A History of Fandom in 100 Documents
Revision as of 23:59, 17 October 2022 by Leah Zeldes Smith (talk | contribs)
What hundred documents tell the story of fandom? We're not talking history books here, but documents and articles which themselves formed our culture from the earliest days until today.
The list is just starting.
| Year | Document | Author/Editor | -Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1926 | Amazing Stories, April | Hugo Gernsback | Inaugural issue of the first science-fiction magazine. |
| 1927 | First Fan Letter with Address, Amazing Stories, August | John Mackay | The first letter written to a prozine letter column published with a fan's address, a necessary baby step towards fandom. |
| 1930 | First ish of The Planet, July | Allen Glasser | The clubzine of The Scienceers, considered the First Fanzine. |
| 1934 | Announcement of the formation of the Science Fiction League, Wonder Stories, May | Hugo Gernsback | The SFL, probably the single most important fan organization of the 1930s, advanced the first protofans’ collective self awareness. |
| Announcement of the Society for the Prevention of Wire Staples in Science Fiction Magazines, Astounding Stories, November | Bob Tucker | Launch of the Great Staple War. | |
| 1937 | First mailing of FAPA, August | Don Wollheim and John Michel | The first fan apa. |
| 1938 | S. F. Checklist 1, October | R. D. and F. N. Swisher | Launch of a project of making a listing of all the fanzines that ever appeared anywhere, now being continued on this site. |
| 1939 | A Warning! | Dave Kyle | The yellow pamflet of Michelist agitprop that Kyle pubbed for the First Worldcon, triggering the first Exclusion Act. |
| 1948 | Ah! Sweet Idiocy! | Francis Towner Laney | FTL’s gafiation fanoir. |
| 1954 | The Enchanted Duplicator | Walt Willis and Bob Shaw | Possibly the most reprinted work in fandom, The Enchanted Duplicator is an allegory which crystallized a particular image of what fandom ought to be and gave shape to fandom's future. |
| 1955 | The Neo-Fan's Guide | Bob Tucker | Tucker’s essential introduction to fandom. |
| “The March of Slime” | MaD Productions | The introduction of blog. | |
| 1960 | SaFari Annual 1: Who Killed Science Fiction? | Earl and Nancy Kemp | Results of a poll on the subject by 71 BNFs and pros. |
| 1961 | SaFari Annual 2: Why Is a Fan? | Earl and Nancy Kemp | Dozens of fans' opinions on what brought people into fandom. |
| 1963 | The Great Breen Boondoggle, or All Berkeley Is Plunged into War | Bill Donaho | The first public sally in the Breendoggle. |
| 1965 | Discon 1 Guide | George Scithers | A long document describing how Scithers ran Discon I, the 1963 Worldcon. It is noteworthy because it describes in interesting detail how a Worldcon was run back when they were still small. |
| Fanhistory |
| This is a fanhistory page. Please add more detail. |
