W. Arthur Gibson

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W. Arthur Gibson c.1943, courtesy of Rob Hansen.

(1898 – ????)

Dr W. Arthur Gibson was a UK fan from Scotland active from the 1930s and 1940s. Futurian War Digest #28 (May 1943) described him as “one of Britain’s oldest and staunchest fantasts”. He was a member of the Science Fiction Association (SFA), British Fantasy Society (BFS) and of the Science Fantasy Society (SFS).

He described his background as “liberalism (paternal side) and ‘singing the Red Flag’ (maternal side)”. He joined the army in 1917, was wounded and discharged the following year, and subsequently qualified as a dentist. He was a “science fiction addict from early infancy”, progressing from comics such as Magnet through H. G. Wells and Jules Verne to United States prozines from 1929. Favourite writers as of 1943 included John W. Campbell, E. E. Smith, Stanley Weinbaum and Robert A. Heinlein. (Details and quotes from Futurian War Digest #28.)

He was fluent in Esperanto and wrote a science fiction story “Sola sur la Tero” which was published in Esperanto Internacia from 1942. Perhaps because of this shared interest he was a correspondent of Forrest J Ackerman who visited Gibson in 1951.

He attended Festivention in 1951 and Loncon I in 1957.


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