(1929- ) US editor, and important figure in American Fandom from the 1950s on, an associate of William L Hamling (whom see for details), an association which caused his imprisonment. It is now acknowledged that he edited The Science Fiction Novel: Imaginative and Social Criticism (anth 1959), previously ascribed to Basil Davenport; but he is much better known for his compiling of Who Killed Science Fiction?: An Affectionate Autopsy: The First SaFari Annual (anth 1960; rev vt The Compleat and Unexpurgated Who Killed Science Fiction? 2006 web) with Nancy Kemp, in which (on assurances of the compilation's highly limited distribution) a number of sf writers uttered the titular question, sometimes very seriously, often with an understandable focus on the crisis that had afflicted American SF Magazines at the end of the 1950s. Kemp received a 1961 Hugo Award for this work. He also edited The Proceedings: Chicon III (anth 1963), having been Chairman of the 1962 World SF Convention in Chicago (> Conventions; Worldcon). [JC]
Earl Kemp
born Crossett, Arkansas: 24 November 1929
died
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works as editor
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