Minnesota Day compiled by Joyce Scrivner

This essay was written for a ConFusion (a Michigan convention) in probably mid-1970s. It talks about early fans and pros from Minnesota. (I've been informed that it was likely 'Genuine ConFusion.')

Candice Massey (a Michigan fan) conceived, solicited articles, artwork, commentaries and co-wrote the fan-history section below. (The art for this has not been scanned, but resides in the fanzine itself.) She also paid for the reproduction.

I've been corresponding with Tim Wick about getting fan history information on the MISFITS web site, and I will later be presenting other articles on other fan history as well. It appears most useful to me, though, to have something about the first Minnesota fan groups and the first Minnesota SF pros as a beginning.

The following is a transcription of the Fanzine done for ConFusion - no year is given - on Minnesota fandom and prodom. Denny Lien - a Minneapolis reference librarian and SF fan - has sent me some comments on the information and I've inserted them where appropriate.

[Denny's comments over all are: Internal dating suggests circa 1976/77. Someone in the first chunk reported having seen THE MIMEO MAN at Minicon, which I believe was 1976, and the list at bottom credits Kirby McCauley with two anthologies--he had one published in 1975 and two in 1976, so either that part was reported in 1976 or the person who reported it (who was probably me) had missed one. Obviously much out of date in the biographies (deaths etc.) but I'll confine myself to things that were wrong even then... ]

Preparatory Remarks on Minnesota Day (by Lloyd Biggle, Jr.)

A few years ago, Analog Editor Ben Bova described to me, in tones that seemed extraordinarily awesome even for a science fiction editor, a visit he had recently made to Minneapolis. At the time he was collaborating on a book with Gordon Dickson, and I've asked him to put down his own version of what happened:

"My plane arrived on a Sunday evening: I think it was around nine p.m. Gordy usually meets me as close to the gate as possible, this time he was hanging back near the corridor of the terminal wing. I trudged up to him and he fixed me with a quizzical stare and asked, "How do you feel?"

"Fine, " said I.

"You're not tired are you?"

"no..."

"That's as far as I got, because by this time he had artfully led me into the corridor, where what seemed like a forty-piece band broke out into the strains of Herod's Song from 'Jesus Christ, Superstar.' But the words (written earlier that day by Gordy) started with 'So you are Ben Bova, great editor Bova..." and so forth.

"The band consisted of one trombone, a lot of kazoos, a dulcimer, and at least one each, washboard and jug. everyone who wasn't playing a wind instrument was singing, and there were many ... signs. I snagged (one that read) 'To err is Human, to Edit Bovine,' and brought it back to New York with me; I don't recall specifically what was on any of the others ... Then we all marched out of the terminal, banners high and voices cracking, and got stone drunk at the Hobbitat.

"It was fun. But it sure spoiled me for all the other airports I've landed at since then!"

That story was my introduction to Minnesota fandom. It convinced me that these were people I ought to know, and at the first opportunity I attended a Minicon and got aquatinted with some of them. And the Minnesota Science Fiction Society more than fulfilled my expectations. Among other things, it enlivened that Minicon with a complete musical, THE MIMEO MAN (a takeoff on the MUSIC MAN) with the same flair, and ingenuity, and enthusiasm with which it meets visiting editors at the airport.

My amazement took on another dimension when I considered the host of professional writers that Minnesota fandom had produced, over the years. Minnesota writers have of course been honored at Minicon, and properly so, but it seemed to me that a much wider recognition of the achievements of Minnesota's fandom and prodom was long overdue.

[Denny's comment on the lyrics for Ben Bova: The "So you are Ben Bova" lytics (to tune of "Herod's Song") was written not by Gordy Dickson but by a number of fans brainstorming, mostly (if memory serves) by Jim Young. I think it was Gordy who alerted us that JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR was a favorite of Bova's, though, thus giving us the idea.]

So I suggested that one day of ConFusion be designated Minnesota Day, with appropriate program events. If this celebration achieves the success that we confidently expect, please remember that the whole notion was my idea. If, however, through some malicious and uncontrollable twist of fate, and the celebration bombs, I wont you to know that I consulted Gordy Dickson concerning every pivotal decision, so the responsibility for the flop obviously will belong to him.

FROM THE WILDS OF MINNESOTA: AN ACCOUNT OF FANDOM IN MINNESOTA

Preface:

When Lloyd Biggle first proposed the idea of having Saturday of ConFusion be designated Minnesota Day, everyone was swept up into an excited state the likes of which will be probably not seen again unless the con actually breaks even this year, but no one seemed to know a lot about the history of such fans or why they manage to produce more pros than would seem likely in an area so removed from traditional centers o literature. Reactions at the fateful meeting went something like this:

"Minnesota Day! In honor or Minnesota? Fandom? Pros?"

"I've got an idea!" Someone exclaims. "Lets make them a booklet to honor them, a history of their fandon."

"Great idea!"

Yeah, You ever try to research one of those things? Nonetheless, here it is: tales of gafiation and degafiation, the collected remarks and scattered fannish memorabilia of what it was like to be a fan in the olden days at the wilds of Minnesota.

The History:

Central to this story is a group of fans known as the Minnesota Fantasy Society. Begun in the Twin Cities, this group was the mainstay of Fandom through the late thirties and forties. Historically, the first traces of fandom in Minnesota were simply the repeated appearances of certain names in the letter columns of the early pulps and prozines. Among these were Oliver Saari, Doug Blakely, and John Chapman who later promoted the existence of formal meetings of Minnesota fandom.

There were several attempts to organize a local chapter of the Science Fiction League, a Gernsback-promoted organization "For the furtherance and betterment of the art of science fiction." But the first attempt fizzled miserably in June of 1935, lacking by only a few months the influx of fans like Saari, Chapman and Blakely to provided a core membership. The s second attempt to start the Minneapolis SFL did produce two remarkable things, an actual meeting in June 1937, and the fateful first physical meeting of Saari, Blakely, Chapman, Arden Benson, and Robert Madsen who became fast friends. According to Sam Russell in the Fantasite #2 (Feb. 1941), these five met often and "carried on almost all the activities of a club except the two that distinguish a club from a casual gathering - viz. organization and publicity." Russell goes on to say that during the interregnum period of 1937-40, "The chief literary activities of the Unholy Five were the composition of innumerable Silly Stories --- brief nonsensical satires on current asininitys in science fiction." These are claimed to have at times caused the assembled fans to collapse rolling on the floor, convulsed with laughter. Sounds like an interesting way to spend an evening. This was the start of a tradition in Minneapolis that "whenever two fans met in the Twin Cities, the MFS Silly Story formed an important element in their transactions" according to Reed Bogs in Rune #16, July 1969. Moreover they are the source of several fannish terms of great renown, among them "fout", "nank" and "Twonk's Disease".

In 1939, Clifford Simak moved to the Twin Cities to become the news editor of the Minneapolis Star. Already a professional writer of some fame, many of the local fen became acquainted with him. As the result of this galvanizing event, the Minneapolis Fantasy Society became its formal existence on Friday, November 29, 1940 at Clifford Simak's Home. Nine fans showed up that evening among them were Saari, Carl Jacobi, already a pro at this time, Charles Jarvis, Phil Bronson, Samuel D. Russell, John Chapman, Arden Benson, who inaugurated the great tradition of retiring to the New Elgin Cafe after the meetings for normal conversation and sandwiches. A constitution was drawn up stating two aims: "to stimulate interest in fantasy in the Twin Cities and to make the name of the Society notable through fandom."

Some of the early meetings attracted the transitory or longer attendance of such fans as Cyril Eggum, Douglas Blakely, Phil Bronson, Charles Albertson, Ken Peterson, Fred Wagner, Sherman Schultz, Bill Campbell, Don Wandrei, Dale Rosomily, and Morris Dollens, Part of the activities which occurred during these early meetings consisted of Morris Scott Dollens's movies and sound recordings of the club. As Redd Boggs described the procedure, "Dollens showed up at meetings lugging many suitcases full of photographic and sound equipment, and fascinated MFS members soon found themselves scripting plays and acting in brief science fiction movies and recording science fiction plays. Numbers of impromptu ad lib recordings "too numerous and undignified to mention" were cut as well. The first attempt at recording a play took place a t the June 14, 1941 meeting at which a short script by Sam Russell, "The Coalsack", was recorded, the principal roles being played by Russell himself and Dug Blakely. Later sessions produced "Strike" a science fiction play by John Chapman (Printed a s story in the _Science Fiction Quarterly_, summer 1942 ) and "The After-Life," a fantasy by Oliver Saari."

One recording was made of a talk by Donald Wandrei, by then a well-known fantasy writer in his own right, about the early days when he was a member of the Lovecraft Circle. Another interesting recording was made on the even of Denvention which consisted of greeting to the fans assembled there in 1941 from the MFS. This was conceived, executed and delivered with a total elapse time of only 16 hours.

The first known Minneapolis Fantasy Society fan to attend a convention was probably Phil Bronson, who was spending the summer on the West Coast and attended Denvention while he was out there. This provided the opportunity to bring his fanzine, The Fantasite, to national prominence. This, of course was not the first nor the last fanzine to have come out of Minnesota. Bronson himself had earlier been the creator and editor of two issues of Scienti-Comics. Morris Dollens had published 13 issues of the Science Fiction Collector during 1936 and 1937. Manson "Manse' Brackeny put out a personalzine called B-r_r-r-ack that was well-received. John Gergen, a young fan of about 13-14 put out the MFS Bulletin_.

One of the more interesting happenings occurred when a Silly Story that had been kicking about the club for nearly two years became published in John Campbell's Astounding, November 1941. Nearly everyone had a hand in its formation, but Oliver Saari in a desperate attempt to finish it up once and for all, wrote it up and sent it into Campbell. Saari was more than a bit surprised when Campbell mailed back a check part of which found its way in to the club treasury. The story was The Doc

Gordon R. Dickson joined this group at the January 23, 1942 meeting at which no fewer than 19 fans showed up. Dickson became a regular contributor to the Fantasite with his 'Fan Scratchings" column and appeared in the outside Sapceways zine with the round-robin serial, "If I were a Werewolf" this chapter being contributed by the MFS and was mostly his work.

As of the late 1942s the group began to lose members to the draft faster than they could replace them. Due to WWII the MFS began having 'branches' scattered about the globe and talk of dissolving the club for the duration occurred. A vote was actually taken during one of the meetings to do so but because many of the fans were not present this vote was reversed at the very next meeting, especially since several of whom they had thought they were going to lose to the war managed to be not taken at all or stationed nearby. Phil Bronson hosted a farewell party on November 28, 1942 in honor of his going away to California to await the draft call. Record amounts of consumables were said to have disappeared that night. The meeting was proclaimed the first Hastings StF con by a mimeographed sheet done hastily during the meeting. By this time some of the membership had come of age and were beginning to spend the after-meeting gabfests down at Delany's Bar rather than the New Elgin Cafe. Many of the group had now discovered the opposite sex and some of these accompanied the members to Delany's and more to the Halloween party.

Meanwhile the MFS began to cease all formal activities save for an "informal" meeting in September 1944, when Carl Jacobi, John Gergen, Art Osterlund, and Clifford Simak met to discuss the works of A. Merritt who had just recently passed away. Most of the original membership were away at war or had drifted to the West Coast. This meeting was the last time the MFS was heard of for nearly four years.

The old MFS had grown, flourished and faded over a period of some six years and left a legacy of at least ten pros from its ranks, a record not matched by the clubs elsewhere in fandom.

After the war several attempts were made to revive the group, but these met with only minimal success, Poul Anderson joined the group post-war and had this to say:

"The group was then droping out of regular fan activity, and soon just called itself the MFS. For a while it held regular meetings and for a while longer continued to do a little in-group publishing, but presently even this ceased. However, all kinds of other activities were going on --- parties, gatherings at our favorite downtown bar, excursions, games of softball and football, love affairs (as women began to appear among us), or simply two or three at a time talking the moon down and the sun up. We were mostly young, and several of us chronically broke, but we enjoyed ourselves a lot just the same, and the memory of those days remains warm. Though now we are scattered, it is always a great occasion when any of us can get together for a while. Thus Minnesota Day at ConFusion is a great idea!"

There you have it: the legends and the glory of the olden days in the wilds of Minnesota. Of course, as you know for Minicon, fans still meet in the Twin Cities and are still producing writers and traditions today. All I can say is, what a group!

[Denny's comments on MFS: Don't have much to add re MFS; I wasn't there. I believe Cliff Simak's dog Squanchfoot was considered by some anyway a full member (hey, he had a column in the fanzine) and probably should be mentioned. And I believe that Oliver Saari's short story "The Door" was originally another Silly Story that wound up in professional print--in the November 1941 ASTOUNDING. (It was later reprinted in PERRY RHODAN and more recently in the 4SJ-edited anthology ACKERMANTHOLOGY (1997).]

THOSE PEOPLE WHO PRODUCED THIS BOOKLET ARE:

• Steve Innes, the last four biographies
• Ted Reynold, the first four biographies
• Lloyd Biggle, the introduction
• Doug Rice, the Cover art
• Dave Innes, the fan history and research
• Candice Massey, editing, printing, despairing, sleepless nights typing this booklet onto stencils, and parts of the fan history

WE WOULD LIKE TO THANK:

Dave Wixon, Scott Imes, Denny Lien, Fred Haskell, Poul Anderson, and everyone else who provided material or support for this booklet.

WHO'S WHO OF MINNESOTA AUTHORS

Presenting a few items of interest about some of the science fiction authors that Minnesota fandom has produced down through the years.

POUL ANDERSON

was born in Pennsylvania in 1926. He lived in Texas, Denmark, and Washington D.C., before moving to Minneapolis in 1948. He had already sold his first science fiction stories by that time. To the present, he has had over fifty books published and stories in the hundreds. The number of Hugo and Nebula awards he has been honored with suggests that he has not sacrificed quality to quantity. A few of his titles may bring back some of the wonder of his career to date: "Genius", "Gypsy", "The Helping Hand", Three Hearts and Three Lions, "We Have Fed Our Sea", The High Crusade, "No Truce with Kings", "The Longest Voyage", Tau Zeo, "Queen of air and Darkness", "Goat Song", Fire Time ... . He moved to California in 1953, where he now lives, has been president of the Science Fiction Writers of America, and swashbuckled, as Bela of Eastmarch, in the Society for Creative Anachronism. His influence in the filed of SF, from fantasy to the hardest science fiction, has been immense and will surely continue.

THEODORE COGSWELL

was born in Coastesville, Pennsylvania in 1918. He served in the Spanish Republican Army and the United States Army Air Force. After the Second World War, he took a B.A. at the University of Colorado, and an M.A. at the University of Denver, and then taught English at the Universe of Minnesota from 1949 to 1953. During these Minnesota days he was urged to write science fiction by Poul Anderson and Gordon Dickson. His first story, "The Specter General", was published in Astounding Science Fiction for June, 1952. The mood of this taie of the military outpost left isolated for millennia by the collapse of interstellar empire, both humorous and haunting, was memorable enough to be chose for the Science Fiction Hall of Fame nearly twenty years later. Collections of his stories include The Third Eve, and The Wall Around the World. He now teaches in Pennsylvania.

CARL JACOBI

was born in Minneapolis in 1908. He studied geology and writing at the University of Minnesota, from which he graduate in 1931. He is one of science fiction's real old-timers, his story, "Mive", being published in the January 1932 Weird Tales. His subsequently published fiction sales have grown to over three hundred, with over half of these being science fiction and fantasy. He was much involved with the Minneapolis Fantasy Society from its first inception in 1940. His collections include Revelations in Black, Portraits in Moonlight, and Disclosures in Scarlet.

GORDON R. DICKSON.

was born in 1923 in Edmonton, Alberta, coming to the United States at the age of thirteen. In 1939 he entered the University of Minnesota. He soon became involved with fan writing and the Minneapolis Fantasy Society. After serving in the Second World War, he received his B.A. in creative writing from the University of Minnesota, and helped in the reestablishment of the Minneapolis Fantasy Society. Since 1950 he has published over two hundred stories and thirty novels. He has won recognition as one of the leading lights in the science fiction field with such memorable works as "Jean Dupres", "Computers Don't Argue", "Call Him Lord", and The Pritcher Mass. His most impressive body of work is perhaps his Dorasi series, a still-expanding future canvas embracing The Tactics of Mistake, The Genetic General (re-released as Dorsai!), Soldier, Ask Not and forthcoming additions, including both past and contemporary. He has also served as President of the Science Fiction Writers of America.

DONALD WANDREI

sold his first fantasy story in 1927 while still a student at the University of Minnesota. As it is he sold quite frequently to magazines both in and out of science fiction and fantasy fields, notable to Weird Tales and Astounding, occasionally to Esquire. A member of the original Lovecraft circle, Wandrei's friendship with H.P.Lovecraft himself is chronicled in Sam Moskowitz's book Explorers of the Infinite.

"Meanwhile, Lovecraft tightened his food budget to thirty cents a day and neglected his stomach to obtain postage money for his ever-growing list of correspondent, which had now become his avenue of escape from harsh reality. Finally his friends could stand it no longer. Without his knowledge, Donald Wandrei (author of "The Red Brain" in Weird Tales and "Colossus" in Astounding), secured the manuscripts of At the Mountains of Madness and The Shadow Out of Time and brought them both to P.Tremaine, editor of Asotounding Stories. Termine bought them both and Lovecraft received the two largest checks of his writing career."

The Lovecraft Circle association provided another of Wandrei's achievements when he joined with another member of the circle, August Derleth, to form Arkham House in order to publish a memorial to Lovecraft. They also published the works of many other fantasy writers such as Clark Ashton Smith, Farnsworth Wright, Harry Bates, as well as some of their own works. The editions were "handsomely produced, coveted by collectors and prominently reviewed", according to Moskowitz. Even through Wandrei eventually left and Derleth died in 1971, Arkham House still survives today.

[ Denny's comments on list for Arkham House: What a strange list. Smith, yes, but Farnsworth Wright was an editor (of WEIRD TALES) and not himself an author, and I don't believe Arkham ever published anything by Harry Bates, who was also best known as an editor (early ASTOUNDING) and whose own fiction is, I think, all sf rather than weird/horror (the only memorable story is "Farewell to the Master," which was filmed as THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL). No idea why someone would pull those two names out of the air to join with Smith as "fantasy writers" published by Arkham...]

CLIFFORD SIMAK

was born August 3, 1904 on the farm of his grandfather, Edward Winman. Stories tell that Simak was the classic image of country boy come to life: living on a farm, having to walk to school or ride a horse, going barefoot, getting up at four am to do chores, and so on. His decision to become a writer came about when he was still a child. The family would gather around to listen to Mother of Father read aloud from books or newspapers. From these reading a magic, fascinating, and wonderful world came into being. After graduation with a B.A. in journalism from the University of Wisconsin, he obtained his first position on the staff of the Iron River Reporter in Iron River, Michigan. Just before that happened, while Simak at Cassville in Wisconsin, he had me Agnes Kuchenberg at a motion picture theater. The meeting turned into romance and on April 13, 1929 they got married just about week before Simak was to leave for the job at Iron River. His first published science fiction story appeared in the December 1931 issue of Gernsback's Wonder Stories, entitled "World of the Red Sun". Later, such stories as City, Time and Time Again, Way Station, Destiny Doll, A Choice of Gods, The Walk Like Men, Enchanted Pilgrimage, and his Hugo Award-winning, "The Big Front Yard" were written entirely in his spare time while he distinguished himself by rising to high editorial positions in Minneapolis newspapers. He was also instrumental in fostering The Minneapolis Fantasy Society, reviving it post-war as Tomorrow, Inc. and holding a good deal of the meetings, formal of not, in his own home. He was honored as Pro Guest at the 29th World Science Fiction convention held in Boston.

OLIVER SAARI

was a native of Finland, arriving in the United States at the age of nine in 1927. One of the first letterhacks to come out of Minnesota, he began reading science fiction at the age of eleven and had his first letter published in the November issue of Amazing, 1934. He, along with John Chapman, Douglas Blakely, Robert Massen, and Arden Benson were the first truefans of Minneapolis. This "Unholy Five" became the core around which the Minneapolis Fantasy Society was supported. Oliver sold his first three stories to the Tremaine _Astounding_ in 1937, titled "Stellar Exodus", "Two Sane Men", and the "The Time Bender". He sold to such magazines as Captain Future, Super Science Stories, and Future Fiction, and later, in he 1950s sold stories to Campbell and other prozines. As engineering student at the University of Minnesota, he graduated, lived in Chicago for a while by now resides back in Minneapolis.

JOHN CHAPMAN

was born in North Dakota and became a member of the "Unholy Five" that brought their unique brand of insanity to fandom in Minnesota. He, like Saari began his science fiction career as a letterhack in the early pubs. Between 1939 and the early 1950s he wrote vigorously, selling at least nine of these to prominent prozines. One of Chapman's plays written originally to record at some of the recording sessions stages at the Minneapolis Fantasy Society meetings by Morris Dollens, became published in the Science Fiction Quarterly, summer 1942 as "Stroke". His place at 1521 Como Ave.S.E. was a famous gathering place during the heydays of the MFS and the records in his collection attracted the admiration and envy of fans in Minneapolis. Currently, he is reported to be residing in Indonesia.

AND OTHERS... KIRBY MCCAULEY, SF agent and two fantasy/horror anthologies ... JIM SCHUMEISTER, SF-humor comic strip ... ROSEL GEROGE BROWN ... MORDECAI ROSHWALD, _Level Seven_, ... ELEASNOR ARNASON ... RICK GELMAN ... SCOTT WILLIAM SCHUMACK ... JOHN PURCELL ... AL KUHFELD ... RICHARD TIERNEY ... PAT HODGELL ... IGNATIUS DONNELLY ... all of these have sold stories or other published accomplishments in the SF field.

[Denny's comment on this list: Also, I think John Purcell's name was listed in error--he claimed or was rumored to have just sold something professionally, but don't think he ever did, certainly not at the time. And I don't know anything about pro status of Scott Schumack (nor am I sure of spelling of his name). Again, it's a strange list. I think I originally supplied some of the less obvious names on it (Gellman, for instance, had one short-short published in NEW WORLDS), but there were a number of better-known names at the time that had better claims; don't know if I forgot to list or they got edited out--Francis Stevens, Joseph Millard, Howard Wandrei, C. C. Beck (the CAPTAIN MARVEL comic artist), and Ruth Berman are a few. But again that's second-guessing decades after the fact.]