Chuck Harris
(December 23, 1927 — July 5, 1999)
Charles Richard William "Chuck" Harris, also sometimes called Chuch — from “Chuck Harris” — or using a fake middle name Charles Randolph Harris, was a major British fan, active from the 1950s. He ran Tentacles Across the Sea with Dean Grennell (a kind of fanzine clearinghouse for dollar payments when UK currency controls didn't allow these) and was an English member of Irish Fandom.
His first convention was the Coroncon of 1953. He also published a single story, 'Omega', in the Vargo Statten Science Fiction Magazine #3 (April 1954). With Walt Willis he was a founding editor of the distinguished fanzine Hyphen in 1952. It was nominated for the 1956, the 1957 and the 1959 Best Fanzine Hugo and, in 2004, the 1954 Best Fanzine Retro Hugo.
They also indulged in the Harris-White Feud, an early ’50s hoax. Later in the decade, they would be involved in the very real TAFF Wars, as a result of which Harris gafiated. He emerged briefly to attend Loncon II in 1965, but wasn’t heard from again almost two decades.
Harris's regular fanzine columns included "Random" for Hyphen (revived in Science-Fiction Five-Yearly #8 and #9, 1986/91) and "Creative Random History" for the UK Microwave (published 1982–5) and Pulp (in 1986–90). He was the subject of the Chuch Harris Appreciation Magazine (1989). "Creative Random History" and later columns were stitched together from letters, which he found easier to write than formal articles.
After his return to fandom in 1984 he circulated copies of letters (both sent and received) to a select audience, first as untitled bundles and then stapled up as Quinsy alias Q, with 23 numbered issues from September 1985 to November 1989 — the final #23 being a more widely circulated trip report on his and his wife Sue's attendance of Corflu 6 as special guests thanks to the Chuck Harris Fund. Q was followed by Charrisma, a more fanzine-like group letter or letter-substitute personalzine with 15 known issues from February 1993 (numbered #1) to August 1995 (like most issues not numbered). A large collection of his articles and correspondence was published as Creative Random Harris (Ansible Editions, 2021).
Fanthology
- Creative Random Harris [2021], includes three early short stories
- Goontact [1957] one-shot for OMPA
- Harris School of Motoring [1950s] for OMPA
- Hymen [1955] with ATom
- I Wish I Knew What 'Nuces Tibi' Meant [1958] for OMPA
- It's Tycho's Floor in '54 [1953] one-shot with Ken Slater for FAPA 64
- Lonconfidential [1957] one-shot Loncon report for OMPA and FAPA with Vin¢ Clarke, H. P. Sanderson, and Joy Goodwin
- Meander [1954] for OMPA
- Off the Cuff for Gertrude [1958] one-shot for FAPA
- Surd [1957] for OMPA
- Swan Song [1959] for OMPA
- This Goon for Hire [1956] one-shot with John Berry for FAPA and OMPA #8
- Through Darkest Ireland [1954] for FAPA and OMPA
- Toto #3 and 6–8 [1954]: a multi-editor fanzine for reprints, a separate supplement of Hyphen
- Tucker Hotel [1952] one-shot, multi-editor FAPAzine
Awards, Honors and GoHships:
- 1956 Best Fanzine Hugo nominee
- 1957 Best Fanzine Hugo nominee
- 1959 Best Fanzine Hugo nominee (all for Hyphen, co-edited with Willis)
- 1989 – Corflu 6 Special Guest through Chuck Harris Fund
- 2004 – 1954 Best Fanzine Retro Hugo nominee
Links
- Free download of Creative Random Harris from TAFF ebooks
- Entry in The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction
- Chuck Harris in Internet Speculative Fiction Database
| Person | 1927—1999 |
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