Project Gutenberg's Out of This World Convention, by Forrest James Ackerman

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Title: Out of This World Convention

Author: Forrest James Ackerman

Release Date: April 7, 2009 [EBook #28535]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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_Forrest J. Ackerman, prominent Los Angeles agent and Science
Fiction enthusiast, reports on the recent World Convention in New
York. Mr. Ackerman, who attended the first World Convention
seventeen years ago, has been prominent in SF circles since the
early thirties._

out
of
this
world
convention

_by FORREST J. ACKERMAN_

An eye-witness account of the 14th World
Science Fiction Convention in session.

I was a spy for the FBI--the Fantasy Bureau of Investigation! Learning
of a monster meeting of science fiction "fen" in New York, I teleported
myself 3,000 miles from the Pacificoast to check the facts on the
monsters. And it was true--the 14th World SciFi Con was tremonstrous.

* * * * *

In all seriousness, the _Newyorcon_ was one of the greatest aggregations
of s.f. enthusiasts I have ever seen. A far cry from the _Nycon_, the
_first_ "world" s.f. con of 17 years before, when the turnout of 125 was
considered colossal. Now more than twelve hundred fans, authors,
editors, artists, publishers, agents, anthologists, reviewers and
readers of science fiction and fantasy registered for the Labor Day
Weekend gathering of the clans, a conclave of the slans.

From 37 of the 48 states they came. And from Canada, Cuba, England,
Germany, India, Israel and the West Indies. The roll call of celebrities
read like the Who's Who of S.F. Prodom: Theodore Sturgeon, Isaac Asimov,
Fritz Leiber, Willy Ley, Nelson Bond, John W. Campbell Jr., L. Sprague
de Camp, James Blish, Judith Merril, "Ted" Carnell (Editor of New
Worlds), Kelly Freas, Edmond Hamilton, Leigh Brackett, Anthony Boucher,
William Tenn, James E. Gunn, Frank Belknap Long Jr., an