Harriett Kolchak

(1921–August 4, 1975)

Harriett G. Kolchak (nee Livermore), a Philadelphia fan, was active from the 1950s through the ’70s. She was a member of the Mercurian Club (and pubbed its clubzine, Jelerang) and the N3F; attended many conventions; worked on cons, including Lunacon; and wrote for fanzines such as Science Fiction Times.

She likely belonged to PSFS, too, but we have no record. Ned Brooks called Kolchak the “den mother of Philadelphia fandom in the ’60s.” Every year on the Friday night of Philcon, she hosted an open party for the entire convention in an old barn behind her house in North Philadelphia, with walls covered with Playboy centerfolds.

She organized the Neofund, a scheme for helping out young fans who found themselves without sufficient funds at a convention, but it was never very successful, and she gave it up in the mid-1970s.

At Tricon in 1966, she won a masquerade prize for Most BEMish costume for “The Rose Monster.”

She spoke Mandarin Chinese.

Born in North Dakota in about 1921, she and her family had moved to Philadelphia by 1930. By 1950, she had married Stefan Kolchak, who died two years after she did (in 1977).

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Person

1921—1975

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