Leon Pois

(January 16, 1891 – November 1965)

Leon Pois was a magazine collector and presumably dealer from New York. In 1934 he claimed to be the 'world's largest individual holder of scientification magazines' although it would be stretching a point to call him a fan as according to Donald Wollheim he also claimed that he'd never read a copy.

In 1999 UK fan Greg Pickersgill found a rubber stamp on the contents page of an issue of Amazing Stories from September 1927.

YVETTE & ODETTE POIS
2101 GRAND CONCOURSE, NEW YORK
WORLD'S LARGEST HOLDERS OF SCIENTIFIC FICTION MAGAZINES

The use of the term 'scientific fiction' pointed to these being potential old-time magazine dealers with the stamp perhaps even being contemporary with the magazine's publication. But who were they?

An annotation in Vin¢ Clarke's fanzine catalogue led to something Donald Wollheim wrote about one Leon Pois in his 'Sun Spots' column for Phantagraph V4 #1 (July 1935):

Leon Pois is the world's largest holder of science fiction magazines but has never read a copy! He accumulates stf magazines purely for the investment, as he thinks they will go on increasing in prices. 'Whenever I have a chance to obtain a copy, I buy it. My reward will come in time' he says. This is a man to watch out for. A pure profiteer and hoarder of copies, who himself derives no enjoyment from them.

Did Wollheim, then resident in New York himself, know Pois?

Pois also wrote a letter to Astounding that was published in the August 1934 issue:

I wonder whether any of your readers can challenge my contention of being the world's largest individual holder of scientification magazines. I am the proud possessor of about 1,700 copies, which I have been collecting for years, as I think they will have quite some value in time.

Mike Ashley's The Time Machines: The Story of the Science-Fiction Pulp Magazines from the Beginning to 1950 identifies about 600 issues of science fiction and fantasy magazines published until the end of 1934, suggesting Pois had an average of three copies of everything, many more if he were adopting a more purist approach to 'scientification magazines' and excluding overt fantasy titles.

It's unclear how long Pois carried on accumulating magazines against the day when he could realise his investment. Presumably he did start to sell them, trading on his claim to be the 'world's largest holder of scientific fiction magazines'.

Online records say that Leon Pois married Rachel 'Ray' Pois (née Zebrenetsky) and they had two daughters, Odette and Yvette. Leon Pois died in 1965.

In Novae Terrae #17 (October 1937) contains an offer from 'Messrs Yvette and Odette Pois ... the world's largest dealers in science-fiction magazines' to supply back numbers of prozines to members of the (British) Science Fiction Association at a 10% discount. This suggests that the name of the daughters was on the business as early as 1937.

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Person

1891—1965

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