Tolkien Society of America
(Do you mean the later American Tolkien Society or the (British) Tolkien Society?)
The TSA was the first J. R. R. Tolkien club in the United States. It was founded by high-school student Dick Plotz and others in February, 1965. Like the Tolkien Society in the UK, the TSA had local groups also called smials. Memberships soon topped 2000 and Plotz, who had started college at Harvard! His grades suffered as he tried to continue running the TSA and on Labor Day 1967, Ed Meskys took over running the organization.
Under Meskys, the TSA held a Yulemoot (a winter special meeting with speakers — basically a mini-convention) in Manhattan, a spring meeting at Boskone, and a meeting at Worldcon. The last meeting under Meskys was at Noreascon I in 1971. Speakers at the meetings included W. H. Auden, John Boardman, Peter S. Beagle, Lester del Rey and Cory Seidman. Secondary Universe II was also its second conference.
Membership continued to hover around 2000, and Meskys got additional help: Paul Novitski managed the smials and John Closson designed buttons (which were very popular at the time) and managed button sales. Archie Mercer became British agent and published The Middle-Earthworm for British members.
In 1972, with Meskys having gone blind, it merged with the Mythopoeic Society.
| Club | 1965—1972 |
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