Art Widner

R. Twidner at LAcon 4; Photo by Mark Olson

(September 16, 1917 – April 17, 2015)

Big, bearded Art Widner was one of the founding members of The Stranger Club, the pioneers of Boston fandom. He chaired Boskone I and Boskone II (1941 and 1942), the first two Boston SF conventions. He was one of the five people attending Boskone IV.

Along with the other members of The Stranger Club, he was Fan GoH at Noreascon 3. He was nominated for the 1946 Best Fan Writer Retro Hugo at L.A.con III in 1996.

In 1941, he organized a car pool from the East Coast to Denvention I, a very adventurous undertaking in those days which was immortalized as the Widneride. (He was an old practitioner of the ancient fannish practice of naming cars, having driven the Skylark of Foo, the Skylark of Woo-Woo, and the FooFoo Special (and he published Cruise of the Foo Foo Special.) In his younger days, he was reported to be Built Like a Gorilla.

He published over 160 fanzines, the longest running of which was YHOS (1940-45] and 1979-2001 for FAPA). He helped to published The Stranger Club fanzine Fanfare. He also published Quaro for SAPS. His publishing house was Bodacious Publications.

He helped found the N3F edited Bonfire in 1941 and 1944, and was president in 1947. He published Poll Cat. He investigated the Pseuicide. He was a member of the FAPA Brain Trust.

He invented one of the first science fiction board games, Interplanetary. It was never published commercially, but handmade versions were played at Boskone III and many later conventions.

A member of First Fandom and the First Fandom Hall of Fame, he was honored with the Big Heart Award in 1989, was the 1991 DUFF delegate and, in 2001, was selected as Past President of the Fan Writers of America for 2000. He received a Special Lifetime Achievement Award at Corflu in 2011.

He often signed his name with a variation of R. Twidner (R! Twidner).

Karen Cooper and Minicon 25 published Remember When in his honor in 1990 and in 1998, the tributezine Art Appreciation was published by Andy Hooper in his honor. ArtCon and ArtCon Millennium Edition were held in his honor. He was a longtime member of FAPA and, in 2014, was made its first (and so far only) Life Member. On August 19, 2011, while attending a birthday party for Randy Smith at Renovation, he claimed to be the World's Oldest Living Fan.

A remembrance of Widner by Jon D. Swartz was published in the May, 2015, issue (Volume 74, Number 5) of The National Fantasy Fan. An illustrated "In Memorium" by Swartz was also published in the New Series #44, 2nd Quarter 2015 issue of Scientifiction: The First Fandom Report.

Video of Rusty Hevelin Interviewing Art Widner

Fanzines and Apazines:

• Bonfire [1941, 44] (some issues)
• Boskonian
• Fanfare (some issues)
• Fighting Fan [1943]
• Poll Cat
• Quaro
• Short Shrift
• YHOS

Awards, Honors and GoHships:

• 1945 -- Boskone IV
• 1983 -- Norwescon VI
• 1986 -- Baycon '86
• 1989 -- Big Heart Award, Noreascon 3
• 1990 -- Westercon 43, Minicon 25
• 1991 -- DUFF
• 1992 -- First Fandom Hall of Fame
• 1996 -- 1946 Best Fan Writer Retro Hugo nominee
• 1999 -- Corflu 16
• 2000 -- Past president of the FWA
• 2007 -- Ditto 19
• 2011 -- FAAn Award Lifetime Achievement

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Person

1917—2015

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