 {{ 
We were very pleased by the number of letters we received in response to
Mimosa 21. We've said it before: letters of comment are the energy
source that keeps fan editors like us publishing. Even though we can't publish
every letter we receive, we want to let you know that all your comments,
whether or not they appear here in the Letters Column, are collected and sent on to
the contributors. Our contributors value the feedback as much as we do, so please
continue to send us your comments. There were two items that received
the much of our readers' comments this time -- Mike Resnick's fine article about the
fandom-related books in his personal library, and Julia Morgan-Scott's whimsical
cover for M21 that featured a runaway stagecoach, a western saloon, and
jaywalking armadillo ladies. We'll get to Mike's article shortly, but first some
comments on the cover. }}- - - - - - - - - -
Pamela J. Boal, Wantage, Oxon, United Kingdom Thank you so much for Mimosa
21, a number that would have had significance except that Mimosa came of age
almost from its inception. What a marvellous cover! It has everything -- humour,
good design, excellent drawing and reproduction. Have I just been lacking
observation or is this a first cover for Julia Morgan-Scott? Surely if she had
produced such work before I would have remembered her name. I'd be interested in
finding out a bit about her technique, it looks like scraperboard and yet I wonder
because of the confident flow of the execution.{{
You are correct; Julia did use scratchboard for the cover of M21. That was
her first cover for us, though she's been a contributor in many other issues (check
out her Letters Column illustration on page 36 of
Mimosa 19). We hope to have another cover from her soon. }}- - - - - - - - - -
Brad Foster, Irving, TexasWow, what an absolutely amazing
cover by Julia on Mimosa #21!! Scratchboard seems to be a dying art (with
pen and ink running a close second), and to see such an incredibly well done piece
that is also such a fun image with so much happening, well, it's like yet another in
a long line of really knockout covers for Mimosa. How do you manage to keep
getting these?{{
That's really the least of our worries. There are so many good fan artists now that
getting good cover art is not a problem. It's almost enough incentive to make us
publish more often -- until we remember what the publication costs are! }}- - - - - - - - - -
William Breiding, Tucson, Arizona I think Bill Mallardi definitely
ought to degafiate. His piece on Joni Stopa {{"I
Remember Joni" }} was fabulous (aside from a couple too many exclamation
points there at the end!), and if there is any reality to the fandom-as-family thing,
Bill got pretty close to proving it with this fine appreciation-cum-memoir. I think
I met Joni just once at an Autoclave. She was sitting at a round table with Jackie
Causgrove and Suzi Stefl and myself and I was being quizzed by them all. I'm sorry
I didn't know Joni.{{
As we were preparing this issue's letters column, we received the news of the passing
of Jackie Causgrove. She had been in ill health for quite some time, so it wasn't
entirely unexpected; Midwestcons won't be the same without her presence. }}And I can't let Julia Morgan-Scott's
wonderful cover go unmentioned. I studied it for a long, long time. Particularly
the scratch work on grandpa and the babes on the balcony. The cover of Mimosa 21 is
great. It is nice to see somebody using scratchboard again! The use of it here is
excellent, and I love the whimsy of the design. And I hope I'm forgiven if I
wistfully assume the Armadilly wimmen made it to the doorway and avoided becoming
stagecoach roadkill.In your Opening Comments {{"A Tale of Two Worldcons" }}, your convention
reminiscences reminded me of my own first worldcon, the year before yours: SunCon,
Miami Beach, 1977. I attended with an old friend who was not only at her first
worldcon, but her first con of any sort. We were both a bit lost, but we had fun
despite being unaware of any of the activities available. I don't feel quite the
same sense of wonder at worldcons anymore, but I still do feel that I've crammed
weeks of enjoyment into those four or five days and it is still hard to return to
the real world each time.- - - - - - - - - -
Robert Lichtman, Glen Ellen, California Your jointly-written account of
LoneStarCon was enjoyable reading, and I have a couple of comments: "Were we really
that way once?" Some of us were, not all. I was sometimes, actually rarely, but
mostly I was a bookish type who loved to occasionally rock out. Despite my
particular pleasure with this column, I have always wished that ya'll would have a
stronger individual editorial presence in Mimosa. When you do have
individual columns, they tend to be mostly brief and business-like. Your longer
stuff is always jointly written. While it's generally good, I miss your individual
voices on these subjects.{{
Ah, the pressures of trying to write something both interesting and related to the
issue's theme, in only a limited amount of space. Part of the terseness you
perceive is a result of having to make things fit. This issue, for instance, will
run 52 pages, and after space has been allotted for everything else, there are only
three pages left over for Opening and Closing Comments. At any rate, we seem to
have fallen into a pattern lately where we do a jointly-written Opening Comments for
issues of Mimosa that immediately follow a convention trip (such as
LoneStarCon, which we wrote about last time). These combined editorials are actually
harder to write, but when we're on the same topic, it avoids redundancy. }}It was interesting how, in Dave
Kyle's memories of and comments on Sam Moskowitz {{
"SaM -- Fan Forever" }}, he's more detailed with his criticisms of SaM than
in his previous articles mentioning him, in Nos. 6 and 20. Elsewhere, Arnie Katz
has also written about SaM's feuds and foibles. I concur with Dave in hoping that
SaM's archive remain intact and becomes accessible for researchers.But the real jewel of this issue is
Mike Resnick's lengthy survey of "The Literature of Fandom." Of the items he lists
that I don't have, I most faunch for the Proceedings volumes and for Jay Kay Klein's
photo surveys. Aside from a number of photo covers on and photo sections in various
fanzines over the years, the only thing I've got along those lines is the 1965 LASFS
Album, published on the occasion of its 1,500th meeting. It was photos of LASFSers
from the 1930s on.There are some items Mike apparently
does not have that are worth mentioning to supplement his article:Another volume of SaM's fanhistorical
writings, After All These Years, appeared in 1991 from Niekas Publications.
It's most noteworthy for a lot of autobiographical details going back to
childhood.Asimov's later autobiographical
volume, I, Asimov: A Memoir, also deals extensively with the author's
involvement in fandom.Lester del Rey wrote The World of
Science Fiction: The History of a Subculture with a fair amount of mention of
fandom.There's also John Robert Colombo's
Years of Light: A Celebration of Leslie A. Croutch, a 200-page trade paperback
published in Hounslow Press. Although most of the focus is on Pioneering Canadian
fan Croutch, there's a lot of general Canadian fanhistory and it's worth a read.Another Carl Brandon volume besides
Cacher of the Rye might still be available: The Portable Carl Brandon,
put out by Jerry Kaufman for the 1988 Corflu. That same year, he also reprinted
The Incompleat Terry Carr, Volume 1, also possibly still in print. Jerry was
also responsible for a couple of collections of individuals' writings:
Sweetmeats, collecting the writing of Sandra Miesel, and The Best of Susan
Wood.And I'm perhaps most surprised that
Mike doesn't have a copy of Anthony Boucher's 1942 Rocket to the Morgue, in
which a thinly-disguised LASFS is part of the story. I was overwhelmed by the egoboo of
being mentioned in Mike Resnick's selection from the literature of fandom; in fact I
put on an old propeller beanie and wandered around the house uttering profound
apophthegms like "Goshwowohboyohboyohboy!" until Hazel asked me to stop.Apparently one bit of evidence for
Frederic Wertham's lack of in-depth study of fanzines is his logical deduction that
a GoH is a convention's Guard of Honour... A suggested addition to Mike's list
of fannish Novels is Diana Wynne Jones's Deep Secret, published over here by
Gollancz in November 1997. This is a funny and exciting science-fantasy, a large
part of which is set at a British Eastercon in a barely disguised version of the
Adelphi Hotel (Liverpool; site of many Eastercons), with elements borrowed from the
Britannia International Hotel (London Docklands; Eastercon, Fantasycon, World Fantasy
Con). It's somehow very characteristic of Diana that the final clash of forces from
various parts of the multiverse should take place in the con hall while the harassed
GoH is trying to deliver his speech.Further novels whose action takes
place at conventions (at least partly) are Vanna Bonta's 1995 'quantum fiction' novel
Flight, which looks set to become a revered classic among turkeys, and Norman
Spinrad's unpublished He Walked Among Us, an extract from which appears on
his web site. But the only omission from Mike's list that I found slightly
surprising was Anthony Boucher's murder mystery Rocket to the Morgue (1942),
which lacks a convention scene but has plenty of fannish conversation and thinly
concealed sf-writer characters.{{ Mike was expecting that Rocket to the
Morgue and He Walked Among Us would be singled out as omissions. Here's
what he had to say about them:"Please point out that the article stated it never meant to be all-encompassing, but simply listed what was in my collection! Norman's book is unsold and doesn't count, and Rocket to the Morgue is filled with Tuckerized pros, not fen." }} Other items from my own collection
include a clutch of UK fanthologies like Mood 70 (ed. Kevin Smith) and By
British (ed. Ian Maule and Joseph Nicholas), both published for the 1979
Brighton worldcon; Now Read On (ed. Rob Hansen), published for
Conspiracy `87; and Embryonic Journey (ed. Graham James [1987]).
Somewhere, mislaid, are copies of Eric Bentcliffe's When Yngvi Was A Louse,
reprinting 1950s British fanwriting, and Linda Krawecke's Tiger Tea, with
material from the all-female APA, The Women's Periodical.Then there's Rob Hansen's
Then, a conscientious if not very stylish history of British fandom whose four
volumes (so far) cover the `30s and `40s, the `50s, the `60s and the `70s; and D.
West's remarkable collections of his own articles, Fanzines in Theory and in
Practice (1984) and Deliverance (1995). Also there are all those further
fan memoirs -- but not enough -- in the form of fan fund trip reports....Speaking of which, there's a tiny
error in Bill Mallardi's memoir of Joni Stopa -- trivial, but something which should
have been spotted by the eagle-eyed historian of `60s fandom! Ella Parker didn't
come to the U.S. as a TAFF winner; her journey was assisted by the one-off Parker
Pond Fund which spontaneously formed after she'd announced her trip plans at the
1961 Eastercon.{{ Many people who wrote us gave other suggestions
(which we're forwarding to Mike) for inclusion in a 'dream list' of books about
fandom. Among them were Ed Meskys and John Boston (and perhaps some
others) who suggested Mack Reynolds' The Case of the Little Green Men (which
is set at a convention), Ahrvid Engholm who suggested Colin Lester's The
International Science Fiction Yearbook (from 1978), Ron Bennett who
recommended Brian Aldiss' The Shape of Further Things (which includes a
chapter on British conventions of the 1950s), and Lloyd Penney who mentioned
T. Bruce Yerke's early LASFS remembrance Memoirs of a Superfluous Fan, Susan
M. Garrett's media SF-oriented The Fantastically Fundamentally Functional Guide
to Fandom, Arnie Katz's recent The Trufan's Advisor: An Introductory Guide
to Fanzine Fandom, Donald Franson's A Key to the Terminology of S-F
Fandom, and Robert Lichtman's The Amateur Press Associations in S-F
Fandom (which Robert himself neglected to mention in his earlier letter). And
there was more yet: }}- - - - - - - - - -
Martin Morse Wooster, Silver Spring, Maryland Resnick's article will certainly get
people mad at him. British fans should rightly complain that Resnick does not
mention Rob Hansen or D. West. Australian fans will also find their fanhistory
slighted. And Ahrvid Engholm will not doubt complain that Resnick does not mention
the two highly peculiar 'fanthologies' he published (Swede Ishes).By omitting foreign fandoms, Resnick
doesn't put fanhistory in perspective. For example, he's certainly right that
Robert Bloch's Once Around the Bloch would be a better book if it has more
about fandom and less about the Milwaukee mayoral race of 1940. But George Turner's
In the Heart or in the Head (Norstrillia Press, 1985) has as much or more
about fandom -- and Turner is a more important writer than Bloch.Resnick also makes some errors. If
Damon Knight's The Futurians appeared in paperback, I'd love to know about it.
The second edition of David Hartwell's Age of Wonders is not a reprint, but
is expanded about 100 pages from the first edition. And he omits the important
two-volume reprint of the first 200 issues of Locus (which certainly
used to be a fanzine) which Gregg Press came out with in the early 1980s.There are also other important
omissions. Nearly all of the articles in Fred Lerner's A Bookman's Fantasy
(NESFA Press, 1995) are from fanzines. And about half of the articles in a Phillip
K. Dick non-fiction collection published by Pantheon in 1993 (whose title I can't
find) are from fanzines, including Niekas and Lighthouse!{{
These are all good points, but once again we should mention that Mike's article
dealt only with the books about fandom he has in his personal library. Actually,
we're a bit envious of Mike for having all those resources at hand; it also show that
he is as at least as much (if not more) a fan as a professional writer. }} Jack Chalker's memories of
Baltimore-Washington fandom {{"A Short History of Baltimore
Fandom (Part 2)" }} continued to enlighten me about individuals and events
which I've known little or nothing about when they were active and happening. I
didn't even realize that Baltimore's fan group has a building of its own.
Technically, it is the fourth such club-owned headquarters. The Decker, Indiana
fan club which shone brightly but briefly in the 1940s had a small clubhouse, the
first in the world of its type.Mike Resnick's article is a badly
needed one. It would be a good idea to draw the basic list of books from this
article and a few additions and keep the resulting leaflet available for newcomers
to fandom, along with the Tucker guide to neo-fans.However, there are several omissions
and also one inaccuracy in Mike's essay. Advent did not reject the A Wealth of
Fable manuscript. I was already upset over the fact that Advent had decided to
withhold publication of my book until all three volumes of the Tuck Encyclopedia
were in print. This appeared to create a two-year delay in publication of my
manuscript, and as it turned out, it would have been even longer because there were
so many delays before the Tuck work was completely published. At this point, Ed
Wood submitted to me a list of things which he thought I should insert in my
manuscript. Every one of these items had one thing in common: they concerned Ed
Wood's activities in fandom or matters with which he had been closely associated. I
asked the return of the manuscript because I wasn't in any mood to let a very minor
fannish figure of the 1950s swing his weight around simply because of his status
as an Advent publisher.Meanwhile, I certainly hope that
Walt Willis manages to find the missing correspondence files before someone offers
him a small fortune for his big wardrobe and hauls away those precious fannish
documents. Walter's column {{"I Remember Me" }} is
perhaps the most entertaining thing in this issue, as distinguished from the
informative and eulogistic contributions.- - - - - - - - - -
Robert Coulson, Hartford City, Indiana Good article by Resnick. Gene
DeWeese's and my novel that he referred to {{titled
Charles Fort Never Mentioned Wombats }}, which was set at the
1975 Australia Worldcon, is a triumph(?) of the imagination. We were a bit appalled
when the Doubleday editor asked for it, since neither of us planned to (or did)
attend the convention. We threw in the names of Australian fans we knew, mentioned
some typical convention items, and hastily got the protagonists off into the bush
where nobody could tell us that "it didn't happen that way." We also used the names
of fans for many of the characters in our two The Man from U.N.C.L.E. books,
despite a directive from editor Terry Carr that this wasn't permitted; we used names
of Indiana club fans whom Terry had never heard of, and got away with it. It's gratifying that Mike Resnick's
review of "The Literature of Fandom" recommends so many books published by NESFA
Press and MCFI (most of which I copyedited). However, shame on Mike for writing that
"It's been well over a decade since the last [Worldcon] photo memory book was
produced"; I have sent him a copy of the Noreascon Three Memory Book. Even
more puzzling, Mike's description of Barry Malzberg's two novels about fandom doesn't
mention that both are in print in the NESFA Press collection The Passage of the
Light -- which Mike co-edited! And another NESFA Press book that should be
mentioned is James White's The White Papers (produced for L.A.con III), half
of which is a collection of White's fannish writing (the other half being his
SF).- - - - - - - - - -
Evelyn Leeper, Matawan, New Jersey Thanks to Mike Resnick for his
almost complete article on the literature of fandom, but he forgot to mention any of
the many short stories about science fiction and fandom (including conventions).
This may have been because it would have expanded the article unmanageably, or it
may have been out of a false sense of modesty, as he actually edited several of the
anthologies of these, including Inside The Funhouse; Alternate
Worldcons; Again, Alternate Worldcons; and (most recently) Alternate
Skiffy.{{
Our thanks to everyone who gave suggestions! Perhaps this will be the beginning of
a new fan bibliography project! That said, this seems like a good opportunity to
segue into more comments about Sam Moskowitz -- someone whose science fiction
collection all by itself could be the subject of a bibliography... }} Dave Kyle's "SaM -- Fan Forever" was
a fascinating reflection upon the role of the late Sam Moskowitz in the early days
of fandom. It was rather poignant to read about how he would let past events rankle
and jump upon every opportunity to present his views of them. Yet it is such a very
human response, to desire to have one's own role look the best possible.I also enjoyed the second
installment of Jack Chalker's "A Short History of Baltimore Fandom." Alas, the
fannish politics sound all too familiar, as I have come across some of the same
behavior in other fan clubs I've been associated with.- - - - - - - - - -
Mike Glicksohn, Toronto, Ontario, Canada There's probably nobody better
qualified to write a reminiscence about Sam Moskowitz than Dave Kyle and I doubt
anyone could have done a fairer job of discussing one of the great iconoclastic fans
of all time. Dave's article about SaM was intensely personal, balanced and fair,
all despite the fact that Dave has more reasons than most to denigrate SaM. SaM was
only a bit player on the extreme sidelines of fandom when I was active and my own
interactions with him were limited but extremely cordial. Dave does a fine job of
placing SaM in the overall context of fannish history and by so doing tells us a lot
about Sam Moskowitz. And not a little bit about Dave Kyle.A fine piece of autobiographical
writing by Michael Burstein {{"Asimov and Me" }}. I
was always ambivalent towards Asimov. Despite the fact that his novels drew me to
science fiction I always found his convention persona distasteful, and since we had
minimal personal contact (my introducing him at a Toronto convention being as close
as we ever got), that was all I really had to go on. I'm told his dirty-old-man
routine was only a schtick but it was tasteless schtick which a more sensitive
individual would have retired years and years ago. Evidently Michael never saw
such feet of clay on his idol, which makes him luckier than I.- - - - - - - - - -
Robert Whitaker Sirignano, Wilmington, Delaware I always liked Sam Moskowitz's
research into older SF, though his opinions and literary judgements were quirky.
Often he confused nostalgia with quality. Once or twice I'd read a salivating
passage about a work of fiction by a Mr. Forgotten Writer and would seek out the
story, only to find that SaM's value judgements about something he'd read at age
twelve were still the value judgements of someone aged twelve. But in fairness,
SaM's writing pointed out "where to look" and would find the really good "gosh wow"
stuff that kept me interested in SF.As for Forry Ackerman's article
{{"Through Time and Space With Forry Ackerman (Part
6)," which described his friendship with the famous film director, Fritz Lang
}}, I know about various variant prints of Metropolis. Some of the
ones shown at conventions run 90 minutes and have a soundtrack. I have one (on
video) that's approximately two hours, sans sound. Forry's statement of the
excessive amount of footage shot for Metropolis was interesting; this means
a 'definitive' version will be difficult to assemble.But I'm surprised that Forry didn't
mention The Testament of Dr. Mabuse (1932) when discussing Fritz Lang. Dr.
Mabuse was a madman who wanted to dominate the world. Lang had a copy of the film
delivered to Hitler as he was on his way out of the country. Hitler had wanted Lang
to head the German film industry. Forry Ackerman probably will not be
surprised (but others may) to learn that Fritz Lang was not the only director to use
different shots to make different versions of films for different markets. In his
book on restoring Abel Gance's movie Napoleon, British film writer Kevin
Brownlow discusses the different national versions of the movie. The film stock of
those days, it seems, had its problems, so it was easier to make up a new negative
for different distributions. This is why Brownlow's latest version of the movie is
five and a half hours long while the most widely distributed version (the one on
video, for example) is four hours long -- he kept on finding more scenes. So I can
understand that the 'complete' version of Metropolis might be much longer.In the letters column, interesting
discussion of the 'First Convention' matter by Ahrvid Engholm, Ben Yalow, Harry
Warner, and Steven Green. Alas, this seems to be one of those matters that is
incapable of resolution because the debaters will not even accept a common definition
of what they are discussing in the first place.- - - - - - - - - -
Gene Stewart, APO AE Dave Kyle's take on SaM struck me as
balanced and fair. Thanks for not suppressing some of the negative stuff. Too
often, death seems to take away all the well-rounded accounts of the deceased, only
to replace them with bland shiny eulogies of little use to anyone. Kyle's article,
on the other hand, will be of use to fan historians from here on. Does anyone know
what's become of SaM's collection?{{ We've not heard anything very definite. Reports
and rumors are floating around that part of his collection will be sold at auction,
while other parts will remain intact as a resource for future researchers and
historians. We certainly hope the latter is true. }}"Asimov and Me" interested me
because I met the Good Doctor once and managed to get an article about the meeting
published in both Cricket and Sirs/Discoverer CD-ROM for Schools &
Libraries, thus, I hope, inspiring children to check out that skiffy stuff with half
an open mind. Great article, with trenchant observations, particularly on how tired
Asimov became of spending time away from writing. And he was, indeed, a joyous
man.And I must comment on Harvia's
cartoons, too. While I'm a fan of his work, and always find his stuff funny and
pointed, that undead/undeaf 'toon really cracked me up. Also, the CHAT pun on 'near
myth' was a good one, too. More.- - - - - - - - - -
Ed Meskys, Center Harbor, New Hampshire In Michael Burstein's reminiscence
of Asimov he mentioned that the last time he saw him was at a book signing shortly
before his death, and speculated that Asimov was probably worrying about wasting
time there and not writing. For much of his life Asimov was a compulsive writer.
In 1972, when I lost my sight, I went into a rehab center in Newton, Massachusetts,
not far from Asimov's home. One of the teachers there knew his (by then ex) wife
and heard from her about Asimov's compulsion. He had four selectrics scattered
around the house, including one in the bathroom so he could continue to write while
on the pot. He spent just about every waking moment writing.{{
While we're on the topic, Michael asked us to correct a very minor error in his
article: the date he first met Isaac Asimov was actually Sunday, November 4th, 1979,
not three days later. (This has been corrected in the online version of
M21.) }} Kyle on SaM was really timebinding
and I recall that European trip they all took in 1957, and the snafu which arose.
Eric Bentcliffe, Jan Jansen and I had arranged to meet them all off their plane at
Schipol airport in Holland. We got there ... and waited ... and waited. No incoming
flights which could have been theirs. Jan tried the 'information' desk several times
until finally they discovered, and told us that the Americans had arrived early and
instead of waiting for us, had taken the bus into Amsterdam and were waiting for us
at KLM offices. We finally found then all and took them to the hotel Jan had
organised -- and sampled the Kyles' wedding cake.Forry's memoirs were as interesting
as ever but the real time-binder was Ron Bennett's memory-stirring piece {{"May I Have the Pl...?" }}. Ah happy days of
PLOY, Triode, BEM, Space Times and many others. Fans
and fanzines have changed greatly since those days. There were so few of us, it
was quite possible to know everyone in British fandom. Conventions netted no more
than fifty people to start with.Finally, Michael A. Burstein's
Asimov piece well brought out the fact that Asimov wasn't a pompous untouchable but,
unlike many other 'names', an approachable human being not above helping a youngster
along.- - - - - - - - - -
Ron Bennett, North Yorkshire, United Kingdom Forry's reminiscences are always a
joy. Hell's teeth! Wandering around with Fritz Lang and Béla Lugosi as
though they were merely people! Almost as mind-blowing as the life I live here in
Harrogate in my little Shepherd's hut on the edge of the North Yorks Moors. Why,
only yesterday I had a ten minute chat with the local milkman.Also, I loved Howard Devore's piece
about the Werewolf Bookshop {{"Way Down in Verona" }}.
Yes, I, too, was suckered in by the advert I read in Weird Tales and ordered
a $50 pair of books for $12 (double rates for overseas customers). Now, at least,
I know what happened to the copy I ordered of How to Raise Pigs for Profit.
All I got were a couple of an Arkham House publications called Skullface and
The Outsider and Others. Howard, by the way, was an early news contributor
to Skyrack. Isn't it comforting to learn earth-shattering facts like this?
Fandom always was educational. Ron Bennett certainly 'exployned'
things very well, concerning his fanzine PLOY. I do not know, though,
whether I fully accept the point which he made (or at least 'imployed') that the
contributors to a fanzine are much more important than the faned. Even though some
faneds only put everything together, others have a presence in their zines at least as
important as that of their contributors. As an example, think of what Terry Carr's
zines would be like without the presence of Terry. Yes, they would be good zines
(given their quality contributions/contributors), but Terry's presence is what
always made his zines work at their top level.In the letters column, Martin Morse
Wooster's comment about how we tend to forget that the fanlegends who founded clubs
and Worldcons were teenagers when they did those things stirs in me some strange
feelings. It is not that I am envious of their deeds, it is just that, when I
discovered fandom some 22+ years ago, it was just before by 40th birthday. I was
sitting in my tobacco shop in Monrovia, reading a science fiction book (on a slow
day), when in walked a person who turned out to be June Moffatt's son. He saw what
I had been reading and told me about LASFS and fandom. I have never turned back.
Maybe my experience of getting active in fandom during middle age can alleviate
Ahrvid Engholm's fear that fandom dying because its older fans are dying.In your comment on Roy Tackett's
letter, you write, "It may be the increasingly high costs of producing fanzines
that's resulting in fewer of the kind that interest you." I will agree that this is
partly true; on getting back to genzine production after a gap of seven years, I am
amazed at the increased costs 'twixt then and now -- and costs were high back
then!- - - - - - - - - -
Teddy Harvia, Hurst, Texas That there scratchy board dillo art
by Julia Morgan-Scott is I reckon the best goll darn piece of fan art I've seen in
ages. Chat liked her so well he liked near sank his teeth into the critters'
pitcher afore I convinced him it twernt real. (Translation available upon
request.)As for Bill Rotsler's letter of
comment, I may have gotten the details of his Marilyn Monroe story wrong (he told it
to me in a small car with L.A. traffic noise in the background) but I stand behind
the truth of what I said: Bill was somebody!- - - - - - - - - -
Rodney Leighton, Tatamagouche, Nova Scotia, Canada Thanks very much for
Mimosa 21. I admit to being a tad disheartened at being WAHFed two
issues in a row but then I read over that list and felt much better. After all, I
am in extremely illustrious company. If I can continue, next thing you know some
fool will be calling me a BNF or something. I can see my fannish obituary: Rodney's
greatest accomplishment was to appear in the Mimosa WAHF list for twenty-five
straight issues.{{ We apologize for making you start counting all
over again. }}- - - - - - - - - -
We Also Heard From: John Boston, Michael A. Burstein, Jack Chalker, Chester Cuthbert, Richard Dengrove, Howard DeVore, Ahrvid Engholm, Richard Geis, Steve Green, Dean Grennell, Kim Huett, Ben Indick, Joyce Katz, Robert Kennedy, R'ykandar Korra'ti, Ken Lake, Cato Lindberg, Heidi Lyshol, Steve Michaluk, Franz H. Miklis, Catherine Mintz, Yuri A. Mironets, Murray Moore, Joseph Nicholas, Elizabeth Osborne, Lloyd Penney, Bob Perlongo, Robert Peterson, Derek Pickles, Thomas Recktenwald, Mike Resnick, Yvonne Rousseau, David Rowe, Anthony Shepherd, Fred Smith, Steve Sneyd, Mae Strelkov, Alan J. Sullivan, David Truesdale, Roger Waddington, Michael Waite, Taral Wayne, Henry Welch, Malgorzata Wilk, Walter Willis, and Taras Wolansky. Thanks to one and all!  Title illustration by Sheryl Birkhead & William Rotsler Other illustrations by Joe Mayhew, Brad Foster, William Rotsler, Mayhew & Rotsler, Gilliland & Rotsler, Stiles & Rotsler, Foster & Rotsler, and Harvia & Rotsler |
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