R. Rowland Johnson
(January 12, 1927 – )
Roy Rowland Johnson was a fan from Leicester, UK active in the early 1940s. He attended Norcon and Norcon II and was the 'director' of the Midvention held in his home city in 1943. He was a member of the British Fantasy Society.
In a profile piece in Futurian War Digest #31 he self described:
Read first sf yarn, The Last Rocket to Venus, in a boys' 'blood-&-thunder' magazine, The Hotspur – in 1939. Discovered a Fantasy in an older friend's house, tried to get hold of another copy, and eventually, in early 1940, obtained two issues of Science-Fiction. Meanwhile, had read a couple of Verne's classics. Soon discovered A. W. Gardner liked s-f, and he introduced me to Astounding ... Received specimen-copy of Fido in May '41, and subscribed a few months later. "Met" Jack Gibson and SFX in November '41 and have had several parcels from him. (Visited him last August.) Had sub. to ASF for 1942, & hope to get one also for '43. Expect to go on reading s-f until at least 2000 A.D.... Oh! yes - I almost forgot: I'm a cynic, an atheist, and a misanthrope.
He published three issues of The Mighty Atom, nicknamed Mite, in 1942–3. All were distributed with Futurian War Digest.
Futurian War Digest #24 (October 1942) carried an announcement that Johnson was 'working on the idea of a Midland Convention'. #25 carried a report by Johnson as a rider, saying that the convention was planned for Birmingham but it was later moved to Leicester, Johnson's home city. This was the Midvention, the first British convention since 1939. A Midventionette followed in 1944. Johnson produced publications for both, and the pre-convention 'Reports' for Midvention may be the first progress reports issued by a UK convention.
Futurian War Digest #29 (July 1943) reported plans for a British Fantasy Amateur Press Association (BFAPA) with Johnson as one of its three sponsors. There is no evidence that it ever came into existence.
On September 18, 1943 he was visited by Gus Willmorth who described him in Fan Slants #2:
... he is just prior to University age, having just passed his matriculation exams. At present he attends the sixth form of the English public school. His stf collection is small, being composed of a few years of Astounding and several books. I rather imagine that he has read considerable others, probably obtaining them thru the BFS library... He has written numerous stories, all unfinished, and publishes a fan mag, Mite, of which there have been three issues in the past year. Personality; of middle height, rather slim, wears glasses, has blond hair, light complexioned, and has a great deal of ego as have most fans, has reached the age where girls are being noticed but I doubt if he is old enough to get bitten. Has a brother-in-law in America and regards our country as a sort of Paradise. (Along with several million soldiers).
Johnson doesn't seem to have been in evidence after 1945 aside from a brief appearance in J. Michael Rosenblum's New Futurian #3 (Autumn 1954) where after admitting that he had burned his fanzine collection a couple of weeks earlier he said:
My own interest [in fandom] had indeed died long ago, during my university days in fact, and I wonder now whether any revival is possible, likely, or desirable. I regard the old Fan days, enjoyable as they were, as merely a stage in my mental and emotional development, and in some respects a rather puerile one at that: Frankly, when I remember some of the things we did and said and wrote, I feel embarrassed at having been so foolish... Strange, that, for the youthful extravagances I took part in during, for example, student Rags and the like, cause no such embarrassment, even though I recognise that they, equally, belong to the past.
However, in 2003 he contacted Rob Hansen having found references to himself and Midvention online. Sadly, it seems he did not live up to his 1944 aspiration 'to go on reading s-f until at least 2000 A.D' as he said it was something he used to read 'long ago'.
- Midlands Science-Fiction Convention Report [1942–3] (progress reports for the Midvention)
- The Mighty Atom [1943]
| Person | 1927— |
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