Over the past couple of years there has been something of a renaissance in Fan History projects. Two upstarts have chosen to mine the past in order to bring early science fiction fan history into the forefront of our consciousness, in full, living color.
(I should also mention FANAC’s efforts in both archiving fanzines and for their on-going video series, which you’ll find here.)
We have previously reviewed and presented these efforts – the Futures Past A Visual History of Science Fiction from Jim Emerson, a year-by-year chronicle beginning in 1926 (when else?) and so far extending to 1928, and David & Daniel Ritter’s (now with Sam McDonald, John Coker III and Rob Hansen) First Fandom Experience series that began with The Visual History of Science Fiction Fandom Volume One: The 1930s, which has produced several other volumes and which now brings us coverage of a major chapter in both fan and SF literary history – The Ultimate Cosmos.
Full disclosure: I was provided an electronic edition of this latest volume by the publishers and am looking forward to receiving the bound volume in the future. And I mean really looking forward to it. If previous volumes are any indication, I will be receiving a hefty, well-printed, extremely colorful, wonderfully laid out and near priceless, not to mention weighty and yet difficult to put down volume (lovingly packaged) to add to one of the “over-sized” shelves of my collection. It’s arrival will nevertheless cause me no small amount of discomfort, as the shelf it will occupy needs more space for it and that will necessitate shifting the contents of something like 15 other shelves.
They’ve told us for a while that being a fan is a “sad and lonely thing”. They should have added “and laborious too!”.
I’ve got a fairly extensive collection of histories related to science fiction – Moskowitz, Warner, Knight, Wollheim, Pohl, Merrill, Hansen(!) and more; and I am always happy to be able to add more such, especially when they are also visually entertaining.
Which we’ll get to in a second, after the obligatory (hey, this book does it too) explanation of the primary subject, the “shared universe” serialized story Cosmos.
(Some might see the following brief history as spoiler. After all, its the deeply covered history of that story, accompanied by every single one of the 17 chapters – plus one – of that very story.)
[begin possible spoiler: “Cosmos is a serial novel consisting of seventeen chapters written by seventeen authors. The novel appeared in issues of the science fiction fan publication Science Fiction Digest (later Fantasy Magazine) published from July, 1933 through January, 1935.
Cosmos has been described variously as “the world’s most fabulous serial,” “one of the unique stunts of early science fiction,” and “a failure, miserable and near-complete.” Wikipedia]
I could easily have excised that last bit about near-complete miserable failures, but I chose not to in order to give me the opportunity to point out that this volume does not shy away from the negative aspects of its subject. It goes the extra mile of fully acknowledging and addressing them and putting them well into their appropriate context, that of the genre and its fan community of the time.
This multi-author serial story project has come down to us over the years and now expresses itself through “shared universe” collections and themed anthologies (Medea – Ellison; Thieves World – Asprin; Man-Kzin Wars – Niven & Pournelle; Old Venus – Martin & Dozois), but it was originally a “stunt” to get some of the field’s biggest names all under one roof and focused on a Fanzine with semi-professional ambitions.
Like most things SFnal, you can’t really separate the pros from the fans, at least not in terms of the influence they’ve had on the genre and The Ultimate Cosmos makes this pretty clear; the biographies of the individuals involved (each chapter of the story is accompanied by a biography of the author. Additional essays delve into the histories of the fans, their clubs and their fan publications, as well as the history of interactions between them. Given the individuals involved, it also demonstrates that this was a “stunt” by “amateurs” who would go on to heavily influence the field in their future professional capacities.
Additional materials expand our understanding of SF’s history with original correspondence, pages from fanzines and letters from the prozines, as well as illuminating some little known corners, such as the largely unsung artist who contributed the numerous illustrations – Clay Ferguson Jr. – and who’s work is deserving of further note, and of the contributions of Conrad H. Rupert, whose printing press helped elevate fan publications.
This illustrated history volume weaves together so many different elements – the histories of 17 storied authors from the golden age of the genre; the story of a handful of influential fans (who would go on the heavily influence the field in professional capacities); the business of fanzine publishing and history of two 0f the most influential fanzines, incidentally exploring the motivations of those early fans; the development of science fiction art; the changing nature of the field itself (Cosmos was shopped to and rejected by numerous professional magazines at the time) and a story contest to boot.
Gernsback was famous for using writing contests (and art contests) as a promotional vehicle (covered in our own Cents of Wonder: Science Fiction’s First Award Winners anthology) and the fine folks behind The Ultimate Cosmos endeavored to do the same, by offering a prize to the best alternate final chapter of the serial. The contest was won by Sara Light-Waller, who writes pulp fiction and shares her interest with The Rocketeer podcast. This contest-winning bonus chapter is included in the book, offering the reader the same insiders level of participation as those early fans, who can now judge it for themselves.
The book concludes with in-depth appendices, often featuring images of original correspondence and a nifty presentation of the Ferguson illustrated author’s copies of Cosmos.
This volume of the First Fandom Experience represents a maturation of their process and presentation – you’ve not seen SF History presented in this manner before – and is far more than science fiction’s version of a coffee table book. I highly recommend it as both entertainment and education, if not revelation.
The Ultimate COSMOS will be launched at the Windy City Pulp and Paper Convention, April 4 – 6 2025 in Chicago. Thereafter the book will be available for purchase on this site and via print-on-demand.
