FUTURIANS

from Fancyclopedia 2

Meaning, roughly, people who concern themselves with what is to come. Various fan groups have held this title; one in Sydney NSW Australia (organized November 1939 and revived 1947), another in Los Angeles in the summer of 1945, and a third in San Francisco which is described under Bay Area. But the most important fan group called the Futurians was that which existed in New York 1937-45. It should be noted that none of these Futurian Societies have any connection with one another, tho Michel wound up in San Francisco where, years later, he was tracked down by Sherlockian Karen Anderson; and the Los Angeles group moved en masse to New York to join the Futurians there just in time to have the East Coast crew shot from under them by the X Document split.

The Futurians of New York were a group of whom the central figures were Wollheim, Lowndes, Pohl and Michel; others thought of as belonging to the group were Cy Kornbluth, Harry Dockweiler, Chet Cohen, Dan Burford, Jack Rubinson, Dave Kyle, Dick Wilson, Isaac Asimov, Walt Kubilus, leslie perri, Larry Shaw, Jim Blish, Judy Merrill, and damon knight -- probably the highest number of pro-crashers ever affiliated with any fan club. Tho a Futurian Science-Literary Society of New York was formed in September 1938 after the GNYSFL breakup the Futurians were not really a formally-organized group.

The Futurians presented a peculiar differentness in whatever sphere of fan activity they engaged in, being, with some exceptions in each case, Bohemian in social practices, radical in politics, Anti-Sykora in fan feuds, Michelistic in fannish whitherings, inclined fanarchistically with regard to general fan organization, and given to vers libre in poetry, eroticism in literature, and decadence in all forms of art. They took part as a bloc in the Progressive and Constitutional parties of FAPA, and this and their later actions when VAPA was formed led to a feeling that they were trying to rule or ruin these groups.

The Futurians, originally called Wollheimists, emerged upon the breakup of the ISA, and were the dominant faction in Second Fandom. With Pohl's attempt (1939) to form a Futurian Federation of the World, "Futurian" became a common word for the type of stfnist we have described, just as " Insurgent" came to mean many others than the LA people. In 1940 Wollheim as General Secretary formed a Futurian League to register as Futurians their friends and allies outside New York. For this organization DAW defined as a Futurian one who thru SF rises to vision a greater world, a greater future for the whole of mankind, and wishes to utilize his idealistic convictions for aid in a generally cooperative and diverse movement for the betterment of the world along democratic, impersonal, and unselfish lines.

After the Quadrumvirs resigned from FAPA office, they became less active, but lived in various slanshacks, and many graduated in time from authors' agents to editorships of some of the 1941-43 flood of proz. There they put quite a lot of their personalities into their magazines, and were noted for the number of Futurians appearing in Futurian-edited prozines.

In early 1945 the Futurians made a comeback bid in fandom with the organization of VAPA, and it was alleged by the indignant that the Little Interregnum caused by resignation of the Futurian FAPA officers was an attempt to scuttle the older group. But later in the year came the X Document uproar, and therewith the end of the old Futurians.

In mid-1958 another Futurian Society of New York was formed as "a refuge for the ribald, irreverent, booze-swilling segments of NY fandom", with recruits from other areas. At the PhilCo of that year a group banquet was thrown and at the end of December a Fanarcon at the Nunnery gathered about 50 adherents for a three-day confabulation. Such folk as Dick & Pat Ellington, Bill Donaho, Art Saha, Dan Curran, Martha Cohen, Larry Shaw, Randy Garrett, Dick Eney, John Magnus, Ted & Sylvia White, Algis Budrys, Dave Kyle, 2N Falasca, and other carefree funloving faaans are pillars of the society.