Bob Shaw

(You probably weren't looking for the Fake Bob Shaw or some other bosh, but see Bosh (Disambiguation) just in case....)

Bob Shaw. Drawing by Doug Chaffee, from the DSC 50 PB, courtesy Guy Lillian III.

(December 31, 1931 – February 11, 1996)

Robert Shaw, often called BoSh, was a fan, fan writer, fan artist, novelist, structural engineer, aircraft designer, and journalist from Northern Ireland, noted for his originality and wit. He was one of the Wheels of IF and a great and influential fan. He won the Hugo Award for Best Fan Writer in 1979 and 1980.

Pro

Professionally, he published his first story in 1954 in Nebula Science Fiction, and is best known for "Light of Other Days" (ASF, August 1966), the story that introduced the concept of slow glass. It was a Hugo Award nominee in 1967. Orbitsville and its two sequels deal with the discovery of a habitable shell completely surrounding a star, and the consequences for humanity. The first in this trilogy won him the 1976 British SF Association Award. His novel The Ragged Astronauts was a 1987 Best Novel Hugo nominee.

He was introduced to science fiction as a pre-teen by reading an A. E. van Vogt short story in Astounding. He later described the experience as being more significant and long-lasting than taking LSD.

His work was the subject of a book by Richard Howard: Space for Peace: Fragments of the Irish Troubles in the Science Fiction of Bob Shaw and James White (Liverpool UP, 2021).

Fan

In 1950, he joined the group Irish Fandom that met at James White's house. The group was very influential in fandom and produced the fanzines Slant (to which Shaw contributed a large part of the artwork and "The Fansmanship Lectures", starting with #5, Spring 1951; #6, Winter 1951/2, contained his short story) and its successor, Hyphen (which besides other Shaw fanwriting ran 30 installments of his column "The Glass Bushel"). He acquired the nickname "BoSh" during this period. Following his early membership of Irish Fandom, he formed the Belfast Triangle, living in Oblique House with Walt Willis and James White. When he was leaving for London in 1952, they and Vin¢ Clarke produced Bob Shaw Appreciation Magazine.

He was the world's greatest practitioner of Fansmanship and did the drafting for the design of the Tucker Hotel. He received the Doc Weir Award in 1980 and three FAAn Awards for Best Fan Writer. He was a world-champion Ghoodminton player, always ranking in the top 3-4 worldwide.

He was well-loved and sought after, wearing both his fan and pro hats. The BoSh Fund was created to bring him to Noreascon and The Shaw Fund to bring him to Aussiecon 2.

Fanwriting and Speeches

Shaw always remained a keen reader of and contributor to fanzines. With Walt Willis, Shaw co-wrote The Enchanted Duplicator, arguably the most revered piece of fanwriting ever, in 1954.

The Glass Bushel

“The Glass Bushel” was Shaw’s regular column in Hyphen. He said modestly that a glass bushel was the only sort he was prepared to hide his light under. There were 30 instalments in all. The column was revived under the same title in 1984 for Richard E. Geis's Science Fiction Review, which published two installments in that year.

Thirteen columns were collected by Rob Jackson in 1979 as The Best of the Bushel (see The Complete BoSh), with a new introduction by Walt Willis and an introductory note to each column by Shaw. A different selection of fourteen Bushel columns (with some overlap) was published by Bruce Pelz in 1995 as 14 Bob the Bushel. The Full Glass Bushel (Ansible Editions, 2020) contains all the columns plus additional articles from Hyphen (see The Complete BoSh).

Eastercon Speeches

From 1974–90, at Eastercon, Shaw would deliver a humorous speech, often one of his Serious Scientific Talks (which weren't), such as "The Bermondsey Triangle Mystery."

Five early examples were collected as The Eastercon Speeches (1979) edited by Rob Jackson (see The Complete BoSh); three more as Serious Science (published in 1984 by Eve Harvey and Marc Ortleib); ten, including the entire contents of the earlier collections, as A Load of Old BoSh (1995); and fourteen -- including all those previously collected -- as The Serious Scientific Talks (2019), an Ansible Editions ebook. At least one more talk, delivered in 1995, remains untraced and uncollected.

Other Collections

Almost all Shaw’s previously uncollected fanwriting has since been brought together as Slow Pint Glass (Ansible Editions, 2020).

Personal Life

Shaw was born and raised in Belfast, the eldest of three sons of a policeman, Robert William Shaw, and his wife Elizabeth (née Megaw). He attended Belfast College of Technology. Originally trained as a structural engineer, Shaw worked as an aircraft designer for Short and Harland, then as science correspondent for The Belfast Telegraph and then as publicity officer for Vickers Shipbuilding before starting to write full-time.

Shaw nearly lost his sight through illness and suffered migraine-induced visual disturbances throughout his life. He and his first wife, Sadie (née Sarah Gourley, m. 1954), and their son and two daughters, lived in Canada from 1956–58. In April 1973, during the Troubles, they moved from Northern Ireland to England, where he produced the majority of his work. Sadie died suddenly in 1991.

Shaw died of cancer. He was already ill when he married longtime American fan Nancy Tucker in December 1995 and went to the United States to live with her. They returned to England for medical care in February 1996, and he died a few days later.

• Entry in The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction.
• Entry in the Dictionary of Irish Biography.
• Obituary in the Independent February 17, 1996 by David V. Barrett

Fanzines and Apazines:

• 14 Bob the Bushel (Bruce Pelz, ed.) [1995]
• The Complete BoSh
  (Five volumes, Rob Jackson and Dave Langford, eds.):
  • The Best of the Bushel [1979]
  • The Eastercon Speeches [1979]
  • The Serious Scientific Talks [2019]
  • The Full Glass Bushel [2020]
  • Slow Pint Glass [2020]
• A Load of Old BoSh (Beccon Publications) [1995]
• 'Our 'Zine (with others) [1952]
• Perspex Parrot [mid-1990]
• Return of the Space Boggle [1950s]
• Serious Science (Eve Harvey and Marc Ortleib, eds.) [1984]

Awards, Honors and GoHships:

• 1971 -- BoSh Fund
• 1974 -- Tynecon 74
• 1976 -- SfanCon 7, British SF Association Award
• 1977 -- SfanCon 8, FAAn Award for Best Fan Writer
• 1978 -- Windycon V, FAAn Award for Best Fan Writer
• 1979 -- 1979 Best Fan Writer Hugo, Novacon 9 West, toastmaster at Seacon '79 (the 1979 Worldcon), FAAn Award for Best Fan Writer
• 1980 -- 1980 Best Fan Writer Hugo, Unicon 80, Doc Weir Award
• 1981 -- Novacon 11, DeepSouthCon 19
• 1982 -- Norwescon V, Plergbcon, Shoestringcon 4
• 1985 -- The Shaw Fund
• 1986 -- Not-Anokon 8, toastmaster for Confederation (the 1986 Worldcon), Nicon 87
• 1987 -- Rivercon XII
• 1988 -- Lucon I
• 1989 -- Picocon 7, Swancon 14, toastmaster at Swancon 14, toastmaster at VCON 17
• 1990 -- DeepSouthCon 28
• 1994 -- DeepSouthCon 32, Rebel Award
• 1995 -- Confabulation, Novacon 25, Loscon 22
• 1996 -- Past president of the FWA, Nova Award for Best Fan

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Person

1931—1996

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