Frances Fairchild

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Frances[1] Fairchild was a fan from Los Angeles active in the 1930s. She was a member of the Los Angeles Science Fiction League (LASFL) and the UK’s Science Fiction Association (SFA).

In T. Bruce Yerke's Memoirs of a Superfluous Fan (1943) she is listed as attending a LASFL meeting on August 19, 1937. She is also listed amongst the “Scientifictionists” in the Nycon 1 official souvenir journal of 1939 although it seems she did not attend the convention itself.

She is profiled in Imagination #7 (April 1938) where she is trumpeted as the “first feminine member of the LASFL”:

Irish & Pacifist! 
Blondy began to read stf in ’27 while in hi school, Seattle/Wash. Has kept quite a collection; of bks, featuring entire set 1st edit. Haggard! 
Agrees with Yerke: “Ast has deteriorated.” 
Rather likes Weird, Jirel of Joiry being her favorite.
Stf choices: Moon Pool, Ray Cummings’ “White Invaders”.
Best-liked fantascience fictionists; Kuttner & Moore.
Pet Peeve: Constitution of LASFL. Also, “Agin Ackermanese.”
Most enjoyed scientifilm Things to Come, Just Imagine close 2d.
Politics? None in particular. Believes in Women's Rights “—& plenty of ’em!”
Professing very few illusions, is “very muchly a Materialist.”
Trained nurse studying to be a Doc, Fran's ambition is “to be the greatest bacteriologist in the country, a nice nasty new disease named after me!”

In Horizons #93 (February 1963), Harry Warner wondered, “Feminine fans: Was Frances Fairchild the first who didn’t sneak in as a girlfriend, wife or sister?” although she wasn’t mentioned in All Our Yesterdays (1969) at all.


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  1. Her first name is given as ‘Francis’ in some contemporary references but ‘Frances’ is the more usual female spelling.