Douglas W. F. Mayer

Doug Mayer, courtesy of Rob Hansen.

(August 22, 1919 – October 12, 1976)

Douglas W. F. 'Doug' Mayer was a fan from Leeds active from the 1930s to the early 1950s.

Mayer was the founder, along with George Airey and Herbert Warnes, of Chapter 17 of the Science Fiction League (SFL), the first in the UK. Their first meeting was held in May 1935 and by the end of the year they had about 12 members. He was one of the prime movers behind the 1937 Leeds Convention where he was appointed conference secretary. He subsequently edited the official souvenir report. He was active in the business part of the convention, proposing several motions, and he was appointed founding secretary of the Science Fiction Association (SFA) in February 1937. Immediately after the convention Mayer moved that the Leeds group should formally secede from the SFL and become the Leeds SFA. Not everybody welcomed this, notably J. Michael Rosenblum. Mayer later attended the Second British Convention in London in 1938.

He edited three issues of Amateur Science Stories for the Science Fiction Association of Leeds, England, which gave him the distinction of publishing Arthur C. Clarke's first published short story.

He published seven issues of the fanzine Tomorrow, which in 2014 was nominated for the 1939 Best Fanzine Retro Hugo Award. He published a very early bibliography, British Science-Fiction Bibliography in 1937.

In addition, Mayer published articles in Scientific American and Discovery. But he had a real-life brush with stf. Rob Hansen in his fanzine Then, quoted one of his fellow Leeds group members as saying

"...he [Mayer] also wrote a science column for the local paper, The Yorkshire Evening Post. From papers and information gathered at the university he deduced that the atomic bomb was now more than just a possibility. He mentioned this in his column and as a result the editor had no choice but to refer the matter to 'higher authority', who promptly whisked him away to London, where he became one of the famous 'backroom boys'. From then on we had no contact with Douglas nor any news of him until after the war...

In the 1945 Directory of Anglo-Fandom his name is marked with an X, indicating 'his connection with fandom is known to be finally severed'. This was a little premature as he did later attend the Festivention in 1951 but emigrated to Canada in 1956 and seemingly had no more fannish involvement.

Fanzines and Apazines:

• Amateur Science Stories [1937–8]
• The Purpose of Science Fiction [?–1939]
• Tomorrow [1937–8]

Awards, Honors and GoHships:

• 2014 – 1939 Best Fanzine Retro Hugo nominee

Links

• Entry in The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction
• Douglas W. F. Mayer in Internet Speculative Fiction Database

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Person

1919—1976

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