Redd Boggs

Redd Boggs, September 1956.
From an album of Vin¢ Clarke’s, photo taken by Dean Grennell, courtesy of Rob Hansen.

(April 2, 1921 – May 9, 1996)

Dean Walter “Redd” Boggs, a BNF of the 1940s and ’50s, is credited with raising the standards of fan writing and fanzine production by his examples. A Minneapolis fan, Boggs moved to LA in the mid-1960s after he retired. He was a member of the Minneapolis Fantasy Society.

He edited the 1948 Fantasy Annual. His fanzine Sky Hook published both fannish and critical material, including the early criticism of James Blish. His fanzine Discord was nominated for the 1961 Best Fanzine Hugo. He was also nominated for the the 1954 Best Fan Writer Retro Hugo, and Sky Hook was nominated for the 1954 Best Fanzine Retro Hugo and the 1956 Best Fanzine Hugo. His perzine Spirochete for the FAPA (which he joined in 1947) lasted for 76 issues. He published Hurkle for SAPS.

Some of these were collected into the Hornpipe Series. Many of his publications were done through his Gafia Press. (He also used the Neoteric publishing house.) Howard DeVore published The Craters of the Moon containing his work, and Dave Rike published Redd Boggs - Selected Works.

Boggs' main form of writing was the personal essay. He was a prominent member of N3F in the ’40s, once contributing 50-some manuscripts to the club's Manuscript Bureau. He was a close friend of Jim Harmon, and contributed articles to Harmon's fanzine RADIOHERO). He was married to fellow fan Gretchen Schwenn. He was a member of First Fandom.

See The Purple Dawn for a long article by Boggs on Spacewarp.

He used the penname Theophillis Alvor.

Awards, Honors and GoHships:

• 1950 -- N3F Laureate Award for Best Fan Writer
• 1956 -- 1956 Best Fanzine Hugo nominee
• 1961 -- 1961 Best Fanzine Hugo nominee
• 1975 -- Minicon 10
• 2004 -- 1954 Best Fan Writer Retro Hugo and 1954 Best Fanzine Retro Hugo nominee

Fanzines and Apazines:

• 1948 Fantasy Annual [1949] (with others)
• Ad Lib [1947]
• Astounding Story-Key: 1930-1951
• Astronaut [1947-48]
• The Bagabash Papers [1987] (for FAPA)
• Bete Noir [1962-64]
• Black Hat [-1987]
• Caprice [1947]
• Chronoscope [1948]
• Cockatrice [1962-64]
• Discard [early 60s]
• Discord [late 50s - early 60s]
• Famous Fantastic Mouse Stories [1995-96]
• Futurist [1950-51]
• Gafia Advertiser [1957]
• Gafia Poetry Leaflet Series
• Good Advice [1983]
• Glubbdubdrib [1958]
• Hand in a Window [1970]
• The House of the Hidden Poet [1987]
• Hurkle [1951] (for SAPS)
• Just West of the World [1977]
• Minac 8.5 [1963] (hoax issue with Bill Blackbeard)
• The Nehwon Review [1961-70]
• Old and Rare [1962]
• Open Season on Monsters [1961]
• Penseroso [1983-87]
• Polestar Chapbooks [1960]
• The Poscard Mimeograph [1986] (for FAPA)
• Qabal [late 50s]
• Ragabash Papers [1987]
• Retrograde [1959-62]
• A Sad Story [1974]
• Scintilla from World's End [1982]
• Shangri L'Affaires [1963-64] (some issues)
• Sky Hook [1948-57]
• Spirochete [1947-94] (for FAPA and OMPA)
• Tympani [1947-48] (with Robert Stein)
• Ugly Bird [1959] (with Marion Zimmer Bradley)
• Under the Azalea [1986] (for FAPA)
• Wahrscheinlichkeits Rechnung [1962-87]

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Person

1921—1996

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