Dick Eney
(September 13, 1932 – December 22, 2006)
Richard H. “Dick” Eney (Dikini and Diccon F. in the SCA, and Frank M. Ford in some fanzine reviews), a fan and publishing jiant, lived mainly in the Washington, DC, area. Most famously, in 1959, he published Fancyclopedia 2, a 200+ page encyclopedia of fandom and fannish lore, based on and greatly expanded from the 1944 original Fancyclopedia by Jack Speer. (He also did an addendum in 1960 which was bound with the 1959 version and in 1962, the Rejected Canon/Fancyclopedia 2. In 1968 he published FANCYCLOPDigest, a shorter collection of just the good stuff.) He published numerous other fanzines since discovering fandom in 1949.
He was made a Knight of St. Fantony in 1965. He was Fan GoH at L.A.con II, the 1984 Worldcon.
He was a member of WSFA and served in multiple offices. Eney worked on committees for Discon I, Discon II, and Constellation. A regular participant in filk circles, he was toastmaster at Conterpoint 1993. He served as OE of FAPA and SAPS and was a member of The Cult and the Washington in '77 Worldcon bid. In 1970, Eney ran for TAFF, losing to Ron Ellik.
He was a member of the N3F (and edited Tightbeam 28 in November 1964.) With Alva Rogers, he reprinted Francis Towner Laney's Ah! Sweet Idiocy!. Operation Crifanac was his publishing house. And, of course, It's Eney's Fault!.
Professionally, he was employed by the US Agency for International Development, a branch of the State Department that handles international foreign aid and humanitarian assistance. There was a wide-spread rumor that he was involved in covert activities while in Vietnam, which Eney thought might have been started by John Boardman after he referred to himself as being employed by 'The Agency' without mentioning which Agency.
In an issue of Boardman's fanzine Graustark, Eney was described as a warmongering CIA double agent. In a case of "life imitating art", Eney reports that he was once approached by the super-secret U.S. National Security Agency, but "when they found out that I published fanzines, they backed off. They must have thought that showed I was too social and communicative."
He was in Vietnam from 1966 until early 1970s, stationed in Saigon, in Kien Phong province, and in Can Tho (in the Mekong River delta). In mid 1966, he was nearly hit by machine gun fire when South Vietnam sentries were shooting wildly at a suspected Viet Cong terrorist. He said, "I haven't ducked for cover so fast in years!"
He continued to be an active fan, publishing Curse You, Red Baron!, a letter substitute which was about Vietnam as he saw and experienced it. He managed to keep his membership in The Cult, though it was downgraded from the active roster, and managed to publish Fantasy Rotators from Vietnam.
He managed to visit other places in Southeast Asia besides Vietnam; during in the 60s, he published the first ever fanzines mailed from Hong Kong, Macau, and Bangkok, and in the 80s, on other assignments for AID, went on to publish the first fanzines from Tanzania, Kenya, Djibouti, and Addis Ababa.
Eney was married to fellow fan Tamar Lindsay.
His publications included
- Avanc (for The Cult)
- Bilgewarp (with Lee Jacobs, and H. Warren Felkel)
- Bixeltype (with Alva Rogers for OMPA)
- Century Note (for OMPA)
- Curse You, Red Baron!
- Discon I Proceedings
- the Discon I Report
- Discon Progress Reports
- Discon Program Book
- Discon II Program Book
- Egoboo for You, FAPA File
- Guide to the Greek and Roman Gods
- It's Eney's Fault!
- In Part Scal'd
- Keebird (for OMPA)
- Nudity (for FAPA)
- One/Fourteen (for OMPA)
- Persephone in Elysium
- Phenotype (for OMPA)
- Protoplast
- Report from the Forgotten Past, (for SAPS)
- Ring Cycle
- Rock Around the CONUS
- Roc-Kon I
- The SAPS Index (for SAPS)
- A Sense of FAPA
- Shelta Thari (for OMPA)
- Snake Pit (for FAPA)
- Speculative Review (for OMPA)
- Spy Ray and Spy Ray Supplement (both for SAPS)
- Stupifying Stories (for OMPA)
- Target: FAPA (for FAPA)
- Target of Opportunity (for FAPA).
Awards, Honors and GoHships:
- 1965 — Knight of St. Fantony
- 1984 — L.A.Con II
| Person | 1932—2006 |
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