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Memoirs of a Superfluous Fan, 1944

Page 5

Any person who grows up to attain a reasonable position of achievement in the science fiction fan world through the constant and prolonged association with other science-fiction fans in the same area must necessarily have a more personal outlook on the subject then the fan who has at best been only in sporadic contact with the specie. It was my own particular experience to have literally and actually "grown up" in the environment furnished by the Los Angeles Chapter of the Science Fiction League and subsequently the Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society.

From the last Thursday in January, 1937, until November 14, 1943, I was in constant association with the ever-changing membership of the club. This period of my life covers high-school, a year of work, then a year of college, and lastly a year or more in the so-called business world." Unlike many unfortunate cases in this field wherein the individual comes out of the world and gradually draws more and more into the vail of fantasy fiction and its hobby activities, I am fortunate in having had the rather unique experience of growing out of that world into the dull, presumably plebian planet of ordinary people.

My acquaintance with the field of literature was firtly the usual juvenile books, followed by a comprehensive reading of Wells and Verne when I was about 12 years of age. I somehow skipped Burroughs, and have never gone back to read him. It was in 1935 that I first came across a scientifiction pulp magazine, the April issue of ASTOUNDING STORIES. The cover for Proxima Centauri by Murray Leinster. As I was at the time an avid Buck Rogers follower, I immediatly recognised a spaceship control room for what it was. I purchased this issue with a thrill of discovouring a long-lost frined. The natural course of evolution set in, and I was shortly purchasing second-hand WONDER STORIES and I quickly came across letters by Forrest J Ackerman. Meanwhile, my own first letter appeared in the May 1936 ASTOUNDING, right next to the first published letter of Leslie A. Crouch.

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Any person who grows up to attain a reasonable position of achievement in the science fiction fan world through the constant and prolonged association with other science-fiction fans in the same area must necessarily have a more personal outlook on the subject then the fan who has at best been only in sporadic contact with the specie. It was my own particular experience to have literally and actually "grown up" in the environment furnished by the Los Angeles Chapter of the Science Fiction League and subsequently the Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society. From the last Thursday in January, 1937, until November 14, 1943, I was in constant association with the ever-changing membership of the club. This period of my life covers high-school, a year of work, then a year of college, and lastly a year or more in the so-called business world." Unlike many unfortunate cases in this field wherein the individual comes out of the world and gradually draws more and more into the vail of fantasy fiction and its hobby activities, I am fortunate in having had the rather unique experience of growing out of that world into the dull, presumably plebian planet of ordinary people. My acquaintance with the field of literature was firtly the usual juvenile books, followed by a comprehensive reading of Wells and Verne when I was about 12 years of age. I somehow skipped Burroughs, and have never gone back to read him. It was in 1935 that I first came across a scientifiction pulp magazine, the April issue of ASTOUNDING STORIES. The cover for Proxima Centauri by Murray Leinster. As I was at the time an avid Buck Rogers follower, I immediatly recognised a spaceship control room for what it was. I purchased this issue with a thrill of discovouring a long-lost frined. The natural course of evolution set in, and I was shortly purchasing second-hand WONDER STORIES and I quickly came across letters by Forrest J Ackerman. Meanwhile, my own first letter appeared in the May 1936 ASTOUNDING, right next to the first published letter of Leslie A. Crouch.