John Boardman

(???? – )

A New York fan who has been active in most areas of fandom over the years. He found fandom in college and was one of the founders of the University of Chicago Science Fiction Club in 1950. In a loc to G² 10 (March 1962), Boardman wrote:

Tom Seidman, George D'Asaro and I sent out a call for a meeting, and were answered by a large crowd which proceeded to elect officers, perform a ritual exorcism upon Shaver’s dero-tero cult, and put out a fanzine. I didn’t stay with the club for very long, as I was overawed by the superior fannish background of most of the people who showed up for the meeting.

Ray Nelson didn’t show up at UC until the 1951-2 academic year. He was then married to Perdita Lilly, his first wife. He, Tom Seidman, Mike Girsdansky, Seymour Nelson and I obtained some brief notoriety in that year as the result of a planned Black Mass. (Seymour is no relation to Ray; his version of the common surname was originally Katznelson;) We had planned to conduct a Black Mass at a Halloween party in 1951, with Ray serving as the high priest and Perdita as the altar. However, the story got out. A Catholic student heard about the proposed diabolism, and carried to the university’s chaplain a story that we planned to steal communion elements. The chaplain told Cardinal Strich, the Cardinal told the university’s president, and the principals in the escapade were confined to quarters.

Boardman was a member of the CCNY Sci-Fi and a life member of the Lunarians. He was Treasurer of Nycon 3, the 1967 Worldcon.

He was an active member of the SCA (as John of Brooke-Lynne) in New York, and served as the Mural Herald of the early East Kingdom.

He was a member of The Cult, and was FGoH at Lunacon 41.

He was married to fellow fan Perdita Boardman and stepfather of fan Karina Boardman.

He was heavily involved by Diplomacy play-by-mail gaming which was a major fannish activity in the 1960s and ’70s. He was a member and officer of the Puddleby-on-the-Marsh Irregulars, and a founder of the Beaker Peoples Libation Front.

Fanzines and Apazines:

• Anakreon (gaming fanzine)
• Beyond the Fringe and Then Some [1960]
• Blue Cat
• Dagon [1960s-1980s] (in APA-Q)
• Empire (gaming fanzine)
• Fredonia (gaming fanzine)
• Graustark (gaming fanzine)
• Knowable [early 60s]
• Leftovers [1967-68] (with Perdita Boardman)
• Pillycock [mid 60s]
• Pointing Vector [early-mid-60s]
• Priscus Ordo Seclorum [1971] (SCA newsletter)
• Ruritania (gaming fanzine)
• So You Want to Be a Fan [1966]
• Stoned Henge (gaming fanzine)
• Tabard [1970] (SCA newsletter)

---

Person

????—

This is a biography page. Please extend it by adding more information about the person, such as fanzines and apazines published, awards, clubs, conventions worked on, GoHships, impact on fandom, external links, anecdotes, etc. See Standards for People and The Naming of Names.