Leon Pois
(January 16, 1891 – November 1965)
Leon Pois was a magazine collector and dealer from New York in the 1930s and perhaps earlier and later. In 1934 he claimed to be the 'world's largest individual holder of scientification magazines' although it would be stretching a point to call him a fan as according to Donald Wollheim he also claimed that he'd never read a copy.
In 1999 UK fan Greg Pickersgill found a rubber stamp on the contents page of an issue of Amazing Stories from September 1927.
YVETTE & ODETTE POIS 2101 GRAND CONCOURSE, NEW YORK WORLD'S LARGEST HOLDERS OF SCIENTIFIC FICTION MAGAZINES
The use of the term 'scientific fiction' pointed to these being potential old-time magazine dealers with the stamp perhaps even being contemporary with the magazine's publication. But who were they?
An annotation in Vin¢ Clarke's fanzine catalogue led to something Donald Wollheim wrote in his 'Sun Spots' column for Phantagraph V4 #1 (July 1935):
Leon Pois is the world's largest holder of science fiction magazines but has never read a copy! He accumulates stf magazines purely for the investment, as he thinks they will go on increasing in prices. 'Whenever I have a chance to obtain a copy, I buy it. My reward will come in time' he says. This is a man to watch out for. A pure profiteer and hoarder of copies, who himself derives no enjoyment from them.
The surname and again that claim 'world's largest holder' point to a connection. Did Wollheim, then resident in New York himself, know Pois?
Leon Pois himself also wrote a letter to Astounding, confirming the connection by using the same 2101 Grand Concourse address. It was published in the August 1934 issue:
I wonder whether any of your readers can challenge my contention of being the world's largest individual holder of scientification magazines. I am the proud possessor of about 1,700 copies, which I have been collecting for years, as I think they will have quite some value in time.
Mike Ashley's The Time Machines: The Story of the Science-Fiction Pulp Magazines from the Beginning to 1950 identifies about 600 issues of science fiction and fantasy magazines published until the end of 1934, suggesting Pois had an average of three copies of everything, many more if he were adopting a more purist approach to 'scientification magazines' and excluding overt fantasy titles.
It's unclear whether Pois was at this point accumulating magazines against the day when he could realise his investment or whether he was a dealer all along. He certainly did start to sell them at some point, trading on his claim to be the 'world's largest holder of scientific fiction magazines'.
The UK fanzine Novae Terrae #17 (October 1937) contains an offer from 'Messrs Yvette and Odette Pois ... the world's largest dealers in science-fiction magazines' to supply back numbers of prozines to members of the (UK) Science Fiction Association at a 10% discount.
So where did the name 'Yvette and Odette Pois' come from?
Online records say that Leon Pois married Rachel 'Ray' Pois (née Zebrenetsky) and they had two daughters, Odette and Yvette. Leon Pois died in 1965.
So the name of the Pois daughters was on the business as early as 1937 and maybe earlier. However, Yvette at least was far too young to have been running the operation – she was seemingly born in 1928 – implying that for whatever reason Leon Pois used his daughters' names for the business rather than his own.
It's unclear how long the business continued or whether Odette and Yvette ever had a role in it beyond providing its name.
| Person | 1891—1965 |
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