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Bangsund, John

Entry updated 27 February 2023. Tagged: Editor, Fan.

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(1939-2020) Australian fan and professional editor who from 1966 to 1973 edited the important critical journal Australian SF Review (which see); this won a Ditmar Award as best Fanzine or amateur publication in 1969 and was renamed Scythrop in December 1969. Bangsund also edited John W Campbell: An Australian Tribute (anth dated 1972 but 1974), with essays on John W Campbell Jr by A Bertram Chandler, George Turner, Jack Williamson, Jack Wodhams and others, and a bibliography compiled by Bangsund and Donald H Tuck.

Further fanzines include Parergon Papers and Philosophical Gas, which like Scythrop took its title from Nightmare Abbey (1818) by Thomas Love Peacock. Bangsund played a significant part in bringing the Worldcon to Australia for the first time in 1975, and was a strong advocate of the writings of Flann O'Brien, creating his own Keats and Chapman anecdotes (see Feghoots) very much in the O'Brien vein. Bangsund is perhaps best known outside Fandom for Muphry's Law [sic], a set of Laws applying Murphy's Law to editorial matters, with the first stating that "[I]f you write anything criticizing editing or proofreading, there will be a fault of some kind in what you have written." (March 1992 Society of Editors [Victoria] Newsletter).

John Bangsund received the 2002 Chandler Award for outstanding achievement in Australian science fiction, and the 2016 FAAn Award for lifetime achievement Fanzines and Fandom. [DRL]

see also: The Metaphysical Review.

John Bangsund

born Northcote, Victoria: 21 April 1939

died Melbourne, Victoria: 22 August 2020

works as editor

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