Third Foundation

(Did you mean the Wayne Third Foundation, a club in Detroit?)

The Third Foundation (T3F) was an L.A. club and its eponymous clubzine, both 1967–70. (The name is a reference to Isaac Asimov's Foundation Trilogy.)

The first issue was #77 ("so we would have the Spirit of '76 to inspire us"), and the last issue #105. The club's mythos was that "We were founded at the The 'End of Eternity' to make sure that Hari Seldon was born on time." The club had the right to choose the editor, but it was usually edited by Lee Klingstein (later Lee Gold)

Lee (Klingstein) Gold says "I found organized SF fandom in 1967 at Westercon XX", including filking, then "A month later I attended my first LASFS meeting with copies for sale of The Third Foundation #77 (the fanzine's first issue), containing my first filksong: Oh, What a Beautiful Martian. One of the LASFSians who sang it that night was a fellow named Barry Gold, whom I married two years later."

T3F's main area of interest was fan fiction. T3F #77 contained the first installment of a serial, "Doomed Lensmen," a takeoff on Doc Smith's Lensman universe. Later on, it included "The Tales of the Third Foundation," with successive episodes written in rotation by various members of the club.

Issue	Date	Pages	Notes
76	1967		Mythical first issue: #77 had "answers to last issues quiz" and "letters of comment" on the "previous issue".
77	1967	34	first issue; edited by James Shapiro
78	September 1967	40	edited by James Shapiro; Lee Klingstein is listed as "Ambassador from Academia"
79
80	1968	47
81	March 1968	40
82	May 1968	40	ed. Lee Klingstein
83	July 1968	41
84	September 1968	42
85	November 1968	44
86-87	January-April 1969	50
88	May 1969	40
89	July 1969	46
90	September-October 1969	56	Pages numbered 1-38, A-J. Cover by "Simpson"
91	November 1969	46
92	January 1970	42	"Year-ish". Cover by G. Barr. Internal evidence implies this was probably published in late Jan. 1970.
93	1970	42
94	1970	49
95	January 1970	45

• Third Foundation online at fanac.org.

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Publication

1967—1970

This is a publication page. Please extend it by adding information about when and by whom it was published, how many issues it has had, (including adding a partial or complete checklist), its contents (including perhaps a ToC listing), its size and repro method, regular columnists, its impact on fandom, or by adding scans or links to scans. See Standards for Publications.

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Club

1967—1970

This is a club page. Please extend it by adding information about when and where the club met, when and by whom it was founded, how long it was active, notable accomplishments, well-known members, clubzines, any conventions it ran, external links to the club's website, other club pages, etc. When there's a floreat (Fl.), this indicates the time or times for which we have found evidence that the club existed. This is probably not going to represent the club's full lifetime, so please update it if you can!