Julian Parr

(August 3, 1923 – "late" 2003)

Julian (Frederick) Parr was a UK fan active from the 1938 to at least early 1958. He was a founder of the Stoke-on-Trent Science Fiction Club and the SF Club Deutschland and a member of the British Interplanetary Society, the N3F, the BSFA and the Fortean Society.

Parr founded the Stoke-on-Trent Science Fiction Club (giving the date as 1938) and was a reader of Futurian War Digest from at least 1940. Through its pages he suggested the Fandom GPO circular correspondence system, and J. Michael Rosenblum created it in early 1941. Parr was called up for the Royal Air Force in early 1942.

In 1947, Parr served in Cologne Intelligence Section, British Army of the Rhine; in spring 1949 in the Allied Control Commission in Germany. In Then, Rob Hansen recounts that in the early 1950s Parr worked for the British Consulate-General in Düsseldorf; by 1961 he was living in nearby Cologne (Köln) and listed his job as "market research" (though this might be within the consulate's commercial section as well as elsewhere). Buhs says that around 1954 "he had returned to London for a while — he was between German gigs". Per Hansen:

He soon got in touch with the pioneer West German fans of the time, telling them about fandom in other parts of the world and assisting them as they began to build their own. In 1954 he learned that a West German publisher was going to start issuing a series of translations of British and American SF and managed to convince the editor, Walter Ernsting, to include a letter column which he hoped would help a fully-fledged fandom to develop in the country. This column, 'Meteoriten', helped inspire the formation of West Germany's first nationwide fan group, Science Fiction Club Deutschland (SFCD), in 1955, a formation that Parr played a large part in. The SFCD grew phenomenally, and soon affiliated with the many local groups springing up across the country. The fully-fledged fandom that Parr had hoped for had been born. 

Parr had SFCD member number 2, became its "foreign relations officer" and sat on its "board of directors". He reported on the Wetzcon, the first ever German SF convention in January 1956 (where he gave a talk on "SF in England"), for Triode #6 and in 1958 he was a founding member of the BSFA. He was a member of Loncon in 1957.

Science Fiction Times #322 (1 September 1958) brought within a block of GERMAN SCIENCE-FICTION NEWS by Rainer Eisfeld an item "Julian Parr Gafia":

AUGSBURG, 28 July, (CNS) - Julian Parr, German correspondent of Science-Fiction Times, left active fandom in May. […] he carried through the German HUGO polls [whatever this means] from 1956 to 1958. Compilation of the first German science-fic­tion book catalogs, Die Zukunft im Buch [The Future in a Book], was mainly his merit.

It is worth noting that even when Parr provided his entry for Who's Who in Fandom (1961), he repeatedly stressed the date:

one-time member of all German SF clubs until 1958 […] Attended German national cons in 1955 [sic!], 1956 and 1957 […] complete collection of all West German fmz published up to 1958

There is no mention of the reason for such an abrupt and loud gafiation, and it would require further research in spare contemporary UK sources, or more likely, someone with access to German ones. Buhs notes Parr repeatedly mentioned being very busy, suggesting some degree of fafiation. However, Eisfeld's first SFT item said

On February 28th, Walter Ernsting, president of the SCIENCE-FICTION CLUB EUROPA, left the SFCE and became president of the then founded SCIENCE-FICTION UNION. The SFCE remained the strongest organization with some 1500 members, but to the already existing clubs a new one has been added. Only now the resulting quarrels have calmed down somewhat. However, the development still has not reached its end. What started out as one organization in 1955 remains split and restless.

Clearly Parr could not have avoided being involved in the feud, whatever the crux of the matter was and on whichever side – with his friend and fellow founder Ernsting against majority of the membership, or parting with him. However as clearly, there was not much bad blood left; Harry Warner, Jr. wrote in A Wealth of Fable, chapter 17 called "Parr Value" (again, sadly little available):

As the 50's were winding down, one tribute (in Sirius) to Parr said that he "made an essential contribution regarding the formation of German Fandom, and its foundation would have taken place years later without his active assistance and precious advice."

Parr was an enthusiastic Fortean, and thus a close collaborator and correspondent of Eric Frank Russell; he spread Forteanism in Germany.

While not mentioned among "senior civil servants" in Beyond Fandom (and unnoticed by newszines at the time), Julian Frederick Parr was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire in wikipedia:1986 New Year Honours "for services to British commercial interests in Cologne". Buhs wrote he knew next to nothing about Parr's family, but searching for his traces also finds mentions of one Julian Parr in the UK diplomatic service in early 1920s, and another Regional Manager at Oxfam in India around 2010, with unconvential taste in clothing and cars (news description, photo); might they be three generations?

In a letter to Then, Malcolm Edwards said that Parr's fanzine collection ended up in the Science Fiction Foundation library.

Anton Ragatzy

Parr used the pseudonym Anton Ragatzy at various points. It would have to be an extreme coincidence if the name were not intended to refer to the character of the unorthodox osteopath (either he cures you or cripples you) in the 1931 and 1939 UK film (and 1923 play) The Outsider.

To VoM #27 (Sep 1943) Parr wrote, 'When Anton Ragatzy forwarded VOM to me …' Hellzapoppin (March 1941) also mentions receiving LoCs from, i. a., "…, Parr, Ragatzy, …" and what is printed from earlier ones (editor Douglas Webster commented "while Ragatzy’s criticism is reasonable, I must be spiteful & agree with JFParr") suggests he may have intended Ragatzy as an alter ego to stir the debate. Further research would be needed to see where this fell on the range from an open-secret in-joke to a serious attempt at a hoax: "He appreciated hoaxes, although he did not believe them", Buhs sums up Parr's Fortean writings.

Parr kept the pseudonym after the War for whatever reason (being an actifan under his own name in Germany, he hardly needed to hide his fanwriting), confirming it at the latest in 1961 Who's Who in Fandom. Later articles by "Ragatzy" appeared on the Continent at least in Alpha (October 1955) and “Science Fiction and Poetry” in Sol Reader (April 1962; editor Thomas Schlück's translation from Science Fiction und Dichtkunst, Sol 26, 1961). So perhaps Parr wanted to publish, but not to admit to it after his official gafiation? There was one item by Ragatzy in Sol #20 (1960) and a letter in #24 (1961), while Parr had more but only up to #15 (1959). This starts

In hope to raise an interest in science-fiction poetry, Julian Parr once started a competition in the German fanzine ANDROMEDA for the best German translation of Robert A. Heinlein's "The Green Hills of Earth".

and the editor commented rather transparently

Anton Ragatzy will probably be known to you, for he has been active in international fandom for some time. Back in the mid-fifties he was busy building up Gerfandom, but now retired from the fannish scene.

• Julian F. Parr in Internet Speculative Fiction Database
• Julian F. Parr as a Fortean, biographic article by Joshua Blu Buhs based on Parr's letters in EFR's archives
• see also the brief "Julian Parr 1923–2003" by Wolf von Witting, CounterClock #14 (May 2013), p. 6, some more discussion and a Wetzcon reminiscence follows in #16
• Parr's obituary in German is in Fandom Observer 184
• Julian Parr in German fanzine bibliography, no dates but covers
• http://www.chpr.at/artikel/p/parrjulk.htm – vice versa

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Person

1923—2003

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