First Fandom
Entry updated 16 September 2024. Tagged: Community, Fan.
Informal fan organization founded in 1959 by Bob Madle and Don Ford, originally confined to those active in Fandom prior to 1 January 1938. Owing to the inevitable attrition of these "golden era" or "dinosaur" fans, associate membership has for many years been available to anyone participating in fan activities (including Fanzines, Conventions and sf clubs) for 30 or more years. Two awards are presented. Distinguished fans are annually added to the First Fandom Hall of Fame in both living and posthumous categories. Also, since 1998, the less regular Sam Moskowitz Archive Award is presented for excellence in sf collecting (see Collections), more recently with an emphasis on constructive use of such collections as distinguished from mere accumulation. These awards are presented at the Worldcon and announced in the quarterly newsletter Scientifiction currently edited by John L Coker III. Scientifiction also features relevant obituaries, book releases, Convention reports, news of other major sf awards such as the Hugos and Nebulas, and biographies of newly joined members.
In 2024, to acknowledge the sad fact that no originally qualifying members of First Fandom still survived (Bob Madle was the last, dying in October 2022 at the age of 101), the organization was renamed the First Fandom Foundation. [DRL]
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