Jack Gillespie

(August 19, 1922 – July 18, 2005)

Jack Gillespie was originally brought into fandom by Richard Wilson. In 1937, Gillespie joined with James V. Taurasi and Robert G. Thompson to announce a planned fanzine, Cosmic Tales, which ran for four issues and was roundly criticized. Gillespie tried numerous other fanzines, including Just Things (1938), but never quite managed to get into the mainstream of fandom.

Richard Wilson with Gillespie perpetrated a death hoax on Sam Moskowitz in March 1938 by ringing his family's doorbell very early in the morning and informing them of the death of Will Sykora, an action which caused much ill will between them. Peggy Gillespie, Jack's purported sister and fanne, was a hoax perpetrated by Wilson and Abe Oshinsky.

A charter member of the Futurians, Gillespie hosted the third Futurians meeting at his parents' home near Fort Tryon Park. He was one of the six Futurians to whom the 1939 Exclusion Act was applied. When the Futurians began to split between Donald A. Wollheim and Frederik Pohl, Gillespie fell into Pohl's camp. Along with Pohl, he was formally censured by the Futurians in late 1941 for describing their fanzine, Futurian Review, as the club's Official Organ.

During World War II, Gillespie joined the merchant marine and remained in it until the early 1950s, eventually setting up in Pennsylvania when he married Lois Miles in June 1951.

Gillespie was a Founding Member of The National Fantasy Fan Federation (N3F) in 1941, and was the subject of an N3F Founding Member article by Jon D. Swartz in the March, 2017 issue (Volume 76, Number 3) of The National Fantasy Fan.

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Person

1922—2005

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