry in the 1930's with the Hayes codes.

 

[Extollager]

Got $195 to spend?

The Visual History of Science Fiction Fandom | First Fandom Experience