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Up to Now: A History of Fandom....
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Over the next few days ill be posting random notes about Up to Now...here are a few:
about The First Staple War...the name implies that there was a Second or even Third Staple War...there wasn't...it was called the First to make it sound important....what was the point of the First Staple War? Well, back in the day, the SF mags were printed cheep, on pulp paper...they didnt even trim the edges of the paper back then!! The readers were always asking for better paper, no staples, ect. So some smart-@$$es thought theyd have some fun with it. Thats my understanding anyway.
At one point Speer makes refrence to "the Big Three"...he was NOT talking about Asimov, Clark, and Heinlein. He was writing in the late 30s...back then the Big Three refered to the three SF pulps Amazing Stories, Astounding Stories and Wonder Stories.
about The First Staple War...the name implies that there was a Second or even Third Staple War...there wasn't...it was called the First to make it sound important....what was the point of the First Staple War? Well, back in the day, the SF mags were printed cheep, on pulp paper...they didnt even trim the edges of the paper back then!! The readers were always asking for better paper, no staples, ect. So some smart-@$$es thought theyd have some fun with it. Thats my understanding anyway.
At one point Speer makes refrence to "the Big Three"...he was NOT talking about Asimov, Clark, and Heinlein. He was writing in the late 30s...back then the Big Three refered to the three SF pulps Amazing Stories, Astounding Stories and Wonder Stories.
Speer also talks about Hugo Gernsback not paying Donald A. Wholiham (sp, sorry) for story...this was NOT uncommon when dealing with Gernsback...the joke at the time was Gernsback paid not on publication, but "on lawsuit." H. P. Lovecraft offten refered to Gernsback as "Hugo the rat" for a poor edit job on one of his stories (it was either The Shadow Out of Time or At the Mountains of Madness, i dont rember whitch) and then having the nerve to cheat him on the payment.
Gernsback got his due in the end. His slow-payment and non-payment ways stired up a group of writers who started a series of events that forced his publishing empire into bankruptcy (it was far from bankrupt...in the end the creditors were paid $1.08 on the dollar) and he lost Amazing Stories among other assets.
Gernsback landed on his feet, and in short order launched Wonder Stories where he continued his evil ways.
Gernsback got his due in the end. His slow-payment and non-payment ways stired up a group of writers who started a series of events that forced his publishing empire into bankruptcy (it was far from bankrupt...in the end the creditors were paid $1.08 on the dollar) and he lost Amazing Stories among other assets.
Gernsback landed on his feet, and in short order launched Wonder Stories where he continued his evil ways.
Gernsback was slow with payments to his writers because he had too many irons in the fire. He had other magazines, he sold radio hobby parts, but the real money hoggs were his radio and tv station. Yep he had a tv station in New York City. In the 1930s. Mind you it wasn't that great, it was highly experimental, as was his radio station. All the experiments took cash. Lots and lots of cash....and if a few stf authors got paid a little late, or not at all, well, it was all for the greater good....
thats all the background on Uncle Hugo, promise.
thats all the background on Uncle Hugo, promise.
Later in Up to Now, Speer talks about Wollheim and Michelism. If you want a fun book that gets deep into all this try The Futurians by Damon Knight. Also try The Immortal Storm by Sam Moskowitz. The Immortal Storm is mostly about Moskowitz's struggle against the Michelists (The Futurians) to "control" fandom. as if....
Moskowitz won the battle, but to my mind the Futurians won the war. Why do I say that? Look at Futurian membership: Asimov. Pohl. Blish. Wollheim. Kornbluth. Knight. See a pattern developing here?
Moskowitz won the battle, but to my mind the Futurians won the war. Why do I say that? Look at Futurian membership: Asimov. Pohl. Blish. Wollheim. Kornbluth. Knight. See a pattern developing here?
in this book, jack speer talks about the fannish "cults" of GhuGhu and FooFoo...cults like these have littered the history of fandom. For example The Great Spider was said to eat cars, and would help its followers find parking spaces. The proper prayer was:
Oh Great Spider, full of grace,
Please find me a parking space!
More recently was Roscoe, who was a invisible beaver, and of course the modt popular ghod, Bheer.
Oh Great Spider, full of grace,
Please find me a parking space!
More recently was Roscoe, who was a invisible beaver, and of course the modt popular ghod, Bheer.
This is considered the first history of SF Fandom, and was passed around at the first WorldCon in 1939.
Only about 100 copies were orginaly printed, distribution was thru the FAPA (Fantasy APA) and at 1939 WorldCon. It has been reprinted, most notably in A Sense of FAPA, and ranks as one of SF Fandom's important earily documents.