Taffy Williams
(1921/2?[1] – ????)
A. E. Williams was a fan and collector from Manchester, UK, active in the late 1940s and early 1950s. He was usually referred to as 'Taffy' and also nicknamed 'The Brain'. He was a member of the British Fantasy Library (BFL) and the Nor'west Science Fantasy Club (NSFC).
Williams had been a flight lieutenant in the Royal Air Force,[2] likely during the Second World War although this isn't explicit. He might have become involved in fandom in the mid-1940s. In his con report of the 1952 Mancon, Sandy Sanderson described the discussion after 'the talk on Anglo-fandom given by Mike Rosenblum':[3]
Taffy Williams (the ASF Memory Man) now entered the argument, and pointed out that when he tried to contact active fans after the war, he found that they were no longer active, and it took till 1949 to improve matters.
Williams joined the BFL in 1947 and early in-person contacts were with Dave Cohen and Frank Richards; in January 1951 he attended a meeting with them and Eric Bentcliffe that led to the formation of the NSFC. He attended the Festivention in May 1951 and the one-day North Eastern Science-Fiction Conference (NECON) in October 1951. He also attended the 1952 London SF Con, where he reported that the Manchester group had 50 members, and Mancon later the same year. He is listed as a member of the Supermancon in 1954.
Peter Campbell in Operation Fantast #13 (Winter 1952) explained the nickname, 'The Brain': 'he reads and remembers every story that comes out, and can apparently recall almost any s-f tale published in the last twenty years'. As of 1952 he had a complete set of Astounding in American editions and he 'very carefully never lets any of us [in the NSFC] know when he leaves home for the weekend'.[2] His favourite authors were given as Don A. Stuart and James H. Schmitz, and stories 'Forgetfulness' by Stuart[4] and 'Metamorphosite' by Eric Frank Russell.[5]
Williams appears to have been mostly a convention and club fan. He did contribute an article on 'Gadgets in SF' to Space Times #3. In 1952 he was a research physicist with the ICI (wikipedia:Imperial Chemical Industries). His 'only hobby outside Science-Fiction' was 'sleeping'.[2]
The full meaning of the initials seems unrecorded; Taffy should not be confused with Arthur F. Williams (1925–, active 1941–4, also briefly in RAF and from London and Liverpool), although if his first name was Arthur, it's possible he was the Arthur Williams who attended the 1949 Eastercon.
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- ↑ Approximate: he was "only 30" in mid-1952, see Space Times #3.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 This and other details from a short profile by Bentcliffe in Space Times #3 (August 1952), p. 2. Note that the issue consisently gives his name as A.E. (Taff) Williams, although there is also an occurrence of Taffy.
- ↑ Camber #1 (1952); see Rob Hansen's synoptic history https://fiawol.org.uk//FanStuff/THEN%20Archive/1952Mancon/mancon.htm which also contains Taffy's group photo.
- ↑ Astounding June 1937, although given The Brain's reputation this may have been a joke.
- ↑ Astounding December 1946.
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