George Locke

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(February 3(?),[1] 1936 – February 1, 2019)

George Walter Locke was a London fanzine fan, collector, antiquarian bookseller, bibliographer and small publisher active from the mid-1950s.

He was described in Eye 6 (Christmas 1956) as "a young fan who rolled up at The Globe one day and offered stuff to editors!". He was the subject of the first of a "Who's Who in British Fandom" series published in Skyrack where Ron Bennett wrote in 26 (November 1960): 

If fannish ability counted with military authorities, George Locke would be pushing the rank of field-marshal. In three short years George has sprung to the fore in British fandom and his writings are without doubt an acquisition to any fanzine in which they appear. George, who was born on 9th February 1936 (he stands 5' 10" and weighs just over 12 stones), came into fandom about the time of the London World Convention in 1957 and was content for over a year to sit on the sidelines at Globe meetings in London, merely drinking in the fannish atmosphere and grounding himself in fannish history. Suddenly, in 1959, he burst forth as an actifan with his own fanzine Smoke as well as competing with John Berry in prolific writing. Apart from the 1957 Worldcon he attended the 1959 BrumCon in Birmingham but was prevented by an untimely callup from appearing at this year's LonCon. He was voted one of the best new fans in last year's Fanac poll. George possesses a most enviable balance of puckish humour and mature seriousness. His OMPAzine Eyetracks is devoted in the main to items from his fabulous book collection. A thoroughly nice guy who is an asset to British fandom.

Locke was an early although not founding member of the BSFA, contributing to the second issue of its Vector. He was also a member of The Science Fiction Club of London (SFCoL). Initially employed as a pharmacist, he was called up for National Service early in 1960 and on February 6 departed for the Royal Army Medical Corps in Kenya[2] (whence he managed to published a fanzine) and later in Kuwait.

Locke was a member of OMPA and FAPA. With John Berry he founded IPSO, the UK's short-lived second, themed APA, in November 1960, but due to his callup others had to take over its actual running from mailing 1 in April. His Smoke placed sixth in the 1959 Skyrack Poll and second in 1960 while Locke himself placed fourth and second as fan writer in the same years and remained in the top-ten until 1963. He was on the RePetercon committee, publishing its The East Fanglian Times progress reports. He was also a member of The Fan Squadron group of fans who were also aircraft enthusiasts.

Locke largely withdrew from fandom after 1966 to increasingly devote himself to his book-selling business, becoming a full-time bookseller in 1972. He did however attend Beyond This Horizon in 1973, and more recently ReRepetercon in 2004 (where he and Dave Barber "continued a discussion they had left off at their last convention in 1966")[3] and Cytricon V in 2008. He was also an occasional correspondent of Trap Door and Prolapse in the 2000s.

Locke authored a few professionally published stories, starting with 'The Human Seed' for Authentic Science Fiction 85 (October 1957) and then five others under the name Gordon Walters in various venues 1963–6.

Locke was however far better known as the the author of several bibliographic works for SF collectors, including Science Fiction First Editions (1978) and the series A Spectrum of Fantasy (1980–2004). His particular specialism was pre-1914 inter-planetary fiction. He published these in his own small press Ferret Fantasy, starting with Ferret Fantasy's Christmas Annual for 1972. He also reportedly published William F. Temple's fictionalised version of life at The Flat, 88 Gray's Inn Road: A Living-Space Odyssey (2000).[4]

Fanzines and Apazines:

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Links

  1. ↑ 3rd given at SFE and ISFDB, but Skyrack 26 quoted below gives his birth date as February 9.
  2. ↑ Skyrack 28 at gostak.co.uk. The report also suggests he was an important cricket player, unless it is some kind of in-joke.
  3. ↑ "Stargazing: Old fans but not tired" by Peter Weston at trufen.net archived at efanzines.com
  4. ↑ Lawrence Person at item 14 lawrenceperson.com item 14 although the book says just "Published by Andrew Crosse at the Sansato Press" in a double Templian reference and "Distributed by Cold Tonnage Books", Windlesham, Surrey.
Person 1936—2019
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