View source for Doris Baumgardt

(1920 -- [[1970]])

Doris Marie Clair Baumgardt, also known as '''Leslie Perri''', already a member of the [[SFL]], joined the famous [[Futurians]] of [[New York]] in December, 1938. She was about 18 at the time. She and her friend, [[Rosalind Cohen]], were the earliest female members of the [[club]]. She was described by [[Damon Knight]] in his tell-all book, ''The Futurians'', as follows: "She was a tall, cool brunette who looked a little like the Dragon Lady in Terry and the Pirates." [[Frederik Pohl]], in his ''The Way the Future Was'' (1979) described her as "strikingly beautiful, and strikingly intelligent, too, in a sulky, humorous, deprecatory way that matched well with most of the other people I admired."  She was a member of the [[CPASF]] and the [[Science Fictioneers]].

In [[fanzines]] in the 1930s-1940s she signed herself "Leslie Perri"; her friends called her "Doë." She wrote prolifically for the Futurian [[fanzines]], and was a founding member of the [[Fantasy Amateur Press Association]] (FAPA), created by fellow Futurian [[Donald Wollheim]]. She was one of only five Futurians [[Sam Moskowitz]] allowed inside the hall at the 1st [[Worldcon]] in New York in 1939. She also wrote [[SF]] stories (as Leslie Perri) in magazines edited by fellow Futurians. A few of these were later reprinted in anthologies, one of which (''Womanthology'', 2003) was edited by [[Forrest J Ackerman]] and consisted of stories by female writers. 

As an artist, she contributed work to ''[[Astonishing Stories]]'', edited by [[Pohl]] during 1940-1941.

Her first marriage was to [[Frederik Pohl]] (1940), whom she had met through a high school friend. Pohl persuaded her to join the [[Futurians]]. After their divorce, she married painter/writer, Thomas Owens, "the handsomest man you ever saw in your life," according to her friend Rosalind Cohen Wylie. Doris left him to marry [[Richard Wilson]], another Futurian, but they broke up in 1965. While married to Wilson, she worked as a reporter and journalist.

She had two children, one with Owens (Margot Owens), and one with Wilson (Richard David Wilson).

In the early 1940s she edited a magazine, ''Movie Love Stories'', which (according to [[Wollheim]]), she practically wrote herself.

She died in 1970 of cancer.

For an early short biography, see {{WhosWho1940|page=11}}.

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