Futurians

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For the comic book series, see Futurians (comics).

The Futurians were a group of science fiction fans, many of whom became editors and writers as well. The Futurians were based in New York City and were a major force in the development of science fiction writing and science fiction fandom in the years 1937-1945.

Contents

Origins of the group [edit]

As described in Isaac Asimov's autobiography In Memory Yet Green, the Futurians spun off from the Greater New York Science Fiction Club (headed by Sam Moskowitz, later an influential SF editor and historian) over ideological differences, with the Futurians wishing to take a more overt political stance. Other sources indicate that Donald A. Wollheim was pushing for a more left-wing direction with a goal of leading fandom toward a political ideal, all of which Moskowitz resisted. As a result, Wollheim broke off from the Greater New York group and founded the Futurians in September, 1938.[1][2][3] The fans following Moskowitz reorganized into the Queens Science Fiction Club.

There is some dispute over this, [4] according to Ozzie Train, The future Futurian founding members had been a part of the New York, "Boys Science Fiction League". As time passed, some of people within this league, started to think in non-conformist ways, in the style of H.G. Wells. This upset a number of the other members of the league and contributed to some people leaving. This split lead to two main groups being formed. Members of one new group came to be called the Futurians and the rest of the old New York group, went on to become the Lunarians. The Lunarian's goal was to make traveling to the moon and living there, a reality. The Futurian group focused on changing the way people lived and worked. Today the Lunarians still exist and are living in New York, while the Futurians moved to Philadelphia. The Futurians eventually became the "Philadelphia Science Fiction Society," which still exists as well.

  • Special Note* - During the war, Ossie Train, who had friends in both groups, wrote to the various members and kept them in touch with each other. This stopped the two groups from falling apart during those difficult times.

Frederik Pohl, in his autobiography The Way the Future Was, said that the origins of the Futurians started with the Science Fiction League founded by Hugo Gernsback in 1934, the New York City local chapter of which was called the "Brooklyn Science Fiction League" or BSFL, and headed by G. G. Clark.

Wollheim, John Michel, and Robert A. W. Lowndes were also members of the BSFL. Along with Pohl, the four started calling themselves the "Quadrumvirate". Pohl, commenting about that time, said "we four marched from Brooklyn to the sea, leaving a wide scar of burned out clubs behind us. We changed clubs the way Detroit changes tailfins, every year had a new one, and last year's was junk".

There were several club names during that period, before finally settling on the Futurians. In 1935 there was the "East New York Science Fiction League" (ENYSFL), later the "Independent League for Science Fiction" (ILSF). In 1936 came the International Cosmos Science Club (ICSC), which also involved Will Sykora. Pohl then says that "on reflection 'Cosmos' seemed to take in a bit more territory than was justified, so we changed it to the International Scientific Association (it wasn't International either, but then it also wasn't scientific)". The ISA then was renamed New York Branch-International Scientific Association (NYB-ISA).

In 1937, after the falling out with Will Sykora and others, the "Quadrumvirate" went on to found the Futurians. Will Sykora then founded the Queens Science Fiction League with Sam Moskowitz and James V. Taurasi. Later, the QSFL changed into New Fandom. Pohl said as the conflicts between New Fandom and the Futurians were "Addicted to Feuds" and that "No CIA nor KGB ever wrestled so valiantly for the soul of an emerging nation as New Fandom and the Futurians did for science fiction".

Most of the group's members also had professional ambitions within science fiction and related fields, and collectively were very effective at achieving this goal, as the roster of members below suggests. At one point in the earliest 1940s, approximately half of all the pulp sf and fantasy magazines in the U.S. were being edited by Futurians: Frederik Pohl at the Popular Publications offshoot Fictioneers, Inc. (Astonishing Stories and Super-Science Stories); Robert Lowndes at Columbia Publications, most notably with Science Fiction and Future Fiction (though through the decade to come, Lowndes's responsibilities would expand to other types of fiction magazine in the chain), and Donald Wollheim at the very marginal Albing Publications with the short-lived, micro-budgeted Cosmic Stories and Stirring Science Stories (Wollheim soon moved on to Avon Books; Doë "Leslie Perri" Baumgardt also worked on a romance fiction title for Albing). Most of these projects had small editorial budgets, and relied in part, or occasionally entirely, on contributions from fellow Futurians for their contents.

Political tendencies [edit]

At the time the Futurians were formed, Donald Wollheim was strongly attracted by communism and believed that followers of science fiction "should actively work for the realization of the scientific world-state as the only genuine justification for their activities and existence".[5] It was to this end that Wollheim formed the Futurians, and many of its members were in some degree interested in the political applications of science fiction.

Hence the group included supporters of Trotskyism, like Judith Merril and others who would have been deemed far left for the era (Frederik Pohl became a member of the Communist Party in 1936, but later quit in 1939). On the other hand several members were political moderates or apolitical, and in the case of James Blish arguably right-wing. Damon Knight in The Futurians indicates that Blish at that time felt Fascism was interesting in theory, if repellent as it was then being practised. More solid evidence is that Blish admired the work of Oswald Spengler.

Pohl, in his autobiography, The Way the Future Was, said Wollheim voted for Republican Presidential Candidate Alfred Landon in 1936.

Members included [edit]

Notes [edit]

  1. ^ Kyle, David (December 1997). "SaM -- Fan Forever". Mimosa (21): 7–10. Retrieved 24Apr2007. 
  2. ^ Fancylopedia, Futurians
  3. ^ efanzines.com, FUTURIAN WAR DIGEST
  4. ^ Ossie Train
  5. ^ Carr, Terry (1979). Classic Science Fiction: The First Golden Age. Robson Books. ISBN 0-86051-070-0.  p. 430

See also [edit]

References [edit]

  • In Memory Yet Green by Isaac Asimov (1979)
  • The Futurians by Damon Knight (1977)
  • The Way The Future Was by Frederik Pohl (1978)
  • All Our Yesterdays by Harry Warner, Jr. (1969)

External links [edit]

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