Charles Eric Maine

(January 21, 1921 – November 30, 1981)

Charles Eric Maine was the pen name of David McIlwain, a UK fan from Liverpool active in the 1930s and 1940s who later turned pro. He attended the Second British Convention in London in 1938 and the third in 1939. He was a member of the Science Fiction Association (SFA), joining in September 1938, and an enthusiastic Esperantist.

As Maine he is best known for several SF serials published in the 1950s and 1960s. He also wrote detective thrillers under the pen names Richard Rayner and Robert Wade. His first radio play, 'Spaceways', became a novel as well as a movie. His last SF novel was Alph (1972).

As McIlwain he co-edited some issues of The Satellite with John F. Burke and contributed to Novae Terrae and The Fantast in the 1930s, and produced his own Gargoyle and Jen, the latter in Esperanto, in the early 1940s. He occasionally used the 'Charles Eric Maine' penname for fanzine publications but most of his fan work appeared as by McIlwain. He was one of the authors of the 'Citadel of Dreams' round robin serial along with Frank Wilson, C. S. Youd and Burke.

According to Then he sought conscientious objector status during the Second World War but it was either declined or he changed his mind as he was called up to the Royal Air Force in Summer 1941.He was posted to No. 1 Signals School in Cranwell alongside Eric Frank Russell and Roland Forster so inevitably they formed an sf group. He was posted to North Africa in 1943.

C. S. Youd wrote in a letter to Relapse that after the War Burke and McIlwain moved south 'and attached themselves and were among our ranks of would-be writers'.

He played an unspecified instrument in a swing trio with Burke.

• Entry in The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction
• Charles Eric Maine in Internet Speculative Fiction Database

Fanzines and Apazines:

• Forerunner [1940]
• Gargoyle [1940–41]
• Jen [1941]
• The Satellite [1938–40] (with John F. Burke)

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Person

1921—1981

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