SCIENTIFICTION New Series #44 SCIENTIFICTION A publication of FIRST FANDOM, the Dinosaurs of Science Fiction New Series #44, 2nd Quarter 2015 IN THIS ISSUE ORIGINAL MEMBER SPOTLIGHT P. 1: First Fandom Awards, 2015 In this issue, we look at Robert A. P. 2: Remembering Art Widner Madle and his life-long STF career. P. 4: Birthdays and Necrology P. 7: Bob Peterson’s STF Donation NECROLOGY P. 8: Scientifiction News Flash We sadly acknowledge the passing P. 9: Windy City Convention Report of Patrick Atkins, Stan Freberg, Irwin P. 10: Original Member Spotlight Hasen, Sir Christopher Lee, Tanith P. 12: Member Contact Information Lee, Ib Melchior, Chuck Miller, P. 12: First Fan News, Book Watch Leonard Nimoy, Sir Terry Pratchett, P. 13: Member Correspondence File Peggy Rae Sapienza, Bernice P. 14: In Memorium: Christopher Lee Steadman, Herb Trimp, Grace Lee Whitney and Arthur L. Widner, Jr. FIRST FANDOM AWARDS FOR 2015 Thanks to everyone who nominated BIRTHDAYS and voted for award candidates this The list of July-September birthdays year. The results will be announced in this issue is based on information at the beginning of the Hugo Awards originally compiled by Andy Porter. Ceremony at the Spokane Worldcon! For several decades, First Fandom’s CORRECTION awards have often been presented We regret misidentifying the name of at various regional conventions. Due one of the nominees on the recent to the efforts of several First Fandom ballot for the First Fandom Awards. members (including Steve Francis), It should have been listed as “Julian our annual awards have returned to May” (and not as Julian May Dikty). their traditional home: the Worldcon. CLOSING MEMBERSHIP DUES HAVE INCREASED We are interested in contributions In order to meet the increasing costs from our members for future issues of operating our organization, the of the newsletter. Please send your annual membership dues have news items, convention reports, increased to $15 starting July 2015. book, TV and movie reviews, and Please send your check (payable to correspondence for the next issue, Keith Stokes) as soon as possible to which will be distributed in late- 14305 W. 83rd Place, Lenexa, KS - September. Have a great summer! 66215. Thank you for your support. John L. Coker III SCIENTIFICTION New Series #44, page 2 IN MEMORIUM: ARTHUR L. WIDNER, JR. beginning of the N3F -- in the By Jon D. Swartz, Special Features Editor October, 1940 issue. He published over 160 fanzines, the longest Art Widner, an original member of running of which was YHOS (1940- First Fandom and one of the 1945 and 1979-2001). founders of the National Fantasy Fan Widner briefly ran Bodacious Federation (N3F), was born Publications and published Poll Cat. September 16, 1917. He was a He investigated the Pseuicid, and science fiction (SF) fan most of his was a member of the Fantasy life, credited with organizing the first Amateur Press Association’s Brain fan club in Boston, The Stranger Trust. He was also on the Board of Club, in 1940. One of the pioneers Directors of the Fantasy Foundation, of Boston fandom, he chaired as appointed by Forrest J Ackerman. Boskone I (1941) and Boskone II (1942), the first two Boston SF cons. His fandom awards were many. He He was also one of only five people was honored with the Big Heart who attended Boskone IV. Award in 1989, was the 1991 DUFF delegate (Australia, New Zealand) and, in 2001, was selected as Past President of the Fan Writers of America (2000). He was Fan Guest of Honor at Noreascon 3. Art was nominated for 1946 Best Fan Writer Retro Hugo at L.A.con III in 1996. Widner received a Special Lifetime Achievement Award at Corflu in 2011. Also in 2011, he was honored Art Widner (Chicago, 1940) with the FAAn Lifetime Achievement Second World Science Fiction Convention (Background: Olin F. Wiggins, Lew Martin) Award. Notably, ArtCon and ArtCon (Photograph provided by Robert A. Madle) Millennium Edition were both held in In the early days of SF fandom, he his honor. edited and published the clubzine Art was a long-time member of FanFare, put on the first proto- FAPA, and in 2014 was made its first Boskones, and invented the first SF Life Member. On August 19, 2011, board Game, Interplanetary. While while at Renovation, he claimed to the game was never published be the World's Oldest Living Fan. commercially, handmade versions Among his other GoHships: 1983, were played at Boskone III and many Norwescon VI; 1990, Westercon 43, other conventions. Minicon 25; 1999, Corflu 16; 2007, As a member of the N3F, he edited Ditto 19. the club fanzine Bonfire in 1941 and He attended the first Worldcon in again in 1944, and was club New York in 1939, and the next four, president in 1947. His FanFare had in Chicago (1940), Denver (1941), published Damon Knight's “Unite or Los Angeles (1946) and Philcon Fie!” -- the article that was the (1947). At these conventions he SCIENTIFICTION New Series #44, page 3 participated in the masquerade referenced in Sam Moskowitz's competitions, in 1941 as “Old earlier The Immortal Storm, he Granny” from Slan. Now that Art has doesn’t have a single listing in the passed away, only four people index of Warner's history of fandom remain alive who attended the first in the 1950s, A Wealth of Fable. In Worldcon: Bob Madle, Dave Kyle, fact, Widner didn't reappear in Erle Korshak and Jack Robins. fandom until the late 1970s. Widner drove to the Chicago In 1979 he resurrected his former Worldcon in a 1928 Dodge, the perzine, YHOS, as a genzine. “Skylark of WooWoo.” He made a YHOS was one of the longest cross-country trek to Denvention I – running fanzines ever published. the Widneride -- in the FooFoo First published in 1940, Widner is Special, a car without a trunk. well known for ceasing publication of YHOS for more than thirty years before becoming an important part of fanzine fandom again in the 1980s and 1990s. He also contributed the chapter, “Wartime Fandom,” to Joe Sanders' informative book, Science Fiction Fandom (1994). Widner's literary output, on the other hand, was limited to a single prozine sale, “The Perfect Incinerator” (under the pen name of Arthur Lambert) that appeared in the Winter, 1942, issue Skylark of WooWoo of Robert Lowndes’ Science Fiction L-R: Dale Tarr, Art Widner, Gertrude Kuslan, Ross Quarterly. Widner had several LoCs Rocklynne. Second World SF Con (Chicago, 1940) (Photograph by Charles D. Hornig) published in the prozines, including ones in Amazing, Weird Tales, and Widner married during World War II, Unknown. then was drafted into the service. However, because he “volunteered” In Warner's All Our Yesterdays to be a technician / guinea pig at the (1969), Widner's many activities in newly formed Climatic Research Lab fandom are described, including a in Lawrence, Massachusetts, he still poll he took in the mid-1940s that got to go home for visits nearly every produced many esoteric facts about weekend. His fanac slowed while he the average SF fan: his hat size, his was in the military and later ground principal blood group, and the to a halt when he moved his family to discovery that his grandparents were Los Angeles in 1948. It was at that significantly older than many of the time that he gafiated completely. grandparents of mundanes. Signifying his disappearance from Art Widner, who often signed his fandom, although he is constantly correspondence as R. Twidner, died mentioned (with his photo included) April 17, 2015. At the time of his in Harry Warner’s 1940s history of death he was serving First Fandom fandom, All Our Yesterdays, and is as our West Coast Vice President. SCIENTIFICTION New Series #44, page 4 BIRTHDAYS NECROLOGY July Patrick H. Atkins (b.1948) 1 – Otis Adelbert Kline 2 – Hugh Rankin, Hannes Bok “Author Patrick H. Adkins died on 3 – E. Hoffman Price, William Rotsler April 7. In 1974, Adkins, a lifelong 5 – Howard V. Brown fan of Burroughs, published Edgar 6 – William C. Martin, Rick Sneary Rice Burroughs Bibliography and 7 – Robert A. Heinlein Price Guide. His first novel, Lord of 8 – Hans Steffan Santesson the Crooked Paths, appeared in 9 – Murphy Anderson 1987. In 2001, he published the 10 – Julian May collection Forgotten Tales of Love 11 – Hugh B. Cave, Roy Krenkel and Murder of uncollected Burroughs 12 – James Gunn, Joseph Mugnaini 16 – Paul Freehafer, Robert Sheckley stories through the Tarzana Project, 23 – Virgil Finlay, Cyril Kornbluth which he founded with John H. 24 – Lord Dunsany, Lee Brown Coye Guidry. He also served as editor of 30 – C.C. Senf the New Orleans SF Association fanzine, NOLAZine.” August (Reprinted from SF Site News – April 9, 2015) 1 – Raymond A. Palmer, Edd Cartier 3 – Clifford D. Simak Stan Freberg (b.1926) 9 – Jack Speer, Frank M. Robinson 10 – Curt Siodmak, Ward Moore “Revered satirist and actor Stan 11 – Jack Binder, Ben P. Indick Freberg died April 7 at the age of 88. 15 – Bjo Trimble, Darrell K. Sweet His body of work included more than 16 – Hugo Gernsback, Earle Bergey 400 voiceovers for Warner Bros. 18 – Brian W. Aldiss animation, comedy albums, shows 19 – H.W. Wesso, Gene Roddenberry like Time for Beany and The Chun 20 – H.P. Lovecraft King Comedy Hour, and funny 21 – Anthony Boucher commercials for which he won 21 22 – Ray Bradbury 26 – Otto Binder Clio Awards. He was inducted into 27 – Frank Kelly Freas National Radio Hall of Fame (1995). 28 – Jack Vance In the Sixties, Freberg put his friend 29 – Robert Weinberg Ray Bradbury in one of his Sunsweet 30 – Mary Wollstonecraft Shelly Prunes commercials.