Difference between revisions of "David A. Kyle"

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[[File:Dave Kyle at LAcon 4.jpg|thumb|Dave Kyle at [[L.A.con IV]] in 2006. Photo by [[Mark Olson]].]]
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[[File:Dave Kyle at LAcon 4.jpg|thumb|'''Dave Kyle at [[L.A.con IV]] in 2006.''' ''Photo by [[Mark Olson]]''.]]
 
(February 14, 1919 – September 18, 2016)
 
(February 14, 1919 – September 18, 2016)
  
'''Dave Kyle''' was an [[actifan]] from the early 1930s until his death in 2016, making his [[fannish]] career among the longest ever.  He chaired a [[Worldcon]], [[NYCon II]] in 1956, and was [[Fan GoH]] at [[Constellation]], the 1983 Worldcon.
+
'''David Ackerman''' (a portent? a twin separated at birth?) '''Kyle''' was an [[actifan]] from the early 1930s until his death in 2016, making his [[fannish]] career among the longest ever.  He chaired a [[Worldcon]], [[NYCon II]] in 1956, and was [[Fan GoH]] at [[Constellation]], the 1983 Worldcon.
  
 
As of 2011, he had attended more [[Worldcons]] than any other [[science fiction]] [[fan]] or [[pro]].  He was [[Most Senior Fan]].
 
As of 2011, he had attended more [[Worldcons]] than any other [[science fiction]] [[fan]] or [[pro]].  He was [[Most Senior Fan]].
  
For decades, Dave would walk around conventions asking fans to write an entry in a notebook he carried with him. Traditionally, you could spot Dave due to the red jacket emblazoned with a [[First Fandom]] patch that he often wore.
+
For decades, Dave would walk around [[conventions]] asking [[fans]] to write an entry in a notebook he carried with him. Traditionally, you could spot Dave clad in his bright red jacket emblazoned with a [[First Fandom]] patch.
 +
 
  
 
==Fan==
 
==Fan==
Born in Monticello, [[New York State|New York]], '''David Ackerman Kyle''' started as a [[science fiction]] fan in the early 1930s writing to the [[prozines]] and then to other fans who also wrote to them — his first [[correspondent]] was [[Forrest J Ackerman]]! He wrote his letters in purple ink and called himself the "'''Purple Bat'''."  While still in Monticello, he founded Chapter 5 of the [[Science Fiction League]] ([[Fred Pohl]] claimed that Kyle met the requirement of having at least three fans as members by adding two fictitious names, but Kyle said he had high school friends as members ... live bodies, even if they were not fans.) Chapter 5's main activity was writing letters under Dave Kyle's name.
+
Born in Monticello, [[New York State|New York]], Kyle started as a [[science fiction]] fan in the early 1930s writing to the [[prozines]] and then to other fans who also wrote to them — his first [[correspondent]] was [[Forrest J Ackerman]]! He wrote his letters in purple ink and called himself the "'''Purple Bat'''."   
  
In the mid-1930s, he went to art school in the Flat Iron Building in [[NYC]] while living in the 23rd St. YMCA.  In 1936, Kyle became a member of the [[NYBISA]], a chapter of the [[ISA]], which met at [[Will Sykora]]'s house. Even though the ISA was nominally a science club, so many fans joined that the group became an [[sf club]] and, which some argue was first organized club in [[New York]].  Kyle traveled to [[Philadelphia]] with the [[NYBISA]] late in 1936 to attend the [[First Convention]], accompanied by [[Fred Pohl]], [[Johnny Michel]], [[Don Wollheim]] and [[Will Sykora]].
+
While in Monticello, he joined the [[Science Fiction League]] (member #359) and co-founded Chapter 5. ([[Fred Pohl]] claimed that Kyle met the requirement of having at least three fans as members by adding two fictitious names, but Kyle said he had high-school friends as members ... live bodies, even if they were not fans.) Chapter 5's main activity was writing letters under Dave Kyle's name.
 +
 
 +
In the mid-1930s, he went to art school in the Flat Iron Building in [[NYC]] while living in the 23rd Street YMCA.  In 1936, Kyle became a member of the [[NYBISA]], a chapter of the [[ISA]], which met at [[Will Sykora]]'s house. Even though the ISA was nominally a science club, so many fans joined that the group became an [[sf club]], which some argue was first organized club in [[New York]].  Kyle traveled to [[Philadelphia]] with the [[NYBISA]] late in 1936 to attend the [[First Convention]], accompanied by [[Fred Pohl]], [[Johnny Michel]], [[Don Wollheim]] and [[Will Sykora]].
  
 
[[New York]] fandom was extremely fractious, and there were soon multiple clubs. Kyle stuck with his friends in [[Manhattan]], a group who became the [[Futurians]] and with whom he retained contact while he was at college in [[Alabama]] (though he finished school at Columbia).
 
[[New York]] fandom was extremely fractious, and there were soon multiple clubs. Kyle stuck with his friends in [[Manhattan]], a group who became the [[Futurians]] and with whom he retained contact while he was at college in [[Alabama]] (though he finished school at Columbia).
  
At the [[first Worldcon]] in 1939, there was a rift between the [[Futurians]] (who had originally been chosen to lead the convention) and the members of [[New Fandom]] (who replaced them).  It was expected that there might be some friction between the groups at the convention. Anticipating this, Dave Kyle published a small pamphlet he wrote titled: ''[[A Warning!]].'' Kyle hid the copies in the lobby when he entered the [[Caravan Hall]] where the convention was held. Other [[Futurians]] found the copies and started distributing them. When the convention committee learned of this, Chairman [[Sam Moskowitz]] banned them from the convention. Those banned in this first [[Great Exclusion Act]] included [[Donald A. Wollheim]], [[John Michel]], [[Frederik Pohl]], and [[Cyril Kornbluth]]. Kyle, who wrote and published the pamphlet, was not banned because he was already in the con.
+
At the [[first Worldcon]] in 1939, there was a rift between the [[Futurians]] (who had originally been chosen to lead the convention and were [[politically]] lefists) and the members of [[New Fandom]] (who replaced them and were conservatives).  Kyle published a [[Michelist]] ([[sf]]-oriented [[Communism]]) pamphlet he wrote, titled ''[[A Warning!]]'', and hid the copies in the lobby when he entered the [[Caravan Hall]] where the convention was held, but the [[convention committee]] found them, and [[Chairman]] [[Sam Moskowitz]], in the first [[Great Exclusion Act]], banned [[Donald A. Wollheim]], [[John Michel]], [[Frederik Pohl]], and [[Cyril Kornbluth]]. Kyle, who wrote and published the pamphlet, was already in the con by then.
 +
 
 +
His enthusiasm for [[fandom]] often exceeded his grasp of the consequences, such as when he brought his girlfriend, [[Lois Miles]], a [[New York]] fashion model, to the 1949 [[Worldcon]], [[Cinvention]], and without asking anyone, arranged for her to [[publicity|promote]] the [[con]] to [[Cincinnati]] news media as “[[Miss Science Fiction]],” posed in a skimpy outfit. Fandom was largely not amused. (Apparently, neither was Lois; soon afterward, she married [[Jack Gillespie]].)
  
 
In the ’50s, Kyle was at the epicenter of much [[fannish]] activity.  He headed the failed [[Amalgamated Greater New York Fan Groups in '53]] [[Worldcon bid]] and co-chaired [[Metrocon 1]] in 1953.  His next [[bid]] succeeded and he was [[chairman]] of the 1956 [[New York]] Worldcon, [[NYcon II]].   
 
In the ’50s, Kyle was at the epicenter of much [[fannish]] activity.  He headed the failed [[Amalgamated Greater New York Fan Groups in '53]] [[Worldcon bid]] and co-chaired [[Metrocon 1]] in 1953.  His next [[bid]] succeeded and he was [[chairman]] of the 1956 [[New York]] Worldcon, [[NYcon II]].   
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That's where “[[Dave Kyle Says You Can't Sit Here]]” and the [[Balcony Insurgents]] became [[fannish]] legend.  That incident was "remembered" one year at [[Lunacon]] when Dave was appointed as the usher for the VIP seating section at the [[Masquerade]], so he could tell people whether they were permitted to sit there or not.
 
That's where “[[Dave Kyle Says You Can't Sit Here]]” and the [[Balcony Insurgents]] became [[fannish]] legend.  That incident was "remembered" one year at [[Lunacon]] when Dave was appointed as the usher for the VIP seating section at the [[Masquerade]], so he could tell people whether they were permitted to sit there or not.
  
On the more controversial side, he was part of the group that created [[WSFS, Inc.]] out of the [[NYcon II]] structure, and subsequently, [[All Fandom Was Plunged Into War|Plunged All Fandom Into War]].  (See [[WSFS, Inc.]] for much more.)
+
[[File:WSFS Banner in 2001.jpg|left|thumb]]
 +
Kyle and [[Jean Carrol]] created the [[WSFS Banner]] for [[Nycon II]].
 +
 
 +
On the controversial side, he was part of the group that created [[WSFS, Inc.]], out of the [[NYcon II]] structure, and subsequently, [[All Fandom Was Plunged Into War|Plunged All Fandom Into War]].  (See [[WSFS, Inc.]], for much more.)
  
He met [[Ruth Landis]] at the [[Clevention]] in 1955. By 1956, she had moved to NYC and was [[secretary]] of [[NYcon II]].  Sometime after the Worldcon, he moved to Potsdam, NY, where he had set up a radio station.  In 1957, for their honeymoon, he organized the (in)famous [[Plane Trip]] (it got caught up in the penumbra of [[WSFS, Inc.]]) to the first non-U. S. Worldcon, [[Loncon]], in the [[U.K.]]
+
He met [[Ruth Landis]] at the [[Clevention]] in 1955. By 1956, she had moved to NYC and was [[secretary]] of [[NYcon II]].  Sometime after the Worldcon, he moved to Potsdam, NY, where he had set up a radio station.  In 1957, for their honeymoon, he organized the (in)famous [[Plane Trip]] to the first non-U.S. Worldcon, [[Loncon]], in the [[U.K.]] It got caught up in the penumbra of [[WSFS, Inc.]] and resulted in a [[legal Matters|lawsuit]].
  
 
He and his family lived in [[England]] for a time in the 1960s. He was anointed a [[Knight of St. Fantony]] and was [[co-chairman]] of the [[Syracuse in '67]] bid.
 
He and his family lived in [[England]] for a time in the 1960s. He was anointed a [[Knight of St. Fantony]] and was [[co-chairman]] of the [[Syracuse in '67]] bid.
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He took over management of the [[Big Heart Award]] from [[Forry Ackerman]] in 2000. In 2018, the award was re-named the David A. Kyle Big Heart Award.
 
He took over management of the [[Big Heart Award]] from [[Forry Ackerman]] in 2000. In 2018, the award was re-named the David A. Kyle Big Heart Award.
 +
 +
He died of complications from an endoscopy.
  
 
==Pro==
 
==Pro==
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With [[Fred Pohl]], he was a founder of the [[Hydra Club]] in the late 1940s. (The [[War]] had pretty much ended [[fannish]] activity in NYC and riding back to NY from the first post-[[War]] [[Philcon]], they had the idea of starting a club in New York. As it turned out, the Hydra Club became more of a [[pro]] association than a fan one.)
 
With [[Fred Pohl]], he was a founder of the [[Hydra Club]] in the late 1940s. (The [[War]] had pretty much ended [[fannish]] activity in NYC and riding back to NY from the first post-[[War]] [[Philcon]], they had the idea of starting a club in New York. As it turned out, the Hydra Club became more of a [[pro]] association than a fan one.)
  
Beginning in 1948, Dave was a partner in [[Gnome Press]] with [[Marty Greenberg]] and was part of the first [[Science Fiction Book Club]].  Greenberg was the idea man who found manuscripts, while Kyle handled editorial and production as well as doing art design (and sometimes the art itself.)  The very first book, ''The Carnelian Cube'', was printed by [[Kyle]]'s family printing business, but later books were done by a specialist book printer that Kyle located.  
+
Beginning in 1948, Dave was a partner in [[Gnome Press]] with [[Marty Greenberg]], which became controversial due to nonpayment of writers, and was part of the first [[Science Fiction Book Club]].  Greenberg was the idea man who found manuscripts, while Kyle handled editorial and production as well as doing art design (and sometimes the [[art]] itself.)  The very first book, ''The Carnelian Cube'', was printed by [[Kyle]]'s family printing business, but later books were done by a specialist book printer that Kyle located.  
  
 
==More About Dave==
 
==More About Dave==
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===Kyle on Kyle===
 
===Kyle on Kyle===
 
*[http://www.jophan.org/mimosa/author_list.html#kyle Fanhistory articles] in ''[[Mimosa]]''
 
*[http://www.jophan.org/mimosa/author_list.html#kyle Fanhistory articles] in ''[[Mimosa]]''
* His reminiscences of many [[Worldcons]] from the [[Noreascon Three]] [[PB]]:
+
*[[Phoxphyre#Interview with Dave Kyle|1930s reminiscences in ''Phoxphyre'']]
 +
* [http://www.jophan.org/mimosa/m09/kyle.htm “Dave Kyle Says You Can’t”] by [[Dave Kyle]], ''[[Mimosa]]'' 9 (December 1990)
 +
* Reminiscences of many [[Worldcons]] from the [[Noreascon Three]] [[PB]]:
 
** [[Nycon 1 Reminiscence (Kyle)|Nycon]]
 
** [[Nycon 1 Reminiscence (Kyle)|Nycon]]
 
** [[Loncon I Reminiscence (Kyle)|Loncon]]
 
** [[Loncon I Reminiscence (Kyle)|Loncon]]
** [[kyle-nycon-ii-reminiscence|NYCon II]]
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** [[NyCon II Reminiscence (Kyle) |NYCon II]]
** [[kyle-chicon-3-reminiscence|Chicon 3]]
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** [[Dave Kyle's Chicon 3 Reminiscence|Chicon 3]]
** [[kyle-discon-reminiscence|Discon]]
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** [[Discon I Reminiscence (Kyle) |Discon]]
 
** [[St. Louiscon Reminiscence (Kyle) |St. Louiscon]]
 
** [[St. Louiscon Reminiscence (Kyle) |St. Louiscon]]
 
** [[Discon II Reminiscence (Kyle)|Discon II]]
 
** [[Discon II Reminiscence (Kyle)|Discon II]]
** [[kyle-suncon-reminiscence|SunCon]]
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** [[SunCon Reminiscence (Kyle)|SunCon]]
 
** [[Chicon IV Reminiscence (Kyle) |Chicon IV]]
 
** [[Chicon IV Reminiscence (Kyle) |Chicon IV]]
** [[kyle-confederation-reminiscence|ConFederation]]
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** [[ConFederation Reminiscence (Kyle) |ConFederation]]
**[[kyle-conspiracy-reminiscence|Conspiracy '86]]
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** [[Conspiracy '87 Reminiscence (Kyle) |Conspiracy '87]]
** [[kyle-nolacon-ii-reminiscence|Nolacon II]]
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** [[Dave Kyle's Nolacon II Reminiscence|Nolacon II]]
  
 
{{fanzines}}
 
{{fanzines}}
 +
* ''[[Fantasy Book Club Bulletin]]''
 
* ''[[The Fantasy World]]''
 
* ''[[The Fantasy World]]''
 +
* ''[[An Important Communique to Knights and Ladies of St. Fantony]]'' [1972]
 
* ''[[Science Fiction International News]]'' [1975-76] (with [[Keith Freeman]])
 
* ''[[Science Fiction International News]]'' [1975-76] (with [[Keith Freeman]])
 
* ''[[Skylee Sun]]''
 
* ''[[Skylee Sun]]''
Line 82: Line 96:
 
* 2012 -- [[Philcon 2012]]
 
* 2012 -- [[Philcon 2012]]
 
* 2013 -- [[SFContario 4]]
 
* 2013 -- [[SFContario 4]]
 
  
 
{{person | born=1919 | died=2016}}
 
{{person | born=1919 | died=2016}}

Revision as of 11:35, 15 May 2022

Dave Kyle at L.A.con IV in 2006. Photo by Mark Olson.

(February 14, 1919 – September 18, 2016)

David Ackerman (a portent? a twin separated at birth?) Kyle was an actifan from the early 1930s until his death in 2016, making his fannish career among the longest ever. He chaired a Worldcon, NYCon II in 1956, and was Fan GoH at Constellation, the 1983 Worldcon.

As of 2011, he had attended more Worldcons than any other science fiction fan or pro. He was Most Senior Fan.

For decades, Dave would walk around conventions asking fans to write an entry in a notebook he carried with him. Traditionally, you could spot Dave clad in his bright red jacket emblazoned with a First Fandom patch.


Fan[edit]

Born in Monticello, New York, Kyle started as a science fiction fan in the early 1930s writing to the prozines and then to other fans who also wrote to them — his first correspondent was Forrest J Ackerman! He wrote his letters in purple ink and called himself the "Purple Bat."

While in Monticello, he joined the Science Fiction League (member #359) and co-founded Chapter 5. (Fred Pohl claimed that Kyle met the requirement of having at least three fans as members by adding two fictitious names, but Kyle said he had high-school friends as members ... live bodies, even if they were not fans.) Chapter 5's main activity was writing letters under Dave Kyle's name.

In the mid-1930s, he went to art school in the Flat Iron Building in NYC while living in the 23rd Street YMCA. In 1936, Kyle became a member of the NYBISA, a chapter of the ISA, which met at Will Sykora's house. Even though the ISA was nominally a science club, so many fans joined that the group became an sf club, which some argue was first organized club in New York. Kyle traveled to Philadelphia with the NYBISA late in 1936 to attend the First Convention, accompanied by Fred Pohl, Johnny Michel, Don Wollheim and Will Sykora.

New York fandom was extremely fractious, and there were soon multiple clubs. Kyle stuck with his friends in Manhattan, a group who became the Futurians and with whom he retained contact while he was at college in Alabama (though he finished school at Columbia).

At the first Worldcon in 1939, there was a rift between the Futurians (who had originally been chosen to lead the convention and were politically lefists) and the members of New Fandom (who replaced them and were conservatives). Kyle published a Michelist (sf-oriented Communism) pamphlet he wrote, titled A Warning!, and hid the copies in the lobby when he entered the Caravan Hall where the convention was held, but the convention committee found them, and Chairman Sam Moskowitz, in the first Great Exclusion Act, banned Donald A. Wollheim, John Michel, Frederik Pohl, and Cyril Kornbluth. Kyle, who wrote and published the pamphlet, was already in the con by then.

His enthusiasm for fandom often exceeded his grasp of the consequences, such as when he brought his girlfriend, Lois Miles, a New York fashion model, to the 1949 Worldcon, Cinvention, and without asking anyone, arranged for her to promote the con to Cincinnati news media as “Miss Science Fiction,” posed in a skimpy outfit. Fandom was largely not amused. (Apparently, neither was Lois; soon afterward, she married Jack Gillespie.)

In the ’50s, Kyle was at the epicenter of much fannish activity. He headed the failed Amalgamated Greater New York Fan Groups in '53 Worldcon bid and co-chaired Metrocon 1 in 1953. His next bid succeeded and he was chairman of the 1956 New York Worldcon, NYcon II.

That's where “Dave Kyle Says You Can't Sit Here” and the Balcony Insurgents became fannish legend. That incident was "remembered" one year at Lunacon when Dave was appointed as the usher for the VIP seating section at the Masquerade, so he could tell people whether they were permitted to sit there or not.

WSFS Banner in 2001.jpg

Kyle and Jean Carrol created the WSFS Banner for Nycon II.

On the controversial side, he was part of the group that created WSFS, Inc., out of the NYcon II structure, and subsequently, Plunged All Fandom Into War. (See WSFS, Inc., for much more.)

He met Ruth Landis at the Clevention in 1955. By 1956, she had moved to NYC and was secretary of NYcon II. Sometime after the Worldcon, he moved to Potsdam, NY, where he had set up a radio station. In 1957, for their honeymoon, he organized the (in)famous Plane Trip to the first non-U.S. Worldcon, Loncon, in the U.K. It got caught up in the penumbra of WSFS, Inc. and resulted in a lawsuit.

He and his family lived in England for a time in the 1960s. He was anointed a Knight of St. Fantony and was co-chairman of the Syracuse in '67 bid.

Dave created a fanzine that is often credited as being one of, if not, the first comics fanzine and in the early 1970s published Skylee Sun.

He took over management of the Big Heart Award from Forry Ackerman in 2000. In 2018, the award was re-named the David A. Kyle Big Heart Award.

He died of complications from an endoscopy.

Pro[edit]

Professionally, he wrote two profusely illustrated books on science fiction and sequels to E. E. "Doc" Smith's Lensman novels. He published the early comics fanzine The Fantasy World.

With Fred Pohl, he was a founder of the Hydra Club in the late 1940s. (The War had pretty much ended fannish activity in NYC and riding back to NY from the first post-War Philcon, they had the idea of starting a club in New York. As it turned out, the Hydra Club became more of a pro association than a fan one.)

Beginning in 1948, Dave was a partner in Gnome Press with Marty Greenberg, which became controversial due to nonpayment of writers, and was part of the first Science Fiction Book Club. Greenberg was the idea man who found manuscripts, while Kyle handled editorial and production as well as doing art design (and sometimes the art itself.) The very first book, The Carnelian Cube, was printed by Kyle's family printing business, but later books were done by a specialist book printer that Kyle located.

More About Dave[edit]

Kyle on Kyle[edit]

Fanzines and Apazines:

Awards, Honors and GoHships:


Person 19192016
This is a biography page. Please extend it by adding more information about the person, such as fanzines and apazines published, awards, clubs, conventions worked on, GoHships, impact on fandom, external links, anecdotes, etc. See Standards for People and The Naming of Names.