View source for Denvention Two Reminiscence (Eshbach)

1981 -- [[Denvention II]], [[Denver]]
by [[Lloyd Arthur Eshbach]]
From the [[Noreascon Three]] [[PB]]

For me the 39th [[World Science Fiction Convention]], [[Denvention II]], will always be people: [[C. L. Moore]] and [[Clifford Simak]] in particular.

I had read "Shambleau," the famous and classic first story by [[Catherine Moore]], when it first appeared in ''[[Weird Tales]]'' in 1933, and when everyone thought the writer was a man. It had impressed me most favorably, and I had followed her writings up to and through her merger (the correct term) with [[Henry Kuttner]]. And to meet her after almost a half century -- charming, lovely -- was a genuine thrill.

[[Clifford Simak]] -- somewhere, sometime in the past I had met Cliff; and at [[Denvention II]] I sat beside him on a platform as part of a panel. After we had greeted each other, he asked, "Where have you been all these years?" He was referring to my two-decade absence from the [[SF]] field. We were contemporaries, our early stories having appeared in the same publications in the 1930s. Now he was famous, deservedly so, and I was forgotten. But it was fun, picking up threads laid down so long ago.

Then there was [[Rusty Hevelin]]. I believe we met in [[Philadelphia]] at [[PSFS]] meetings; not in the 1930s, obviously, since he discovered science fiction in 1941; but probably in the late '40s in the [[Fantasy Press]] days, when I visited Philadelphia quite frequently. We've met time and again over the years and are still good friends.

Other people at the [[Denvention 2|Denvention]] weekend come to mind. [[Don Grant]], who has been my friend for more than thirty years, introduced me to [[C. J. Cherryh]]. She was at the [[Donald M. Grant Publisher|Grant]] booth with her brother [[David Cherry|David]]; and I made the horrible mistake of referring to him as her son! I can only claim temporary insanity and impaired vision, for obviously, she is his younger sister. I finally apologized to her at [[Nolacon II]] last year.

Also among the people who made the convention a success for me were old-timers -- and others not-so-old -- like [[Jack Williamson]], [[Bob Tucker]], [[Forry Ackerman]], [[Bob Silverberg]], [[Fred Pohl]], [[Lester del Rey]], [[Poul Anderson]], [[Julian May]], [[Hal Clement]], and others I learned to know in later years. Without question, it was "old home week."

Needless to say, things happened at [[Denvention II]]. There were [[GoH]] speeches; special events including the [[Hugo Award]] presentations and the [[Masquerade]]; a Pro Discussion Group series; writers' autograph sessions; films ancient and current; panel discussions, both serious and otherwise. (One called "Groin Pains," which I missed, has left me wondering.) And of course there was the usual huckster room.

There was also an art display which was up to the usual high standards of [[Worldcons]]. Oddly, only one feature sticks in my memory -- a most unorthodox creation. This was a city of the future, beautifully carved out of the interior of a huge block of lucite. Its creator, a personable young man named [[R. A. Murray]], also claimed to have been in communication with an advanced civilization in a distant galaxy. He seemed to be serious.

Oddly, I cannot recall any parties at [[Denvention II]]. Surely this time-honored tradition was followed in [[Denver]]. Even though programming went on until midnight every day but the last, it is inconceivable that everything ground to a halt at one o'clock in the morning. I must have been staying at the wrong hotel. The Executive Tower Inn (where I stayed) was a block away from the Convention Center, but nine blocks from the Hilton. Oh well, at age 71 I needed the uninterrupted sleep.

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