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Fantasy Commentator, v. 1, issue 11, Summer 1946

Page 299

FANTASY COMMENTATOR     299

scope. Bloomer resided in San Francisco, and when Claire Beck moved there to live with his brother Clyde (who was attending college) the two quickly became friends. Bloomer's first appearance in the fan press was a previously mentioned article in The Science Fiction Critic.
     There is little available information on Bloomer the man, but he was a chemist by occupation and would appear from the mature cast of his writings to have been older than the average fan of the time. Through association with Beck he was encouraged to strike out on his own; the result was a national organization called The Science Fiction Advancement Association. It was introduced to the fan world through several advertisements in Beck's Critic.
     No information as to the aims and ideals of the club are anywhere to be found in its official publication. Apparently its very title was supposed to be self-explanatory. Joining the organization was not even strongly urged. Bloomer merely asked its members to buy their science-fiction magazines from local newstands rather than purchasing them second-hand, and decried also the practice of clubs buying single copies that were subsequently passed among the memberships. The SFAA offered virtually no advantages to members in exchange for dues of fifty cents, for even the association's official organ cost them extra. Democratic processes were non-existent, for the club had no constitution, merely being carried on under the leadership of Bloomer, who headed a board of directors composed Lee Hertzberg, Claire Beck, Kathryn Kolly and Byron H. Geer.
     The SFAA's official organ was called Tesseract, and was the first fan publication to be reproduced by multigraph. Its first (March, 1936) number harbored little material of general interest, the bulk of the issue being taken up with a short story of no outstanding virtue, William Mitchell's "Stone Face on Venus," which significantly contained many fragmentary bits of scientific information, such as formulas pertaining to rockets and the like. Material of the latter type, while it never predominated, nevertheless persisted present during the magazine's entire life. Obviously a portion of the SFAA's membership waa composed of science-hobbyists, and bloomer thus made mild but continuous attempts to capture their support.
     As issue after issue of Tesseract appeared, it became obvious that the Science Fiction Advancement Association was to be a success, and its membership list grew rapidly. Apparently there was a widespread desire at the time for a national fan organization, and fans were willing to support any attempt of such a kind. Also it should be strongly emphasized that up until then lack of democracy in a club was never regarded as an unanswerable argument against it. From the very beginning fan organizations had been run by "strong men," and provided that their aim had been the common good of the multitude such procedure was never questioned. Some even went so far as to claim that because of the cameradie among fans and their alleged above-average intelligence and their willingness to work selflessly toward a common goal, no confining rules were needed. Thus we can see that fandom as a whole had an accepted code of behavior, an ethical pattern which was generally acknowledged and conformed to, and which had the same authorty as an unwritten law of society. It was felt that fans made up a fraternity rather than a congress, that those who were willing to do the work should receive the titles and the credit. In short, anyone who produced would be almost automatically recognized as the leader. Few if any men attained leadership on a promise to achieve---top positions were gained on the strength of past progress with little electioneering and campaigning present to confuse the issue. This code persisted until shortly before the first World Science Fiction Convention of 1939, when the maligning and invective of bitter feuds caused fans to look upon one another with suspicion that demanded stringent regulations in their official organizational affairs.
(to be continued)

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FANTASY COMMENTATOR 299 scope. Bloomer resided in San Francisco, and when Claire Beck moved there to live with his brother Clyde (who was attending college) the two quickly became friends. Bloomer's first appearance in the fan press was a previously mentioned article in The Science Fiction Critic. There is little available information on Bloomer the man, but he was a chemist by occupation and would appear from the mature cast of his writings to have been older than the average fan of the time. Through association with Beck he was encouraged to strike out on his own; the result was a national organization called The Science Fiction Advancement Association. It was introduced to the fan world through several advertisements in Beck's Critic. No information as to the aims and ideals of the club are anywhere to be found in its official publication. Apparently its very title was supposed to be self-explanatory. Joining the organization was not even strongly urged. Bloomer merely asked its members to buy their science-fiction magazines from local newstands rather than purchasing them second-hand, and decried also the practice of clubs buying single copies that were subsequently passed among the memberships. The SFAA offered virtually no advantages to members in exchange for dues of fifty cents, for even the association's official organ cost them extra. Democratic processes were non-existent, for the club had no constitution, merely being carried on under the leadership of Bloomer, who headed a board of directors composed Lee Hertzberg, Claire Beck, Kathryn Kolly and Byron H. Geer. The SFAA's official organ was called Tesseract, and was the first fan publication to be reproduced by multigraph. Its first (March, 1936) number harbored little material of general interest, the bulk of the issue being taken up with a short story of no outstanding virtue, William Mitchell's "Stone Face on Venus," which significantly contained many fragmentary bits of scientific information, such as formulas pertaining to rockets and the like. Material of the latter type, while it never predominated, nevertheless persisted present during the magazine's entire life. Obviously a portion of the SFAA's membership waa composed of science-hobbyists, and bloomer thus made mild but continuous attempts to capture their support. As issue after issue of Tesseract appeared, it became obvious that the Science Fiction Advancement Association was to be a success, and its membership list grew rapidly. Apparently there was a widespread desire at the time for a national fan organization, and fans were willing to support any attempt of such a kind. Also it should be strongly emphasized that up until then lack of democracy in a club was never regarded as an unanswerable argument against it. From the very beginning fan organizations had been run by "strong men," and provided that their aim had been the common good of the multitude such procedure was never questioned. Some even went so far as to claim that because of the cameradie among fans and their alleged above-average intelligence and their willingness to work selflessly toward a common goal, no confining rules were needed. Thus we can see that fandom as a whole had an accepted code of behavior, an ethical pattern which was generally acknowledged and conformed to, and which had the same authorty as an unwritten law of society. It was felt that fans made up a fraternity rather than a congress, that those who were willing to do the work should receive the titles and the credit. In short, anyone who produced would be almost automatically recognized as the leader. Few if any men attained leadership on a promise to achieve---top positions were gained on the strength of past progress with little electioneering and campaigning present to confuse the issue. This code persisted until shortly before the first World Science Fiction Convention of 1939, when the maligning and invective of bitter feuds caused fans to look upon one another with suspicion that demanded stringent regulations in their official organizational affairs. (to be continued)