Norman Lindsay
(???? – )
Norman Lindsay was – although see discussion below – a fan from Exeter in Devon active in the 1940s. He was a member of the British Fantasy Society (BFS).
He is listed in the Directory of Anglo-Fandom for 1945 but isn't in evidence after 1949.
Note: truthfully, there is not much for evidence for his existence at all and it is possible that he is a typo for Nigel Lindsay of Torquay, also in Devon and about 24 miles from Exeter, who was active at the same time. There are, however, three separate references to Norman Lindsay between 1945 and 1949, each by a different writer.
The name in the Directory of Anglo-Fandom appears as an addenda, suggest somebody who'd recently discovered fandom, and is clearly Norman Lindsay. The member of the BFS is given as "Lindsay, N" in British Fantasy Society Bulletin 21 (March 1945) but 22 mentions receipt of a subscription from "Norman Lindsay (2/9d)". In Science Fantasy News Minor 4 (September 1949) Vin¢ Clarke apologises for not answering correspondence from, among others, Norman Lindsay – although N. Lindsay of Torquay was a member of the Science Fantasy Society at the same time.
Nigel Lindsay was known to be resident in Torquay in 1939 and 1946 and there is no evidence of him ever living in Exeter. A profile in Vargo Statten Science Fiction Magazine v2#7 (1956) does not mention involvement with the BFS. It does give his first fannish contact as 1945 via Futurian War Digest and that could be consistent with him being added as an addenda to the Directory of Anglo-Fandom but it would have needed to be right at the beginning of the year as the Directory was published in January. Online ancestry records do not help: they neither identify a Norman Lindsay in Exeter in the 1940s nor put Nigel Lindsay anywhere other than Torquay after 1930.
Ultimately, the question is which is more likely, that three people typoed the name as Norman Lindsay or that two people called N. Lindsay and living within 24 miles of each other in Devon contacted fandom at about the same time.
It seems a little unfair that a disproportionate amount of this entry is devoted to whether Norman Lindsay really existed, but sadly if he did we just don't know that much about him.
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