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Fantasy Commentator, v. 1, issue 10, Spring 1946
Page 265
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FANTASY COMMENTATOR 265 are received, but we have proved only three-tenths of one per cent wrong in our enrolment, so we hope that the other members will forgive us. These members we expelled on June 12th. Their names are Donald A. Wollheim, John B. Michel, and William S. Sykora---three active fans who just got themselves onto the wrong road. The attitude of fandom as a whole toward this expulsion was relatively passive. Most readers knew little, if anything, of the grim struggle between the SFL and the ICSC. Some had probably formed an unfavorable opinion of Wollheim through his extremely critical letters published in Wonder Stories' readers column, and therefore dismissed the incident as an unpleasantly justified one. Only a handful was aware, through ICSC-distributed propaganda, of the other side to the matter. At least one important fan, however, Fred Anger, resigned in protest to the action. Among the active fans---outside of the Fantasy Magazine group---sympathy with the outcasts was general. If the righteousness of their motives were disregarded, there would be no doubt that the three richly deserved to be expelled. But Hornig had blundered again. Wollheim, as we have noted, had made himself unpopular through publication of his letters criticizing (among other things) the magazine's policy of reprinting German science-fiction; his unpopularity was not due to being wrong on these points, but rather to the man's habit of incorporating in each of his letters some personal slurs or innuendos entirely unnecessary to the success of his arguments. (This characteristic was apparent again and again in his later fan life, and often operated to cancel out an entire line of reasoning in minds of readers, losing for Wollheim debates he had easily won if simply logic alone were taken into consideration.) Thus Wollheim could safely have been offered up as a scapegoat, for beyond the publication and editing of the magazine containing the bulk of his attacks, Sykora had printed no attack of his own, and Michel had been largely concerned with the Fantasy Magazine group rather than with the SFL. When the comparatively passive Sykora and Michel found themselves in the same boat with Wollheim they saw red, and thenceforward took an unqualifiedly active role in the campaign. Hornig thus succeeded only in uniting a vengeful opposition even more determinedly against him, and the result was to be stark melodrama in the meeting halls of the SFL chapters. X Other Happenings of 1935 In Austin, Texas an individual named D. R. Welsh had gone into business, buying and selling science-fiction and fan magazines. This enterprise he conducted under the name of the Science Fiction Syndicate. In order to further his business by arousing interest in the lesser-known fan publications and such obscure professional efforts as the British Scoops, Welch compiled and William L. Crawford published the first list of amateur periodicals of fandom. It was entitled Science Fiction Bibliography, and its resume omitted very few items of importance. It remains to this day a collectors' item of great interest. In evaluating The International Observer and the TFG Bulletin Welch remarked that they were "not in themselves worthy of being collected." Learning of this, Wollheim contacted Welch, informing him of the campaign being waged by the TFG and the ICSC, asking him to examine recent issues of the organizations' official organs and to reconsider his opinion of their importance. Whether fear of the TFG's campaigns boycotting unfair dealers had lent some weight to Wollheim's request is not known, but the fact remains that Welch shortly thereafter mimeographed and circulated with copies of his bibliography a one-paged circular which stated, among other things:
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FANTASY COMMENTATOR 265 are received, but we have proved only three-tenths of one per cent wrong in our enrolment, so we hope that the other members will forgive us. These members we expelled on June 12th. Their names are Donald A. Wollheim, John B. Michel, and William S. Sykora---three active fans who just got themselves onto the wrong road. The attitude of fandom as a whole toward this expulsion was relatively passive. Most readers knew little, if anything, of the grim struggle between the SFL and the ICSC. Some had probably formed an unfavorable opinion of Wollheim through his extremely critical letters published in Wonder Stories' readers column, and therefore dismissed the incident as an unpleasantly justified one. Only a handful was aware, through ICSC-distributed propaganda, of the other side to the matter. At least one important fan, however, Fred Anger, resigned in protest to the action. Among the active fans---outside of the Fantasy Magazine group---sympathy with the outcasts was general. If the righteousness of their motives were disregarded, there would be no doubt that the three richly deserved to be expelled. But Hornig had blundered again. Wollheim, as we have noted, had made himself unpopular through publication of his letters criticizing (among other things) the magazine's policy of reprinting German science-fiction; his unpopularity was not due to being wrong on these points, but rather to the man's habit of incorporating in each of his letters some personal slurs or innuendos entirely unnecessary to the success of his arguments. (This characteristic was apparent again and again in his later fan life, and often operated to cancel out an entire line of reasoning in minds of readers, losing for Wollheim debates he had easily won if simply logic alone were taken into consideration.) Thus Wollheim could safely have been offered up as a scapegoat, for beyond the publication and editing of the magazine containing the bulk of his attacks, Sykora had printed no attack of his own, and Michel had been largely concerned with the Fantasy Magazine group rather than with the SFL. When the comparatively passive Sykora and Michel found themselves in the same boat with Wollheim they saw red, and thenceforward took an unqualifiedly active role in the campaign. Hornig thus succeeded only in uniting a vengeful opposition even more determinedly against him, and the result was to be stark melodrama in the meeting halls of the SFL chapters. X Other Happenings of 1935 In Austin, Texas an individual named D. R. Welsh had gone into business, buying and selling science-fiction and fan magazines. This enterprise he conducted under the name of the Science Fiction Syndicate. In order to further his business by arousing interest in the lesser-known fan publications and such obscure professional efforts as the British Scoops, Welch compiled and William L. Crawford published the first list of amateur periodicals of fandom. It was entitled Science Fiction Bibliography, and its resume omitted very few items of importance. It remains to this day a collectors' item of great interest. In evaluating The International Observer and the TFG Bulletin Welch remarked that they were "not in themselves worthy of being collected." Learning of this, Wollheim contacted Welch, informing him of the campaign being waged by the TFG and the ICSC, asking him to examine recent issues of the organizations' official organs and to reconsider his opinion of their importance. Whether fear of the TFG's campaigns boycotting unfair dealers had lent some weight to Wollheim's request is not known, but the fact remains that Welch shortly thereafter mimeographed and circulated with copies of his bibliography a one-paged circular which stated, among other things:
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