Grace Burns

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Grace Burns was by some measure a UK proto-fan from before 1930. She is quoted by Rob Hansen in Then with the quote sourced to Harry Warner in All Our Yesterdays:

When I was in my youth, we too had our science fiction and very keen we were on it, I assure you. Of course, organised fandom was non-existent. As for rubbing shoulders with authors, that was impossible, separated from us as they were by the impenetrable barrier of the editorial office. I think that the main difference was that our enthusiasm had a political bias, whereas modern enthusiasm seems to be nonpolitical. I was a keen socialist in my youth and naturally a secret supporter of the suffrage movement.

Warner had earlier quoted Burns in 'Joseph Fann and his Brothers (Part 1): Fans of the Caves', published in New Frontiers #4 (May 1964) but maddeningly he didn't at any point give the origin of the quote. He was in fact drawing on an article – the Warner version is slightly paraphrased – that had appeared in Femizine #5 (February 1955) and Grace Burns was there identified as the mother-in-law of Joan Burns, which is to say the mother of Alan Burns.

Whether Grace Burns was truly and meaningfully a proto-fan remains an exercise for the reader.

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Person

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