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75 years ago today...
Jan. 3rd, 2012 08:31 amToday - 3rd Jan 2012 - is the 75th anniversary of the first convention, held in Leeds in 1937. Fan historian Rob Hansen writes: "A few months back I was put in touch with Jill Godfrey, daughter of Harold Gottliffe. It was Gottliffe who took photos of the event and not only did Jill have better prints of some of these than had come down the years, she also had several that were unknown to us."
Rob put the photos and other material commemorating the Leeds Conference online in THEN: The Archive. The images include a photo of the young Arthur C. Clarke that has never been seen before. There's also a recently unearthed convention report by Ted Carnell, which he published six years later in his fanzine, Sands of Time #8. Aside from the specific purpose of the Leeds convention, Ted's report strikes a familiar tone:
"On January 3rd 1937 the Leeds Chapter of WONDER's Science Fiction League held Britain's first science fiction Convention. It had been called mainly to decide on a proper fan organisation for this country and many fans and authors all over the country had promised to attend. We met Walt Gillings and Art Clarke at St. Pancras Station late at night and caught the mail train to Leeds. En route we picked up Maurice Hanson at Leicester --- the four of us arriving at Leeds in the dismal small hours around 4.00 a.m."
Kudos and appreciation to Rob Hansen for celebrating the anniversary with this new material! Seventy-five years of conventions. That's not too many.
Appended: the 75th Anniversary page also links to The First Ever Science Fiction Convention discussion of both Philadelphia's and Leed's claims to have been the first science fiction convention. I find Leed's claim for the title far more compelling than Philly's, though I also recognize it is a subject fans and fandom regularly disagree about.
Rob put the photos and other material commemorating the Leeds Conference online in THEN: The Archive. The images include a photo of the young Arthur C. Clarke that has never been seen before. There's also a recently unearthed convention report by Ted Carnell, which he published six years later in his fanzine, Sands of Time #8. Aside from the specific purpose of the Leeds convention, Ted's report strikes a familiar tone:
"On January 3rd 1937 the Leeds Chapter of WONDER's Science Fiction League held Britain's first science fiction Convention. It had been called mainly to decide on a proper fan organisation for this country and many fans and authors all over the country had promised to attend. We met Walt Gillings and Art Clarke at St. Pancras Station late at night and caught the mail train to Leeds. En route we picked up Maurice Hanson at Leicester --- the four of us arriving at Leeds in the dismal small hours around 4.00 a.m."
Kudos and appreciation to Rob Hansen for celebrating the anniversary with this new material! Seventy-five years of conventions. That's not too many.
Appended: the 75th Anniversary page also links to The First Ever Science Fiction Convention discussion of both Philadelphia's and Leed's claims to have been the first science fiction convention. I find Leed's claim for the title far more compelling than Philly's, though I also recognize it is a subject fans and fandom regularly disagree about.
