VAPA
Entry updated 15 June 2026. Tagged: Community, Fan.
Acronym for the Vanguard Amateur Press Association, an early APA whose 26 mailings began in March 1945 and ended in late 1950. Although short-lived, the organization was of note both as Fandom's second APA and for the number of members who were or who became well-known professionals in the sf field. VAPA was launched – initially as the Gothic Amateur Press Association, though the name was quickly changed after some flirtation with Modern Amateur Press Association – by the New York Futurians as a rival to the established FAPA, over which (unlike FAPA) they would have control. Members with entries in this encyclopedia include James Blish, Robert Bloch, Chandler Davis, Virginia Kidd (then Virginia Kidd Emden), Damon Knight, Robert A W Lowndes, Judith Merril (then Judy Zissman), John Michel, Alva Rogers, Arthur W Saha, Larry Shaw, Harry Warner Jr, Basil Wells and Don Wollheim. Among the other members was Joe Kennedy (1929-2026), in later years more widely known as the poet X J Kennedy. The APA's Official Organ, listing the contributions, began as Wollheim's G.A.P.A. Vanguard #1 in the first mailing and was replaced (with continuous numbering) by Lowndes's Vanguard Amateur. [DRL]
see also: SAPS; Science Fiction [magazine].
links
- Fancyclopedia 3
- VAPA at Fanac.org
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