Neil A. Lafferty, Jr.

(April 25, 1917 – November 6, 1993)

Neil Lafferty (Neil Aloysius Lafferty, Jr.) of Brooklyn was the enthusiastic Thrilling Wonder Stories letterhack who coined Goshwowboyoboy.

His loc in the lettercol of the August 1939 issue of TWS began:

Gosh! Wow! Boyohboy!, and so forth and so on. Yesiree, yesiree, it’s the greatest in the land and the best that’s on the stand, and I do mean THRILLING WONDER STORIES, and especially that great, magnificent, glorious, most thrilling June issue of the mosta and besta of science fiction magazines. 

An uncredited Time magazine reporter disdainfully covering the First Worldcon seized on it in the July 10, 1939 issue as typical of fan correspondence, to the indignation of many.

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Person

1917—1993

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