Scientifiction 50
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SCIENTIFICTION New Series #50 SCIENTIFICTION A publication of FIRST FANDOM New Series #50, 4th Quarter 2016 IN MEMORIAM P. 1: Announcements P. 2: President’s Message P. 3: In Memoriam: Norman F. Stanley P. 5: In Memoriam: Paul A. Carter P. 6: Other Obituaries P. 8: Spotlight on William L. Hamling P. 10: STF-Related News Headlines P. 11: FF Magazine Annual – A Review P. 12: Major Donation to the FF Archive P. 13: Letters from Our Readers P. 16: Birthdays, FF Masthead (Photograph: The Courier Gazette and Camden Herald) NORMAN F. STANLEY FIRST FANDOM AWARDS FOR 2017 (1916 - 2016) We are now accepting nominations for: A science hobbyist and SF fan from the * First Fandom Hall of Fame Award Gernsback Days, Norm was a member * Posthumous Hall of Fame Award of the Stranger Club who also attended * Sam Moskowitz Archive Award a number of the early SF conventions. Nominations should be sent prior to IN MEMORIAM March 15th to [email protected] or sent to John Coker at 4813 Lighthouse Road, Orlando, FL - 32808. Thank you! IN MEMORIUM We will remember Arthur Jean Cox, John Glenn, Louis I. Kuslan, Barry R. Levin, Bill Warren and John Zacherle. NEWSLETTER CONTRIBUTORS (ConJose, 2002 - Photograph provided by Bruce Carter) Arizona Daily Star, Bruce Carter, John Clute, Courier Gazette/Camden Herald, PAUL A. CARTER Mike Glyer, Charles Harris, Ben Jason, (1920 - 2016) William Lampkin, David Langford, Sam Maronie, Craig Mathieson, Christopher A retired professor of American History M. O’Brien, George Phillies, Steven H. and a WWII veteran, Paul wrote fiction Silver, Keith W. Stokes, Jon D. Swartz. for Astounding, published SF novels and authored a critical study about the pulps. Deadline for the next issue: March 15th. SCIENTIFICTION New Series #50, page 2 PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE FIRST FANDOM AWARDS FOR 2017 Welcome to the 50th issue in our New I hope that all active members of this Series of the First Fandom Newsletter! organization will participate in the First Fandom awards process this year by We reached this major milestone with sending in their nominations by March the help of those who shared items for 15th. A form has been included with publication. We also recognize the tire- this mailing for everyone’s convenience. less editorial contributions of members Joseph P. Martino and Jon D. Swartz. SECRETARY/TREASURER’S REPORT Members are invited to send reviews, convention reports, news items, photos, New Addresses and letters of comment for future issues. Susan Reitz 6196 Serenity Bluffs Street IN MEMORIUM Las Vegas, NV – 89149 Last month I received a call from Craig Jeff Warner Mathieson, son of Norman F. Stanley 576 South Willard Street (a Full Member). Craig reported that his Burlington, VT – 05401 father had passed away at the age of Contact Information Needed 100. Norman had been re-reading Arthur C. Clarke’s classics and enjoying * Robert O. Adair (Indianapolis, IN) the quarterly First Fandom Newsletters. * Sandra Sundstrom (Beech Grove, IN) We also recently heard from Bruce Membership Dues Carter, who said that his father Paul A. The following members have responded Carter had passed away at the age of to our request for annual dues, bringing 90. Bruce is inviting everyone who the account balance to just under $600: knew Paul A. Carter in his "science fiction life" to provide their comments at David I. Aronovitz, Ben Bova, Paul A. https://campamnesia.wordpress.com/ Carter, Jack Cordes, Todd Dashoff, Ralph W. Goldsmith, James Gunn, Gay At Philcon this year they held a cele- and Joe Haldeman, Barbara Harmon, bration of the life of David A. Kyle (who Tom Meserole, Catherine Mintz, Frank would have turned 98 years old on Johnson, George W. Price, Susan Reitz, Valentine’s Day). Among those in Robert Silverberg, Jon D. Swartz, Jeff attendance: Bob Madle and Kerry Kyle. Warner, David B. Williams, Joel D. Last month LASFS commemorated the Zakem. We thank you for your support. 100th anniversary of the arrival from Mars of Forrest J Ackerman. I pre- Some members have not sent their pared material for both of these events. annual dues of $20. Send checks (payable to Keith W. Stokes) to 14305 W. 83rd Place, Lenexa, KS – 66215. FIRST FANDOM MAGAZINE (ANNUAL) If you’d like to order the First Fandom I hope everyone is enjoying the New Magazine (Annual, 2016), a few copies Year. Please be safe and stay in touch, are still available. Please send a check - John L. Coker III for $30.00 (payable to John L. Coker III). SCIENTIFICTION New Series #50, page 3 IN MEMORIAM: NORMAN F. STANLEY (BY JON D. SWARTZ AND JOHN L. COKER III) Born in May 1916, Norm Stanley was a science fiction (SF) fan from Maine who was very active in fandom in the 1940s. He was a member of the famous Stranger Club, and was one of the club members who attended Noreascon 3 as a Fan Guest of Honor. Norman reading (circa. 1970s) Norm was still active in fan matters in the late 1940s, and attended the 1948 Torcon where he participated in a roundtable discussion on the probable date of the arrival of interplanetary travel. Noreascon 3 (Artwork by Bob Eggleton) Norm was also tangentially involved in the Skowhegan Junior Astronomical and Rocket Society, the kind of fan club that combined both science and SF activities and was common in this country in the 1930s and 1940s. He was generous with his fellow club members, and let them borrow from his seventy bound- TORCON REPORT (1948) volumes of SF prozines. Norm’s major fanzine was Fan-Tods, He attended early conventions such as which ran for nineteen issues. He also Philcon, as well as some of the early published Beyond with Roscoe E. Boskones. He also participated in Wright. Fan-Tods is a SF fanzine that Mainecon Jr, a “conference” in the was subtitled “The Magazine for the Tod language of the times, in 1943, with his Fan.” It appeared in the 1940s-1950s, friend Jim Avery and the visiting Claude and was edited and published by Norm Degler. He gave Degler some fanzines, from his home in Rockland, Maine. This and got along well with him. This fanzine was mimeographed using blue generosity of his, plus the “conference” ink. Issue #1 appeared in December, they had had with Avery, apparently 1942; with #2 appearing in Spring, 1943; qualified him to be a member of Degler’s #7 in Summer, 1944; and then following legendary Cosmic Circle. a regular quarterly schedule until issue SCIENTIFICTION New Series #50, page 4 #18 in 1949 — after which there was a In addition to his fanzine work, Norm three-year break; and then Issue #19 wrote for the SF prozines, including was published in the Fall of 1952, and several letters to Astounding Science was the last issue. Fiction. Three of his letters were published in 1938, two in 1939, and one in 1940. In addition, he had an essay (“The Theory of Thing Things”) published in the 1948 Torcon Report. Norm was a member of the British Interplanetary Society, as well as the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. He realized his dream of becoming a scientist by working as a chemist in a research laboratory. Norm was one of the original members of First Fandom; and he was elected to Issue 13 (Winter 1946) the First Fandom Hall of Fame in 2013. Fan-Tods was an apazine, distributed Norman F. Stanley passed away on through FAPA (Fantasy Amateur Press October 22, 2016, at the Sussman Association), and then VAPA (Vanguard House, Rockport, Maine, with his family Amateur Press Association). Cover in attendance. He was 100 years of illustrations were by Wright, among age. He is survived by his wife of 53 others. By issue #7, Wright had years, Eleanor, their two children, a become a co-editor. SF historian Harry granddaughter, and four children of a Warner once described Norm as “a nephew. power force in FAPA.” Jack Speer’s 1944 poll of the top SF fans found Fan-Tods to be among the nation’s top five fanzines. On the other hand, in 1947 – in his fanzine Matters of Opinion – Speer wrote an article, “The People vs. Norman F. Stanley,” that was critical of the 16th issue of Fan-Tods. In the 1940s, Norm was very much a member of the “sense of wonder” camp of SF. According to Warner’s All Our Yesterdays, when Norm’s mother told him about atomic bombs and Hiroshima Eleanor and Norman Stanley he remembered thinking: “I confess my Here is a link to the obituary notice that first reaction was one of elation, which appeared on October 26, 2016 in The even the obvious misgivings couldn’t Courier Gazette / The Camden Herald: quench. ‘Geez, we might blow up the whole planet,’ I thought, ‘but it’s still http://knox.villagesoup.com/p/norman- wonderful.’ ” stanley/1588807 SCIENTIFICTION New Series #50, page 5 IN MEMORIAM: William Lampkin posted the following for The Pulp.Net on December 5, 2017: PAUL A. CARTER “Science-fiction author Paul A. Carter On December 4, the following notice died November 28, in Kingman, AZ. He was published in the Arizona Daily Star: was 90. Carter’s earliest work of fiction, “The Last Objective,” appeared in the “CARTER, Dr. Paul A. 90, of Tucson, August 1946 number of Astounding Arizona, passed away Monday, though he had numerous letters pub- November 28, at Desert Highlands in lished in a number of sf pulps prior to Kingman, Arizona, after a long illness. that. “The Last Objective” was adapted Dr. Carter was a retired professor of in 1951 for NBC radio’s Dimension X American History at the University of anthology series.