Completist

From Fancyclopedia 2, ca. 1959

A dope who tries to have a complete collection in some line. The line may be as broad as having all the prozines ever published, or as narrow as collecting all the Golden Atom tales or all official correspondence during one's incumbency in some office. (It is tacitly understood that the completist is a specialist to some degree, if only because nobody can cover the whole field of stfantasy.) The fun begins when the collector misses purchasing an issue, or fails to keep a carbon, or whatever; or when his ambitions extend back to a time before he started saving the stuff. Then he prowls the secondhand magazine shops, writes letters to everybody who might know where a particular prize is, worries librarians and other public servants, and occasionally makes a miraculous find in some unexpected place and goeth about rejoicing. A novel type of completism was Milt Rothman's determination to attend every major convention held in this country.

From Fancyclopedia 1, ca. 1944

A dope who tries to have a complete collection in some line. The line may be as broad as having all the prozines ever published, or as narrow as collecting all the Golden Atom tales or all official correspondence during one's incumbency in some office. The trouble arises when the collector misses purchasing an issue (or fails to keep a carbon copy, or whatever), or when his ambitions extend back to a time before he started saving the stuff. Then he prowls the 2d-hand magazine shops, writes letters to everybody who mite know where a particular prize is, worries librarians and other public servants, and occasionally makes a marvelous find in some unexpected place and goes around rejoicing. A novel type of completism is Rothman's record and determination of attending every major convention held in this country.

---

Fanspeak

This is a fanspeak page. Please extend it by adding information about when and by whom it was coined, whether it’s still in use, etc.