Willis Discovers America
Willis Discovers America was first a serialised story published in various fanzines (see below) in the summer of 1952 when Shelby Vick was raising money for the WAW With the Crew in '52 fan fund to bring Willis to Chicon II, the 1952 Worldcon. It was, according to Dave Langford "a wildly silly imagining of Walt's first trip to the USA in 1952, written and serialized in multiple fanzines before he actually began the journey".
It was later a 24-page fanzine published by Walt Willis in May 1955, collecting the original installments with a preface and annotations. It ran in OMPA mailing 4 and FAPA 72. Copies were otherwise 1/- or 15¢.
Ethel Lindsay in Scottishe 4 (September 1955) proclaimed it, "A beautiful job, ranking with The Enchanted Duplicator. I read it avidly and particularly appreciated the footnotes. Undoubtedly the best in the [OMPA] mailing." John Brunner in Pogrom 3 was similarly impressed: "I thoroughly enjoyed all of it. Ah, happy daze! When a piece can create nostalgia in someone who hasn't even got the memories to nostalge over, that's really something." [
Over in FAPA, Harry Warner in Horizons 64 was more nuanced: "Not quite the very finest of Willis humor, no matter what the author thinks. But it is so close to that apex that it makes no difference. The only real fault is the effort to reproduce Pogo-type dialogue, which sounds more like Amos 'n' Andy. ... There's no footnote for 'Unendurable pleasure indefinitely prolonged'. Surely you don't believe that the younger fans know by instinct that this was Moskowitz' most famous remark?"
Bob Pavlat in Contour 8 noted, "Like most fans, I'd read bits and pieces of this in other fanzines. Was glad to see the entire article under one cover, and hope the same is shortly done with the Harp Stateside."
It was reissued again in Void 23–28, January 1961 to February 1962, with further annotations.
The original appearances were:
- Chapter 1 in Confusion 8 (?April 1952) edited by Shelby Vick
- Chapter 2 in Quandry 20 (May 1952) edited by Lee Hoffman
- Chapter 3 in Confusion 9 (?May 1952)
- Chapter 4 in Quandry 21 (June 1952)
- Chapter 5 in Confusion 10 (June 1952)
- Chapter 6 in Mad Special Issue (?July 1952) edited by Dick Ryan
- Chapter 7 in Confusion 11 (August 1952)
- Chapter 8 in Oopsla! 6 (July 1952) edited by Gregg Calkins
- Chapter 9 in Fantasias Special Issue (?July/August 1952) edited by Dave English
- Chapter 10 in Confusion Special PreChicon Issue (August 1952)
- Willis Discovers America and other fan fiction ebook at taff.org.uk.
| Publication | 1952 |
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