Earl Kemp
( --November 24, 1929)
A fan, publisher, SF editor, and critic who won a Hugo Award for Best Fanzine in 1961 for Who Killed Science Fiction?, a collection of questions and answers with top writers in the field. Next, he produced Why is a Fan?, with opinions from dozens of fans. He was married to fellow fan Nancy Kemp.
A Chicago fan, Kemp was president of the University of Chicago Science Fiction Club for almost a decade and served as chairman of the 20th Worldcon, Chicon III, held there. Before winning with the Chicago in 1962 bid, he led two failed bids: Chicago: 1959 and Chicago in '60. He was a member of the N3F and the (1962) Chicago SFL.
Kemp also helped found Advent:Publishers, a small publishing house focused on SF criticism, history, and bibliography. He edited The Science Fiction Novel, (Advent:Publishers, 1959) and The Proceedings Chicon III (Advent:Publishers, 1963).
In the 1950s he compiled four lists of "The Science Fiction Book Index" that appeared in various publications. He led production of The Purple Pastures at Pittcon. Fanzines included ...be forgot and never..., Destiny (several issues), Feliz Navidad 2001, Racing to Lemuria, SaFari (for FAPA and SAPS), SaFari Annual, and TS-SAPS (also for SAPS).
Kemp worked as an editor under Algis Budrys at Blake Pharmaceuticals in Evanston, Illinois, producing pornography for William L. Hamling. During the 1960s and 1970s, Kemp was involved in publishing a number of erotic paperbacks, including an illustrated edition of the Presidential Report of the Commission on Obscenity and Pornography. This publication led to his being sentenced to prison for "conspiracy to mail obscene material," but he served only the federal minimum of three months and one day.
He was involved in the semi-serious Tijuana in '69 Westercon bid and was the subject of The Kemp Fund to bring him to Chicon IV in 1982.
After many years of inactivity, he published the electronic fanzine e*I from 2002 to 2012.
Other Awards and Honors:
- 2009 -- FAAn Award for Best Fanzine
- 2010 -- Corflu Fifty winner
- 2011 -- Past president of the FWA, Neffy Award for Best Fanzine
- 2012 -- FAAn AWard Lifetime Achivement
- 2013 -- First Fandom Hall of Fame
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