( A ) — from A to AWARDS

( A ) — CONTENTS

A / AA194 / ACKERMANESE / ACKESE / ACTIFAN / ACTIVITY, FAN / ADVERTISING / ADZINE / AH! SWEET IDIOCY! / AHMF / AJAY / A-LANEY-ATE / ALBERTA SCIENCE FICTION SOCIETY / ALPHABET SOCIETIES / AMAZINE / ANGELS / ANGLOFAN / ANIMIST PARTY / ANNISH / ANNISHTHESIA / APA / APAE / APA – F / APAHACK / APA – L / APAN / APAZINE / ART / ARTICLES / ASP / ASPIRER’S CLUB / AURORA AWARDS / AUTOANALYSES / AUTOCLAVE

A

— When fans learned the first SF check list of existing fanzines was being researched by Dr. Swisher, (eventually published in fanzines from 1938 through 1946 in constantly upgraded segments), there was a mad rush by faneds to launch zines artfully titled so as to be listed first. Examples: Kornbluth & Wollheim’s ‘AAANTHOR ARGUS’ (Spring 1939), beaten by Bob Tucker’s ‘THE AAAA ARGUY-Y’ (May 1939), in turn beaten by Jack Speer’s ‘A’ (Nov 1939) & Chauvenet’s ‘A’ (Dec 1939). But Swisher had the last laugh by launching his own zine titled simply ‘a’ (Jan 1940) which ran for 5 issues. (Sources: Jack Speer, Harry Warner Jr., Bob Pavlot &  Bill Evans.)

AA194

— In 1943 Jack Speer attended a Michiconference and tried out a standard intelligence test on a number of fans. Al Ashley scored 194 out of 200, putting him in the upper 5% of college graduate scores. Most fans hearing about this assumed it meant Al had an IQ of 194. He sagely neglected to set the record straight, and became known worshipfully as ‘AA194’. (Source: Dick Eney.)

ACKERMANESE

— Legendary Fan Forrest J. Ackerman advocated grammatical reform in the 1930s & 1940s. This involved simplified spelling (or “simplifyd spelng”), scientificombinations, non-stoparagraphing, using native terms for locations (‘Moskva’ instead of ‘Moscow’, etc,), odd new syntax, and an emphasis on punnery. While seemingly quite logical, it was all very irritating (at least to stick in the muds like myself), and quickly abandoned. This crusade helped to establish Ackerman as an original-minded and innovative fan, however.

The 1950s fad of Demolishisms may be considered a limited revival. (Sources: Jack Speer & Dick Eney.)

[ See DEMOLISHISMS, NON-STOPARAGRAPHING, SCIENTICOMBINATIONS ]

ACKESE

— ‘Ackese’ is the Ackermanese term for ‘Ackermanese’, or to put it another way, the name given to Ackermanese at its worst. Jack Speer lists as an example: “U & I r to b praps th 1st 2 men to go roketng to an xtra-galaktik planet wher a rekt ship is strandd.” Arrgh! (Source: Jack Speer.)

ACTIFAN

— A term describing any fan consistently active in some aspect of fandom, be it serving on convention committees, pubbing zines, being on a club executive or taking part in any other activity or project fannish by definition. A pro-active fan in other words, as opposed to those who wear the t-shirt printed with the slogan “I’m not a fan. I just like the stuff.” (Source: Richard Brown.)

ACTIVITY

— In its purest fannish definition, ‘activity’ refers to the number of apazine pages an Apa requires from its members every year. FAPA, for instance, insists on a minimum of 8 pages. People who hand in pages with a single paragraph in point 40 or some such type size are not appreciated! Failure to meet the minimum requirements results in expulsion from the membership. (Source: Dick Eney.)

[ See APA, APAZINE, L’ACTIVITY, MINAC ]

ACTIVITY, FAN

— [ See FANAC ].

ADVERTISING

— Early fanzines offered subscriptions to the zine, books and magazines from the faned’s collection for sale or trade, back issues available, subscriptions to other zines, announcements of upcoming conventions, and similar fannish stuff.

It didn’t take long for a tradition of spoof adverts to develop. One late example, not from a zine, but from the program book for VCON 1 (1971) will suffice: “For sale or trade: One used scout-ship. Must sell due to death of owner. Slightly damaged but a bargain for the mechanically adept. Contact M. Walsh.” (This in reference to a story written by Walsh about an alien ant from ANTares who is unfortunately stepped on before he can accomplish his mission on earth, leaving a teeny tiny spaceship bereft of owner.)

However, convention program books normally contain ‘genuine’ ads from bookstores, book publishers, local retailers & such in an effort to raise enough money to get the program book to pay for itself. (Source: Dick Eney.)

[ See BOOSTER ADS ]

ADZINE

— A fanzine whose primary function is to offer fannish stuff for sale or trade, usually accompanied by an article or two drooling over the goods offered, or at least extolling their virtues. An early Canadian example would be Leslie Croutch’s CROUTCH MAGAZINE MART NEWS from the 1930’s. (Source: Dick Eney)

[ See CROUTCH MAGAZINE MART NEWS ]

AH! SWEET IDIOCY!

— Fannish memoirs by Francis Towner Laney first published in FAPA in 1948. It blew the lid off Los Angeles fandom. According to Harry Warner Jr. it was the first fan publication to attack fans for their ‘real faults’, as opposed to perceived fannish faults, thus ruining fandom’s tendency to portray itself in an idealized form. For example, Laney accused several fans of being closet homosexuals. One such targeted individual indignantly insisted that in fact he was not homosexual, but merely a sex maniac.

Stated Harry: “It is impossible to be sure if Laney feuded with Los Angeles fans because he tried to reform them, or if he tried to reform them as a result of the feud with them.” Canadian faned Beak Taylor reportedly quit fandom after reading it. Laney himself would not allow it to be reprinted during his lifetime, evidently fearing lawsuits. It was reprinted by Richard Eney in 1962. (Source: Harry Warner Jr.)

[See A-LANEY-ATE, INSURGENTS ]

AHMF

— Stands for “Algeristic Home Made For”. Martin Alger of Detroit was one of the first fans to make his own rotary mimeo machine and used it to print a one-shot telling other fans how to duplicate his feat. He promptly entered fannish mythology as a modern-day Dadaleus credited with the ability to make fiendishly complex devices (like atomic bombs) for incredibly low prices (say $1.35). The term AHMF was coined to describe said mythical devices in spoof ads appearing in fanzines. (Source: Dick Eney)

AJAY

— Stands for “Amateur Journalism” aka “A.J.” or ” a-jay” in which hobby printers produce their own journals & newsletters. While applying to the practice of producing SF fanzines, the mundane version predates it, going back to the 19th century if not earlier. A wonderful Canadian example from the 1800’s is BRIC-A-BRAC.

It can also mean someone who participates in the act of amateur journalism, which in the SF fannish sense means pubbing either an APAzine, or a fanzine. Anyone who does can proudly proclaim, “I’m an ajay!” Be careful to whom you say this, lest the response be “Yeah, sure buddy, and I’m the Grand Moog of Mars.” Not many people know what an ajay is, but you do! (Source: Dale Speirs.)

[ See APAZINE, BRIC-A-BRAC, MUNDANE ]

A-LANEY-ATE

— Another way to write ‘alienate’. Coined by Walt Willis playing on the name of Francis T. Laney, an outspoken fan who often got on other fan’s nerves, best known for his memoirs AH! SWEET IDIOCY. Laney was also a member of the INSURGENTS. (Source: Walt Willis.)

[ See AH! SWEET IDIOCY, INSURGENTS ]

ALBERTA SCIENCE FICTION SOCIETY

— Science Fiction club based at the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology in Calgary circa 1971/1972. Meetings often held “high atop the science building in the penthouse lounge at SAIT”. Members included John Mansfield, Randy Thomas, Michael Roberts, Bill Gemmill and John Byrne. Beginning in 1971 published a newsletter titled THE GREAT NOR-WESTERN NEWS, switching with #5 to the title ALTAEGO. Also in 1971 the club held their first convention, on July 1st, called THE ALBERTA SCIENCE FICTION SOCIETY OPEN HOUSE with Guests of Honour Forrest J Ackerman, A.E. Van Vogt and J.B. Clarke. 75 fans attended. A second open house was held in August of 1972. Club apparently faded as members graduated.

However, “a new club formed from the remnant, including Bob Gibson, Gordon McNab, Eric Tilbrook, and Grant Thiessen (Owner of Pandora’s Books). Eric Tilbrook and Amin Bhatia produced the radio play “Cattlefarm Galactica” and it has been popular ever since (when it appears).” This club (name ?) also faded from view, in 1978. But in 1979 some former members got together and created yet another club, DEC. (Source: Garth Spencer.)

[ See ALTAEGO, THE GREAT NOR-WESTERN NEWS, DEC ]

ALPHABET SOCIETIES

— A fannish phenomena circa 1935, the two most prominent of which were the SPWSSTFM and the even more jaw-breaking IAOPUMUMSTFPUSA. Needless to say, these were typical fannish spoof organizations (perhaps the first such?) and in this case, entirely to do with the First Staple War, one of the great fannish crusades. (Source: Jack Speer)

[ See SPWSSTFM, IAOPUMUMSTFPUSA, STAPLE WAR (FIRST) ]

AMAZINE

— A seldom used term describing a type of fanzine whose principle characteristic is articles describing aspects of mundane reality in a “grandiose and fantastical” manner. Meant to be applied to zines with articles employing exaggeration for satiric effect, but often loosely applied to any SF fanzine containing a preponderance of non-SF subject matter. (Source: Harry Warner Jr.)

ANGEL

— Obsolete term from the 1940s. Refers to a fanzine patron who provides sufficient cash to a faned to accomplish something special, like a fancy cover or extra pages. Faneds everywhere would love to see this practice revived! The act of carrying out this practice is termed “angeling”. Apparently, according to Garth Spencer, the term is borrowed from live theatre, whose tradition of angeling ( getting a patron to cover at least part of the cost of a production) goes back much, much farther. (Sources: Jack Speer & Garth Spencer.)

ANGLOFAN

— Simply put, a fan who is a citizen of the United Kingdom, i.e. England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. The history of Anglo-fandom is outside the scope of this fancyclopedia, but I highly recommend A VERY BRIEF HISTORY OF BRITISH FANDOM by Robert Hansen.

ANIMIST PARTY

— Early fandom (1930s) was beset by oddball left wing political beasts like the MICHAELISTS, but in 1945 (of all years!) James H. Madle of Beacon NY started up the quasi-technocratic somewhat Fascist Animist party designed to unite fans for the purpose of political action, namely the integration of all aspects of American society under fannish control. He eventually gave up on fans and founded the more mundane (and infinitely more Fascist) National Renaissance Party, whose newsletter is self-described as “The Only Fascist Publication in America”. Odd, to say the least. (Source: Dick Eney.)

[ See MICHAELISM ]

ANNISH

— It is a sad fact that few fanzines last more than 3 or 4 issues before the faned burns out. Consequently any fanzine which survives long enough to see its one year anniversary printing is cause for celebration! In olden times, (not so often any more), faneds would solicit special articles by well known fan writers, extra artwork, extra pages, and pray for ANGELS & BOOSTER ADS to help cover the costs, in order to produce a super duper special anniversary issue, their Annish. Sometimes the zine title of the special edition would be changed to reflect its nature, as in “Quannish” rather than “Quandry”. (Sources: Jack Speer & Dick Eney.)

[ See ANGELS, ANNISHTHESIA, BOOSTER ADS, NYDAHL’S DISEASE ]

ANNISHTHESIA

— Term coined by Walt Willis circa 1954. There are two forms of the disease:

PRIMARY ANNISTHESIA: – This is invariably fatal. The effort of putting together an Annish becomes too much, and before it can be printed the faned succumbs to permanent gafiation.

SECONDARY ANNISHTHESIA: – Despite pores stopped up with mimeo ink and fingers bleeding from errant staples, the faned actually pubs his Annish, only to receive no reaction whatsoever from other fans. Disappointed, the faned fades away into the glades of Gafia. Only frequent injections of egoboo can prevent this from happening. (Source: Walt Willis.)

[ See ANNISH, NYDAHL’S DISEASE, EGOBOO & GAFIATE ]

APA— Stands for ‘Amateur Press Association’, but when held in the hands appears to be an odd publication of many articles of varying quality, colours, paper weight, etc. Sometimes bound together, more often shoved loose into an incredibly thick envelope. Each article is printed separately by its author, who sends a number of copies, corresponding to the number of members in the APA, to a lucky fan called the O.E. or ‘Organizing Editor’, whose job it is to collate the contributions and send them back.

In other words, you send, say, 60 copies of your contribution (your ‘APAzine’) to the O.E., who sends you back one copy of your contribution, and one copy each of all the other contributions. This way you only have to pay your own printing costs, but get to read everyone in the membership.

Of course, you also contribute an annual membership fee to cover the O.E.’s mailing costs, and perhaps the cost of an ‘O.O.’ (‘Official Organ’), the latter being the operating newsletter of the APA, letting you know of official policy, who has been elected O.E., & such.

Basically, membership in an APA is an incredibly economic way to drown yourself in reading material. It’s like having a whole bunch of pen pals with similar interests. At its best it’s a prolonged, leisurely, very pleasant conversation with numerous interesting individuals. At its worst, something that easily matches internet flame wars for bile and vituperation. The choice is up to the participants.

APAs have been around a long time, originally being a product of mundane ajays, who tend to be more interested in hobby printing rather than hobby writing. The first Science Fiction APA was FAPA, or Fantasy APA, founded in 1937 and still going strong.

Fannish APAs tend to be centred around a common theme or point of interest. An interesting indication an APA is dying or running out of steam is when the members no longer bother to write on the subject of the APA’s original ‘purpose’.

Generally speaking, you get your thick envelope three to four times a year, which gives you plenty of time before the deadline to think up snide comments ( like this one) about the content of the other member’s APAzines to include in the next mailing.

The one disadvantage of an APA is that almost no one outside the membership ever gets to see your zine, unless you print extra copies to distribute in the usual way. Not many APAns do, if only because the APAzine/fanzine includes many comments & much discussion re the last mailing’s APAzines which are annoying to those readers who haven’t seen them. Such a hybrid is often considered a half-assed fanzine by its non-APAn readers so they’re rather rare.

At any rate, fan writers, who usually start off pubbing their own zine and contributing to other zines, ultimately tend to ‘disappear’ into one or more APAs (or ‘APAE’) never to be seen by fanzine fandom again. This was the fate of many Canadian faneds especially in the 1970s and 1980s. The result was that new Canadian fanzines appeared in fewer and fewer numbers, even though there were still numerous fan writers at work in Canada, albeit restricting their fanac to Cdn APAs.

Important American APAs include THE CULT, FHAPA, APA F, APA L, FHAPA & VAPA.

Canadian APAs include, APAplexy, BCAPA, CANADAPA, CANFAPA, CLAPTRAPA, DADAPA, THE FINAL FRONTIER, PAPA, TAPA, & VANAPA.

APAE

— If you get tired of saying ‘APAs’, or ‘more than one APA’, or ‘APA plural’, you can always say ‘APAE’, though I have never seen this term used anywhere other than in Fancyclopedias. Drop the word into your conversation. Impress people.

APA – F

— Was the first weekly APA, an absolutely insane concept (because of the amount of work involved). This was created by New York fans in the 1960s. Why F? Members mostly belonged either to FISTFA or the Fanoclasts. The reason it worked is that the ‘mailings’ were distributed in person at meetings of these clubs and not actually mailed. (Hey! Brainstorm! Sounds like a great way to encourage attendance at club meetings!) Still, a lot of writing activity for the members. Astonishing it managed a run of 69 issues before folding.

[ See FANOCLASTS, FISTFA ]

APAHACK

— Is an APA writer whose volume of contributed material to an APA or APAE is enthusiastically far in excess of the minimum activity required. The term is not an insult, but rather a compliment.

APA – L

— The second weekly APA, inspired by the example of APA F, and started up by Los Angeles fans Don Fitch and Bruce Peltz. The ‘mailings’ are distributed at LASFS (LA SF Society) meetings. Apparently still ongoing, with more than 1,500 issues to date!

APAN

— Anyone who is a member of an APA. Not all APAns are APAhacks, but all APAhacks are APANs. Both tend to be resented by fanzine ‘purists’ who often feel that APAhacks (and APAns in general) have ‘betrayed’ zinedom by dint of joined a limited APA membership and, from fanzine fandom’s viewpoint, dropping out of sight.

APAZINE

— An APAn’s contribution to an APA. As the term ‘zine’ implies, it is usually in the form of a fanzine. It can be massive, like some of the larger fanzines, or as little as a single sheet printed on just one side, but the average is usually 4 to 6 pages in length. It doesn’t really matter, provided at least the minimum of required pages is met in a given membership year.

Anything found in a fanzine is liable to appear in an APAzine, but one unique aspect is ‘mailing comments’, the APAn’s reaction to material in the previous mailing.

Something else unique about APAzines is the tendency to be far more personal and revealing, not to mention opinionated, than most fanzines. This is because fanzines are exchanged, traded, sold and generally flung into the endless void, so you never know who might wind up reading them (your pastor, your mother, your worst enemy, your local CISIS agent, etc) whereas APAzines are for a closed circle of correspondents and are rarely available to non-members, so contributors feel free to express themselves without restraint.

ART

— The important thing to remember is that there are fan artists as well as fan writers. In other words, incredible as it may seem, there are talented cartoonists, illustrators and artists who are willing to provide artwork free of charge to any faned willing to publish it. All they want is a single copy of the fanzine for their personal archive, and the egoboo that comes from seeing their art published.

The best way to acquire a ‘stable’ of artists is to examine various fanzines, decide which artists you like, inquire of the faneds how to contact the artists, then send a sample of your zine and ask them to contribute to future issues. If they like what you pub (and also your circulation and whether or not well-known fans and zines are included), they will send you their art. One warning, do not alter it in any way. Whereas written contributions can be edited, art work is all of a piece and tampering with it is a violation of the artist’s integrity. If you get a reputation for ruining the artist’s work and vision, you won’t get any more art.

As to what kind of art appears in fanzines, this usually depends on a) what the editor wants, and b) what the editor can get. The two do not always coincide. Fortunately, most fan art is really nifty. In general, there are two types of art. First, that associated with the zine itself: cover art, embellishments on department headings, art commissioned to illustrate articles and/or fan fiction. Second, stand alone items, usually placed as ‘filler’ to fill blank space (a really dedicated editor will try to match the theme of the art piece to the text surrounding it), and sometimes filling an entire page if the editor deems it spectacular enough to warrant the space.

The subject matter can be SF or Fantasy of course, but often in fanzines the art is self-referential, referring to or making fun of fandom itself. The late US fan William Rotsler was famous for his seemingly simple but often hilarious takes on fandom. Canadian Fan William D. Grant was known for his stencil work in CANADIAN FANDOM in the ’40s and ’50s which replicated photographs, thus giving the readers a chance to see what a number of Canadian fans looked like.

In the 1930s some fanzines were letterpress printed, with art work being lithographed, i.e. printed off metal or even wooden plates, an expensive process. Other fanzines were hectographed, i.e. printed off beds of gelatin, and apparently multi-coloured images with delicate hues were possible. In the late 1930s mimeograph machines became popular, but the stencils allowed only line work, and with the exception of the likes of William D. Grant, not much in the way of shading. As if to compensate, silk-screening became popular in the 1940s, at least for cover art. Fred Hurter’s CENSORED was famous for this. In the 1950s Gestetner paste-ink mimeos and Ditto machines were common, and later, photocopiers. Nowadays scanners & desktop publishing programs allow virtually any sort of art to appear in fanzines, including computer art. ( Sources: Jack Speer, Dick Eney & Harry Warner Jr.)

ARTICLES

— “SF fanzine eh? So what do you put in it? Articles about your favourite books?”

The earliest fanzines in the 1930s were filled with excited discussion about the latest stories in the prozines. As fandom grew and became organized, club politics often dominated (to put it mildly), and as fan gatherings evolved into conventions, con reports. At first it was common to attempt to be serious and objective, but in the 1940s the joys of subjective viewpoint took hold and helped bring humour and colour to articles of all kinds. By the 1950s there were so many pocketbook publications and movies that SF fans often had little in common other than fandom itself, which became the subject of many legends (& articles). Walt Willis of Ireland raised fannish writing to especially high levels of humour and observation, much imitated and rarely equaled. Then, in the late 1950s, fandom began to splinter, with zines devoted to subfandom interests, a process much accelerated by Star Trek in the 1960s and Star Wars in the 1970s.

But the classic type of fannish article includes any of the following: editorials, fanzine/story/book/film reviews, fan gossip & rumour, speculative science, con reports, travel reports, fan profiles, interviews, polls, quizzes, fan fiction, fan poetry (fortunately rare), hoaxes & spoofs, fannish history, fan feuds, philosophical discussion, sociological and political rants, satire, zine indexes and no doubt much more I can’t think of at the moment.

One factor frequently present in fannish writing is humour, sometimes sophomoric and juvenile, but often sublime — dry humour especially. This is one of the most attractive aspects of self-expression as found in SF fanzines. ( Sources: Jack Speer, Dick Eney & Harry Warner Jr.)

ASP

— ‘Associated Slan Press’, a by invitation only group of BNF’s (Big Name Fans) , including Bob Tucker, active during World War II in the American Midwest. Their logo was a formidable-looking cobra coiled around a breast-like hill topped by a tiny pyramid . ‘The 1945 Fanzine Index’ edited by Bob Tucker was an ASP publication (though also credited as “a service of the Fantasy Foundation”). I assume ASP was something like Canada’s CAFP, a bunch of faneds doing their own thing but agreeing to utilize a common logo for the sake of promotion, but it may have been more organized than that.

(Sources: Jack Speer & Dick Eney.)

[ See BNF, CAFP, SLAN. ]

AURORA AWARDS

— The sad thing is, uniformed Canadian fans, when the nature of the Auroras is explained to them, are usually told, “Think of them as the Canadian Hugos.” And that says it all.

Like the ‘Hugos’, the Auroras are a set of Science Fiction Achievement awards in both professional and fannish categories voted on Canada-wide by fans. The Auroras are administered by the CSFFA (Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Awards) committee, and presented every year in a traveling convention known as ‘Canvention’ attached as a rider on the host convention.

Note: the first Aurora was a single award known as ‘The Coeurl’, subsequent awards were called ‘Caspers’, and later the name was changed to the more dignified and thoroughly Canadian ‘Auroras’, but CSFFA is the proper, technical term, though not very catchy.

The ‘Coeurl’ Award was created by John Bell, Bob Atkinson, George Allanson and Sheldon Goldman in 1980. The ‘Coeurl’ CSFFA, a magnificent $500 twenty-two inches long metal sculpture (designed by Nova Scotia sculptor Mike Spencer) depicting the monster of that name from A.E. Van Vogt’s story “Black Destroyer” on a rosewood base presented to Van Vogt by Spider Robinson at the Halcon 3 convention in Halifax in March of 1980. It was considered a lifetime achievement award.

NOTE: Sculptor Mike Spencer comments re his creation of The Coeurl: “When I received the commission, I was keen to do it. I had read much of Van Vogt’s work years before along with a great deal of other science fiction. Only I didn’t know how I was going to manage to execute it. But shortly thereafter, and before the work was due, I went to a week-long workshop with Philadelphia sculptor Chris Ray.”

“Chris, now sadly no longer with us, was the author of the bizarre and strangely compelling Mansect series of sculptures (among many others) that I admired extravagantly. The week with Chris provided the technique I needed to raise and form the hollow body of Coeurl. It consists of raised 16 ga. steel and hot-forged steel on a rosewood base. Design by myself and Owen Olton based on the description in Van Vogt’s story, The Black Destroyer, and the original artwork in the July 1939 issue of Astounding. The head and extremities are forged from solid bar and all the numerous pieces assembled by gas and electric welding. Fangs are set into holes drilled in the jaws. It has been erroneously reported (in an earlier version of this Canfancyclopedia) that this piece is “cast iron”. It’s not.”

A second CSFFA Lifetime Achievement award was given posthumously to Hugo-winning Canadian fan Susan Wood at the VCON 9 / Canvention 2 held in Vancouver in 1981. At some point thereafter fans began to refer to the CSFFA awards as ‘CASPERS’, though why or when I do not know.

The CSFFA remained a single award till Vancouver’s VCON 14 / Canvention 6 in 1986, where it was expanded to three awards: ‘English Canadian SF, Fantasy & Nonfiction’, ‘French Canadian SF, Fantasy & Nonfiction’, and for the first time ever, the specifically fannish ‘Fan Achievement Award’ which was won by Garth Spencer, faned of THE MAPLE LEAF RAG.

The 1989 CSFFAs, presented at Pinekone II / Canvention 9 in Ottawa, were promoted as “The 1989 Prix Casper Awards” and were greatly expanded, each previous category now tripling:

1) ‘Best Long-Form Work In English’, ‘Best Short-Form Work in English’, & ‘Best Work In English (Other)’.

2) ‘Meilleur Livre En Francais’, ‘Meilleure Nouvelle En Francais’, & ‘Meilleur Ouvrage En Francais (Autre)’.

3) ‘Fan Achievement (Organizational) / Activite Fanique (Organisational)’, Fan Achievement (Fanzine) / Activite Fanique (Fanzine)’, & ‘Fan Achievement (Other) / Activite Fanique (Autre)’.

Not the catchiest of award names, but loose and flexible, and therefore extremely resistant to repeated efforts to change them into something less stuffy in the eyes of the public, like ‘Best Novel’, ‘Best Short Story’, etc.

After the awards, at the CSFFA business meeting held at Pinekone II / Canvention 9, it was decided to change the Award name ‘CASPER’ to ‘AURORA’.

In 1991 at Context 91 / Canvention 11 in Calgary, the category ‘Artistic Achievement’ was added, the winner being Lynne Taylor Fahnestalk for a cover she did for ON SPEC magazine. This brings the Auroras up to 10 annual awards, which remains its current status.

In 1994 at Conadian (1994 Worldcon) / Canvention 14 in Winnipeg, there was a slight alteration to the French language fan awards. Instead of ‘Activite’ the word ‘Accomplissement’ was substituted, presumably because it was closer to the meaning of the English word ‘Achievement’.

At the close of the century the Auroras were still healthy and strong, despite the inevitable baggage train of resented radical reform proposals and savage political infighting. (DM) (JRC) & (GS).

Here follows a listing of the fannish Aurora Awards to date: (to be updated)

FAN ACHIEVEMENT:

1986 – Garth Spencer – for editing of THE MAPLE LEAF RAG & dedication to Canadian fandom.

1987 – Elisabeth Vonarburg – for contributions to SOLARIS.

FAN ACHIEVEMENT (FANZINE/PUBLICATION):

1988 – MLR – Michael Skeet, editor.

1989 – MLR – Michael Skeet, editor.

1990 – MLR – Michael Skeet, editor.

1991 – NEOLOGY – Catherine Girczyc, editor.

1992 – SOL RISING – Larry Hancock, editor.

1993 – UNDER THE OZONE HOLE – Karl Johanson & John Herbert, editors.

1994 – UNDER THE OZONE HOLE – Karl Johanson & John Herbert, editors.

1995 – UNDER THE OZONE HOLE – Karl Johanson & John Herbert, editors.

1996 – UNDER THE OZONE HOLE – Karl Johanson & John Herbert, editors.

1997 – SOL RISING – Theresa Wojtasiewicz, editor.

1998 – WARP FACTOR – Chris Chartier, editor.

1999 – WARP FACTOR – Lynda Pelly, editor.

2000 – VOYAGEUR – Karen Bennett, editor.

2001 – VOYAGEUR – Karen Bennett, editor.

2002 – VOYAGEUR – Karen Bennett & Sharon Lowachee, editors.

2003 – MADE IN CANADA NEWSLETTER – Don Bassie, editor.

2004 – MADE IN CANADA NEWSLETTER – Don Bassie, editor.

2005 – OPUNTIA – Dale Speirs, editor.

2006 – THE ROYAL SWISS NAVY GAZETTE – Garth Spencer, editor.

2007 – BRINS D’ETERNITE – Guillaume Voisine, editor.

2008 – No Award.

2009 – THE ORIGINAL UNIVERSE – Jeff Boman, Editor.

FAN ACHIEVEMENT (ORGANIZATIONAL):

1989 – Paul Valcour – Pinekone 1.

1990 – The Alberta Speculative Fiction Association (TASFA).

1991 – Dave Panchyk – President of SSFS & Chair of Combine 0.

1992 – John Mansfield – Winnipeg in 94 Worldcon Bid Committee Chair.

1993 – Adam Charlesworth – Noncon 15.

1994 – Lloyd Penney – Ad Astra.

1995 – Cath Jackel – Noncon & ON SPEC.

1996 – Jean-Louis Trudel – SFSF Boreal et Prix Boreal.

1997 – Yvonne Penney – SF Saturday.

1998 – Peter Halasz – The National SF & Fantasy Society.

1999 – Ann Methe – Con*cept 98.

2000 – Bernard Reischl – (Kag/Kanada).

2001 – R. Graeme Cameron – BCSFA President & VCON 25 Chair.

2002 – Peter Johnson – USS Hudson Bay, IDIC.

2003 – Georgina Miles – Toronto Trek 16.

2004 – Martin Miller – Torcon 3 & TT17 Masquerades.

2005 – Brian Upward (I.D.I.C.)

2006 – Barbara Schofield (TT Masquerade)

2007 – Cathy Palmer-Lister (Con*Cept)

2008 – Penny Lipman (Masquerades)

2009 – Randy McCharles – (Chair of World Fantasy 2008)

FAN ACHIEVEMENT (OTHER):

1989 – Robert Runte – NCF GUIDE TO CANADIAN SCIENCE FICTION & FANDOM, 3rd edition, editor & publisher.

1990 – Robert Runte – for promotion of Canadian SF writing.

1991 – Al Betz – ASK MR. SCIENCE column.

1992 – David W, New – HORIZONS SF, editor.

1993 – Louise Hypher – SF2 show.

1994 – Jean-Louis Trudel – promotion of Canadian SF.

1995 – Catherine Donahue Girczyc – ETHER PATROL radio show host.

1996 – Larry Stewart – entertainer.

1997 – Lloyd Penney – fan writing.

1998 – Larry Stewart – entertainer.

1999 – Janet L. Hetherington – co-curator of 60 Years of Superman exhibit at Nepean Museum.

2000 – Don Bassie – MADE IN CANADA website.

2001 – Donna McMahon – book reviews.

2002 – Alex von Thorn – fan writing.

2003 – Jason Taniguchi – One-man SF parody shows.

2004 – Eric Layman – fan writing.

2005 – Karen Linsley, filksinging.

2006 – Urban Tapestry, filksinging.

2007 – Peggi Warner-LaLonde – filksinging.

2008 – THE VOYAGEUR – Paul Bobbit, editor.

2009 – Joan Sherman – Heather Dale Concert.

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT

2008 – Dennis Mullin, Auroras Administrator for many years.

(Sources: Mike Spencer & R. Graeme Cameron)

[ See: CSFFA, CASPERS, CANVENTION. ]

AUTOANALYSES

— A fannish name for self-psychoanalyses articles by faneds, common in the late 1930s and 1940s, apparently done, not so much to explain the nature of the individual in question, but to come to grips with what is unique or special about being a fan. In extreme form, to justify the concept of being a Slan . Freudian psychology had been a trendy cocktail party fad in the 1920s, and the later fannish fad for autoanalyses may possibly have constituted a feeble last gasp of what had once been a widespread mundane phenomenon. (Source: Jack Speer.)

AUTOCLAVE

— The name of the first SF convention devoted to fanzine fandom. Held but once somewhere in the States. Lloyd Penney writes: “This first fanzine convention was held, to the best of my own knowledge, in the Detroit area in the 1980s. Never went to it, but heard it was extremely fannish.” (Source: Lloyd Penney.)

Issue #2 of STARSONGS contains a review of Autoclave, and gives the date of the convention as May 28-30, 1976, and confirms it was held in Detroit.

Taral adds: “Entry on Autoclave caught my eye. I attended all four and can provide dates if you care. It was a fun con, though we sometimes had to share the hotel with odd people — I recall one Baptist wedding party, I think it was. They stared at us as though *we* were the odd ones….  I think the people running Autoclave might have just got tired of running it — they were likely also involved in the regular Detroit cons.” (Source: Taral.)

AVOIDANCE

— Especially in a perzine, the faned’s use of “I” can become tiresome to the reader, so the faned will interject an avoidance to add variety. The most common is the use of “We”, though it sounds a bit pompous. “Ye Ed” used to be common, “Your Livy” or “Your Tacitus” meaningful only to the classically inclined. Some fans write articles in the third person by way of avoidance. An objective or Olympian viewpoint helps too. Good writing requires variety, incessant repetition is a sign of bad writing, so a clever use of avoidance is a thing to be desired. (Source: Jack Speer.)

AWARDS

— The first fannish awards were the FAPA Laureates, which were awarded to members on an annual basis, though they were phased out by 1945. The National Fantasy Fan Federation (N3F), founded in 1941, also offered laureates.

Then the Annual Science Fiction Achievement Awards, determined by popular vote and having both pro and fannish categories, was presented at the 1953 Worldcon. By 1955 they were known as the HUGO awards, after Hugo Gernsback, the creator of America’s first SF prozine AMAZING STORIES. The Hugos remain the world’s most prestigious SF awards.

A spoof version of the HUGO is the HOGU awards, created in 1972 by Tom Digby. Other spoof awards, for both fans and pros, are the Canadian ELRON awards, created in 1971, and the BLACKHOLE awards, created in 1973.

Another serious pro/fan award is the Canadian AURORA, first established in 1980.

But the most important fannish awards, at least to actifans in zinedom, are the Fanzine Activity Achievement Awards, or FAAns, created by US fan Moshe Feder and first presented at MidWestCon in 1975. Unlike the Hugo fan awards, which any fan can vote for, the FAAns are peer group awards, and thus especially meaningful to the winners.

I’m kicking around the idea of creating the CanFAAn Awards, or Canadian Fanzine Activity Achievement Awards. Possibly an idea whose time has come. Hmmm…

(Done! Created the Canadian Fanzine Fanac Awards (CSFFA), or ‘Faneds.’ Detail to be added.)

[ See CanFAAn Awards, FAAn, FAPA, LAUREATES, HUGO, HOGU, ELRON, BLACKHOLE, AURORA ]