Booklist
(Did you mean the British Fantasy Library's later Booklist?)
Booklist was a fanzine (of sorts)[1] published by J. Michael Rosenblum in 1943-6. The title is wholly descriptive; the first issue (dated August 1943) explains that it is the beginning of an alphabetical list of "Fantasy Books owned by J. Michael Rosenblum". On the basis of examples available at fanac.org, each issue was a single page duplicated on the back of of a discarded sheet from a US fanzine or prozine or perhaps a crudsheet. Issues aren't numbered as such. The first issue is "page 1", the second "page 2" and so on, but some aren't numbered at all. The first is explicitly dated but most aren't. At least some copies were mailed with Futurian War Digest.
The first issue elaborated further:
Explanation; in the following lists data on individual books is arranged in this order. Firstly classification as to type: science fiction as (s), weird fiction (w) or "pure" fantasy (f); then author, surname and first names or initials, followed by the title of the book. Publisher, date of publication and price – if all are known – come next and space permitting an exceedingly brief description of the work. Finally on evaluation of the quality; code: one star means readable; two, enjoyable; three, good; and four, outstandingly fine (you won't find many of these). Now and then the use of a minus sign (-) will warn you to tiptoe silently past such volumes and leave them severely alone.
The second issue added:
More Explanation; since commencing this booklist several more symbols have been found necessary. They are as follows; J. means that a volume is intended to be for juvenile consumption. (A) that my copy of a book is an American edition. (B) will also sometimes be added to indicate that a British edition too, has been published. (NF) you will easily gather, stands for non-fiction.
There were presumably more issues/pages between 4 and the issue distributed in August 1944 covering the gap between "Einstein, Albert" and "Hadfield, Robert L.". It's possible that there was no further progress with instalments of the alphabetical listing after August 1944 and it only extends to Aldous Huxley's Brave New World. Rosenblum certainly didn't complete the project at this time as in an issue seemingly distributed in March 1945 he opens with "The Second Thousand" after which he explained:
Having given up the previous attempt to produce an alphabetically arranged booklist I an going to have a try at listing newer additions starting with my thousandth-and-first volume. The order is simply that in which I acquired the volumes. So on with the listing...
This may have been the last installment as March 1945 was the final issue of Futurian War Digest.
However, Rosenblum did publish what seems to be a full list on June 1, 1946. This is a completely new publication and not simply an assemblage of previously published issues/pages (its first page runs from "Adderley, James" to "Bangs, John Kendrick") although it is again duplicated on the back of discarded pages from US fanzines. There is no editorial matter aside from a description of methodology similar to that in the earlier single-sheet incarnation.
Additional information thanks to the First Fandom Experience Archive (firstfandomexperience.org).
| Issue | Date | Pages | FWD issue | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | August 1943 | 1 | "Addison, Hugh" to "Benson, R. H." | |
| 2 | ? | 1 | "Beresford, John Davys" to "Burroughs, Edgar Rice" | |
| 3 | ? | 1 | "Burroughs, Edgar Rice" to "Crump, C. G" | |
| 4 | April 1943 | 1 | 27 V3.5 | "Creeps Series" (edited by Philip Allan) to "Einstein, Albert" |
| ... | ... | ... | ... | |
| 8-44 | August 1944 | 1 | 36 V4.6 | "Hadfield, Robert L." to "Huxley, Aldous" |
| 3-45 | March 1945 | 1 | 39 | "The Second Thousand" |
| - | June 1, 1946 | 28 | Complete list |
- ↑ The British Fanzine Bibliography notes its existence but says these sheets "have not been considered as fanzines".
- Booklist online at fanac.org
| Publication | 1943—1946 |
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