When I discovered that science fiction had a “history” (which was about a year or so after I attended the 2nd NY Star Trek Convention) it was at the feet of a legendary science fiction fan – Robert ‘Bob’ Madle.
Although at that time Bob had already moved from Pennsylvania to Maryland (I presume to acquire more shelf space for his pulp magazine collection), he had been not just a founder of Fandom itself, but also one of those who created the Philadelphia Science Fiction Society and so regularly attended Philcons.
Which was very convenient for me as I lived just across the river from Philly and could ride my bicycle to a light rail station that would drop me off right in the center of the city.
Bob took a shine to me, I guess, and I spent a goodly percentage of my first Philcon (1974?) at his booth in the “Huckster’s Room” (That’s what we called the Dealer’s Room in a less enlightened age.)
I soon discovered Fanzines, and Fan Clubs and soon thereafter Fan Histories (of which two great sources are the FANAC website and Rob Hanson’s histories of UK Fandom which can be found on the Ansible website (and don’t forget to read Ansible while you’re there), which led to a reading of Moskowitz’s The Immortal Storm, and then many other Fan Histories, including The Futurians by Damon Knight.
Which immediately intrigued me as Donald Wollheim (who I already loved owing to his anthologies) was a founding member of that Fan Club, and THAT Fan Club was a powerhouse.
Not only did it attract Fans who would go on to be notables (Asimov, Bradbury, Knight, Merrill, Kidd, etc), it turns out that as a group, they contributed mightily to both building the foundations of the field, but also of seeing it through its development during its golden age. Sure, there’s Campbell, but these folks collectively edited some 37 different magazines, as well as becoming editors of science fiction publishing imprints and largely helping to establish paperback and hardback publication of science fiction.
Their interests and involvements were so many and so wide that I needed to visualize it and so put together the preliminary image included below, which is by no means anywhere close to finished, polished or complete. For example, there’s no representation of Judith Merrill, who, among many other things, edited on of the early Best Of the Year anthology series (and in doing so showed everyone else how to do it); no inclusion of Virginia Kidd, who would go on to found one of the most successful literary agencies service the SF field…and on and on (like, Asimov isn’t in there, right? He only wrote just about every book in the English language…or Pohl, who edited just about every book in the English language….)
I think that they actually eclipse Campbell in their impact and influence on the genre, a discussion that ought to be a regular panel at conventions.
I limited myself to just the magazines those folks edited, and earlier important evolutions that led them to that in the illustration, just to get an idea of what it might look like.
Following putting it together, I’ve realized two things: it does help give some perspective and, it’s going to need to be a LOT larger than it already is.
So here it is:
(These are only the professional publications that the Futurians edited, and they’re highlighted because being an editor meant that you were contributing to shaping the genre. Many of these individuals edited fanzines, imprints and anthologies as well.)
For reference’s sake, the members of the Futurians were:
Isaac Asimov
Doris Baumgardt (Leslie Perrie)
James Blish
Hannes Bok
Daniel Burford
Chester Cohen
Rosalind Cohen/Rosalind Wylie
Lester Del Rey
Harry Dockweiler (Dirk Wylie)
Jack Gillespie
Virginia Kidd
Damon Knight
Cyril Kornbluth
Mary (Byers) Kornbluth
David Kyle
Herbert Levantman
Robert A. W. Lowndes
Judith Merrill
John Michel
Frederik Pohl
Jack Robinson
Larry Shaw
Richard Wilson
Donald A. Wollheim
Elise (Balter) Wollheim
Steve Davidson is the publisher of Amazing Stories.
Steve has been a passionate fan of science fiction since the mid-60s, before he even knew what it was called.
