Bob Hoffman
(November 25, 1920 – February 25, 2013)
Robert Arthur Hoffman, aka Rah Hoffman and Hoffmania, was a fan and fanartist in Los Angeles and Northern California, in the 1940s (and from various overseas assignments while in the Army). He belonged to LASFS and drew for members’ fanzines.
He wrote at least one one faan fiction piece, “Quest in Time,” for the VOM 25 Supplement (October 1942) as Sklifo, and was featured in Ackermaniac Presents Hoffmania.
F. T. Laney, with whom he corresponded, described Bob in ASI:
Bob Hoffman (or RAH as he prefers to be called) has always had too much sense to allow himself to be dragged very deep into fandom. His ruling passion is classical music, and his musical studies both at USC and under well-known Hollywood figures is calculated to land him in the musical end of the motion picture industry. Bob has the largest symphonic record collection of any LASFSer, and in addition collects sound tracks, motion picture music, Cole Porter, and other similar stuff. He is totally non-hep. His interest in fantasy is a sideline, as is his artwork of various kinds, but he has a very fine collection of the stuff that makes fans go mad when they view it at Ackerman’s. Bob is a good conversationalist and a good mixer; it is too bad he is such an esthete! But esthete or no, he was a prime mover in THE ACOLYTE from the moment he first hove on the scene until Uncle finally sent him overseas.
At Pacificon, the 1946 Worldcon, Hoffman appeared in the masquerade in a professional makeup recreation of Boris Karloff’s Frankenstein Monster.
Hoffman was a friend of Weird author Clark Ashton Smith’s and a leading figure in Smith scholarship. In his last years, he shared his home with Smith bibliographer and editor Donald Sidney-Fryer. In mundane life, Hoffman worked as a film editor for Hollywood studios. He died at age 92 after breaking his hip in a fall.
- Listings on ISFDB – R. A. Hoffman, Rah Hoffman.
- Lesser-Known Writers: Rah Hoffman.
| Person | 1920—2013 |
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