Futurians
Entry updated 11 August 2018. Tagged: Community, Fan.
An sf group active 1938-1945, significantly located in New York, then and now the publishing centre for American sf. The group was notable for radical politics and the conviction that sf fans should be forward-looking and constructive; the name came from J Michael Rosenblum's UK fanzine, The Futurian. Though deeply involved in Fanzine publishing and internal fan politics, The Futurians also brought together many young fans who hoped to become sf writers, and whose works tended to reflect a more intense and less hostile focus on the future of Cities than typical of American sf. Members included Isaac Asimov, James Blish, C M Kornbluth, Walter Kubilius, David A Kyle, Robert A W Lowndes, John B Michel, Frederik Pohl – who described this period in The Way the Future Was: A Memoir (1978) – Arthur W Saha, Richard Wilson and Donald A Wollheim. Also associated with the group were Hannes Bok, Damon Knight – who in The Futurians: The Story of the Science Fiction "Family" of the 30's that Produced Today's Top SF Writers and Editors (1977) published an informal history of the group – Judith Merril and Larry T Shaw. [PR/PN/JC]
further reading
- Damon Knight. The Futurians: The Story of the Science Fiction "Family" of the 30's that Produced Today's Top SF Writers and Editors (New York: John Day, 1977) [nonfiction: hb/Tony Greco]
- Frederik Pohl. The Way the Future Was: A Memoir (New York: Ballantine Books/Del Rey, 1978) [nonfiction: hb/Joseph Lombardero]
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