Difference between revisions of "Mari Wolf"
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(let's keep the marriage in one para, and Rog's quick remarriage to a BNF photoed with him at Worldcon is pertinent. How do we know the divorce date anyway? Etc.) |
(filling in later life) |
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[[File:WolfMari1952.jpeg|thumb| '''Mari Wolf.''' ''From ''[[Imagination (prozine)]]'' ([https://archive.org/details/Imagination_v03n02_1952-03_LennyS-cape1736/mode/1up March 1952]).'']] | [[File:WolfMari1952.jpeg|thumb| '''Mari Wolf.''' ''From ''[[Imagination (prozine)]]'' ([https://archive.org/details/Imagination_v03n02_1952-03_LennyS-cape1736/mode/1up March 1952]).'']] | ||
| − | '''Marianita Beatrice Wolf''' (briefly | + | '''Marianita Beatrice Wolf''' (briefly '''Graham''' and Snodgrass; sometimes also given as Marion Wolf), a [[Los Angeles]] [[SF]] [[fan]] and [[author]], ran a fan column, "'''Fandora's Box'''" (also the name of her [[Hollywood]] apartment), for the [[prozine]] ''[[Imagination (prozine)]]'' from April 1951 to April 1956. Wolf wrote about [[SF]] and [[fandom]], [[review]]ed and ranked [[fanzines]], and interviewed authors. |
She doled out [[egoboo]] with such heedless abandon that the character called the '''Giantess''' in ''[[The Enchanted Duplicator]]'' was modeled after her. | She doled out [[egoboo]] with such heedless abandon that the character called the '''Giantess''' in ''[[The Enchanted Duplicator]]'' was modeled after her. | ||
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That was [[NorWesCon (Worldcon)]], the 1950 [[Worldcon]]. She met Phillips there on September 1, and married him in [[Chicago]] the next month; in his own column, he dates it ''Tuesday'', October 24. [[Ray Palmer]] and [[Bea Mahaffey]] were their witnesses.<ref>[https://archive.org/details/amazing-stories-v-25n-03-1951-03.-ziff-davis-cape-1736-b-w-edit/page/n146 ''Amazing'' March 1951 p. 146]. Wikipedia claims Wolf's column was a wedding gift – ''Imagination'' editor [[William L. Hamling]] was among the guests. Phillips only hinted that Mari "refuses to be relegated to assistant conductor of the CLUB HOUSE" and was starting her own. Somehow, the meeting and marriage are mis-dated to 1951 in Wolf's bio (possibly an erroneous editorial intervention as “Fandora's Box” in the issue was clearly written still in 1951, so she may have used "last year"), which several sources continue to mis-report, but Phillips' column, both its content and date of publication, makes this quite unambiguous. [https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:7WLL-PDW2 Marriage record on Family Search] gives the place as Cook County, Illinois, and "Spouse's Age" as 24, also implying Wolf's birth in 1926.</ref> The marriage was over by 1955 (a year later, Phillips married another [[big name fan]] [[Honey Wood]]). | That was [[NorWesCon (Worldcon)]], the 1950 [[Worldcon]]. She met Phillips there on September 1, and married him in [[Chicago]] the next month; in his own column, he dates it ''Tuesday'', October 24. [[Ray Palmer]] and [[Bea Mahaffey]] were their witnesses.<ref>[https://archive.org/details/amazing-stories-v-25n-03-1951-03.-ziff-davis-cape-1736-b-w-edit/page/n146 ''Amazing'' March 1951 p. 146]. Wikipedia claims Wolf's column was a wedding gift – ''Imagination'' editor [[William L. Hamling]] was among the guests. Phillips only hinted that Mari "refuses to be relegated to assistant conductor of the CLUB HOUSE" and was starting her own. Somehow, the meeting and marriage are mis-dated to 1951 in Wolf's bio (possibly an erroneous editorial intervention as “Fandora's Box” in the issue was clearly written still in 1951, so she may have used "last year"), which several sources continue to mis-report, but Phillips' column, both its content and date of publication, makes this quite unambiguous. [https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:7WLL-PDW2 Marriage record on Family Search] gives the place as Cook County, Illinois, and "Spouse's Age" as 24, also implying Wolf's birth in 1926.</ref> The marriage was over by 1955 (a year later, Phillips married another [[big name fan]] [[Honey Wood]]). | ||
| − | By that time, Mari Wolf was working as a "calculating-machine operator" at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.<ref>“Keeping Posted: In the Jet Laboratory,” ''Saturday Evening Post'' [https://archive.org/details/sim_saturday-evening-post_1955-03-05_227_36/page/112/mode/2up?q=mari&view=theater March 5, 1955, p. 112] with an anecdote about her as a "science fiction writer."</ref> She remained active in fandom for several years, attending the 1958 [[Solacon]] for example, and wrote a crime paperback, ''The Golden Frame'' (1961), but afterwards her | + | By that time, Mari Wolf was working as a "calculating-machine operator" at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.<ref>“Keeping Posted: In the Jet Laboratory,” ''Saturday Evening Post'' [https://archive.org/details/sim_saturday-evening-post_1955-03-05_227_36/page/112/mode/2up?q=mari&view=theater March 5, 1955, p. 112] with an anecdote about her as a "science fiction writer."</ref> She remained active in fandom for several years, attending the 1958 [[Solacon]] for example, and wrote a crime paperback, ''The Golden Frame'' (1961), but afterwards was not evidently involved in [[sff]]. |
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| + | [[Earl Terry Kemp]] said "she gafiated and remarried".<ref>[[Earl Terry Kemp]], "Len Moffatt: A portrait of a fan", in [[e*I]] vol. 6 no. 1 (whole no. 30), February 2007: [https://efanzines.com/EK/eI30/index.htm#:~:text=Eventually%20Mari%20and%20Rog%20broke%20up%2C%20Mari%20gafiated%20and%20remarried%2C%20which%20was%20a%20great%20loss%20to%20fandom. "Eventually Mari and Rog broke up, Mari gafiated and remarried, which was a great loss to fandom."]</ref> That 1961 marriage, to [[mundane]] Frank S. Snodgrass<ref>[https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VVVZ-3NC Marriage record on FamilySearch] (free account required)</ref>, appears to have lasted until at least 1964 based on a voter record naming her Mari W. Snodgrass; no later records using that name have been found. In 1976 she (or they) bought a house in Norco, [https://www.wideopencountry.com/norco-california/ nicknamed "Horsetown USA"], where she lived until a court-appointed conservator sold it for her in 2009. | ||
== More Reading and Photographs == | == More Reading and Photographs == | ||
Revision as of 09:14, 8 May 2023
(August 27, 1926[1] – )
Marianita Beatrice Wolf (briefly Graham and Snodgrass; sometimes also given as Marion Wolf), a Los Angeles SF fan and author, ran a fan column, "Fandora's Box" (also the name of her Hollywood apartment), for the prozine Imagination from April 1951 to April 1956. Wolf wrote about SF and fandom, reviewed and ranked fanzines, and interviewed authors.
She doled out egoboo with such heedless abandon that the character called the Giantess in The Enchanted Duplicator was modeled after her.
Fandora's Box was inspired by the "The Club House," column by Rog Phillips (pseudonym of Roger Phillip Graham, Wolf’s later husband) which appeared from 1948 to 1953 in Amazing and later in other SF magazines edited by Ray Palmer.
As of 1950, Wolf was a member of the Outlander Society and the N3F.
Several of Wolf's SF stories appeared in If, including the novella Homo Inferior (November 1953). She was first to use the abbreviation droid for a robot, in her July 1952 debut, "Robots of the World! Arise!"
In an autobiography in the March 1952 Imagination, she wrote that her family spent the first three years of her life in Ecuador and then in Laguna Beach, California. She’d wanted to be a writer since she was 5 years old and discovered SF in high school. She majored in mathematics at UCLA.
Since college, I’ve done various things. I taught dancing for a while. I did some modeling. I spent a lot of time out at the stables.[2] And I kept on reading science fiction. Eventually I became acquainted with Los Angeles fandom and became an Outlander. Then I read in Rog Phillips’ Club House in Amazing Stories how much fun science fiction conventions can be, and I made up my mind to go to the one in Portland.
That was NorWesCon, the 1950 Worldcon. She met Phillips there on September 1, and married him in Chicago the next month; in his own column, he dates it Tuesday, October 24. Ray Palmer and Bea Mahaffey were their witnesses.[3] The marriage was over by 1955 (a year later, Phillips married another big name fan Honey Wood).
By that time, Mari Wolf was working as a "calculating-machine operator" at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.[4] She remained active in fandom for several years, attending the 1958 Solacon for example, and wrote a crime paperback, The Golden Frame (1961), but afterwards was not evidently involved in sff.
Earl Terry Kemp said "she gafiated and remarried".[5] That 1961 marriage, to mundane Frank S. Snodgrass[6], appears to have lasted until at least 1964 based on a voter record naming her Mari W. Snodgrass; no later records using that name have been found. In 1976 she (or they) bought a house in Norco, nicknamed "Horsetown USA", where she lived until a court-appointed conservator sold it for her in 2009.
More Reading and Photographs[edit]
- "Introducing the author: Mari Wolf", Imagination March 1952, p. 2 and 76–7
- 1957 photo in The LASFS Album (1966).
- Solacon Final Report (2 MiB PDF; centerfold top middle) contains a small photo of Mari Wolf participating in the "Lysistrata panel"
- Entry in The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction.
- Works at Project Gutenberg.
- Reprint of Wolf’s story “Prejudice” (Destiny Winter 1953–4, with art by Julian May) and a reminiscence about her column by Ted White in Earl Kemp’s e.I #5, 2002 (PDF, HTML)
- “Intelligence Test” by Mari Wolf, Vega 5 (December 1952, p. 4).
____
- ↑ Birth record index at FamilySearch (free account required; the place given as San Bernardino, California, mother's birth surname as Murray); see also the marriage record below. Nota bene that earlier sources dated this as 1927, starting at least with Donald H. Tuck's Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy Volume 2, Who's Who: M–Z, 1978. It remains to be seen whether her age was ever mentioned in her columns or story introductions.
- ↑ This is a reference to her hobby of horse-riding, mentioned earlier in the article.
- ↑ Amazing March 1951 p. 146. Wikipedia claims Wolf's column was a wedding gift – Imagination editor William L. Hamling was among the guests. Phillips only hinted that Mari "refuses to be relegated to assistant conductor of the CLUB HOUSE" and was starting her own. Somehow, the meeting and marriage are mis-dated to 1951 in Wolf's bio (possibly an erroneous editorial intervention as “Fandora's Box” in the issue was clearly written still in 1951, so she may have used "last year"), which several sources continue to mis-report, but Phillips' column, both its content and date of publication, makes this quite unambiguous. Marriage record on Family Search gives the place as Cook County, Illinois, and "Spouse's Age" as 24, also implying Wolf's birth in 1926.
- ↑ “Keeping Posted: In the Jet Laboratory,” Saturday Evening Post March 5, 1955, p. 112 with an anecdote about her as a "science fiction writer."
- ↑ Earl Terry Kemp, "Len Moffatt: A portrait of a fan", in e*I vol. 6 no. 1 (whole no. 30), February 2007: "Eventually Mari and Rog broke up, Mari gafiated and remarried, which was a great loss to fandom."
- ↑ Marriage record on FamilySearch (free account required)
| Person | 1926—???? |
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