Fancyclopedia I: C - Cosmic Circle

C - A most ambiguous letter, serving no good purpose in modern English. In Latin and Anglo-Saxon it was always pronounced K; in Esperanto and outlandish tungs of southern Europe, it stands for various unspeakable sounds.

cabinet - Where there is no policy-making Board, the president or director of an organization frequently asks the opinion of the other elected officers in his administration before deciding on something. In such case all the officers taken together constitute the cabinet.

capitalism - The economic system under which those who finance a business own and control it, and operate it for their own profit. It is opposed to socialism, in which control rests among a large number of people who are interested in production for use rather than for profit. Implicit in capitalism is the idea that it is up to the individual to find something to do that he can get money for. None of the fans who actively engage in arguments support capitalism, but several of the older men, noteably Skylark Smith and Doc Swisher, are firm believers in it.

capitalization - One of the cutenesses of modern decadence is unuse of capital letters. This is strengthened by the fact that distinction between capitals and lower case is pretty unnecessary, anyhow, and stems to some extent from a pun on distaste for capitalism by Bohemians. Considerable vers libre, as well as beardmutterings and other art forms, is habitually written without capitals. Several fen, most notably damon knight, make it a practice to have their names spelled without caps, and in the mock wars, the First Staple War and FooFooism vs ghughuism, omission of capitals in referring to the enemy is practiced by some of the combatants.

carbons - Short for carbon copies, especially those which smart people keep of their correspondence.

Carlsbad Caverns - sure would hold a lot of peanuts.

cartoons - A cartoon is usually a single drawing in which, if a story is implied, the conversation or actions of the characters must convey it. Cartoons are simplified drawings; if the picture is of a type that is not obviously distinguishable from fotography, it is not a cartoon. Bei uns this artype is usually fan-fictional: a fan takes a look at his new son and says 'Oh my God! Tendrils!', ktp. Often seen are pages of toothpick figures doing varied things in the manner of American Legion cartoonist Wallgren. Caricature is a near cousin of the cartoon.

chain letters - In Great Britain after the outbreak of WWII, Youd organized chains of fans to each of which he would circulate a page or more of news, and each fan on the chain would add a page and pass the bundle on to the next guy. When they all came back to him, Youd made selections from the material and typed up another sheet or so of news and comments, carbon copied, and sent copies out along the chains again. Some of these also came to America, and on this example, after Pearl Harbor, Harry Warner started several chains thru the US. The system worked out here was slightly different, in that Harry sent the whole bundle on, and each fan as he added a new letter withdrew his former one and sent it to Harry for file. Quasi-chain letters also grew out of the circulation of sonodiscs, and other chains were started by various fen to get material for fanzines, even one by Tucker to which each person was to contribute fotos which would be reproduced in Le Zombie. These chains were not intended to circulate indefinitely, but some of them and all of the continuous ones sooner or later got hung up somewhere along the way. In 1943 the War Department issued orders against such chains where several soldiers were on them.

Chicon - (Ackerman) - The Chicago 1940 World Science-Fiction Convention

Choctaw Publications - Stuff put out by Dan McPhail's publishing house.

Christmas Card - In 1939 Will Sykora received a card carrying an insulting looking object and saying "To help you make merry Christmas Eve", and other things. It appeared to be a Futurian joke, and for transmission of such materials thru the mails, Sykora put the postal authorities on the trail and offered a reward for information, but was never able to prove anything.

circular - A one-shot single-sheeter, concerning one subject only, and often without a title. They have often been used in DAPA campaigns and the battles of Michelism.

Claire Voyant - A pename of Ackerman's. It is obviously derived from clairvoyant, but whether it has any significance your editor knows not.

club - An organization of persons who meet in person every so often; the word is often misused. Fan groups with this name include the Impossible Story Club, ICSC, JVPC, WGCC, Outsiders' Club, SFCC, Stranger Club, Solaroid Club, and Cosmos Club.

collecting - A deep instinct of man, particularly strong in fankind. A typical old-time stfan began by excerpting and binding the particular stories he liked best in Amazing and Weird; then, either because he saw the desirability of having all the stories on file, began to save all the prozines without tearing them up; when fanzines came along, he saved them too as a matter of course; and eke Buck Rogers 2429 AD. The real trouble begins when you become a completist. Storage space eventually becomes a problem. Fans' filing methods vary, but they do really need to have their collections where they can be easily referred to. Scrapbooks are a common supplement to magazine collections. Part of any fan visit is inspection of the visitee's collection.

collectivism - Public control of industry, farming, and associated activity, directed toward the general welfare. It is the one idea on which scientifictional sociologists have been agreed for the future civilization, at least until around 1938.

colloquialism - Much of the material in fanzines, and practically all the correspondence of fans, is to be regarded as conversation rather than finished writing. It rambles on from point to point in a manner like the stream of consciousness, with many a parenthesized remark. Contractions are freely employed wherever contractions would be used in speaking, and some places where they wouldn't. Slang and dialectic pronunciations are flung indiscriminately, such phrases as "mah pappy's jernt" not being at all unusual. Foreign languages are interlarded whenever the writer feels the urge. To avoid confusion, however, people are usually called by their surnames, or by a distinctive nickname.

Colorado Fantasy Society - The publicity organization for the Denvention.

Columbia Camp - The local of idiots centering around Columbia South Carolina. No formal organization or officers. They included Joe Gilbert, Harry Jenkins Jr., Lee Eastman, and W B McQueen, but Joe went into the Mercenary Marine, Lee wandered away job-hunting, Harry got a heavy case of manana fever, and Panurge disappeared from our ken. While active, they sparked the DFF and Dixie Press.

columnists - When a guy is a columnist, he can talk about anything he wants to, tho the editor may censor him. Usually his secondary duty is to give any news items or information that haven't been published elsewhere, and primary duty is to comment on things in general. Every so often a columnist will attract notice by the Menckenian vigor of his denunciations.

Comet Publications - Originally a publishing house covering all the Philadelphia fans, the term seems to have narrowed down to John Beltadonis.

comics - Scientificomics are all you should be interested in.

committees - Groups of people, usually three or five, appointed to render decision or recommendation in some matter, or perform some act. Standing committees are prescribed in the constitution; others exist only for a temporary purpose. Committees of fan organizations include the convention committee, appointed to plan and execute a fan gathering, the ballot committee appointed at election time, Laureate Committee, Plancom, Fincom, Welcom, et autres.

Committees formed by mutual agreement outside the machinery of any organization are characteristic particularly of Leftists in the United States, and the fan groups of this sort have been Michelistic. These include the Science Fiction Committee Against Fascism, which at the end of 1938 circulated a petition of modified Michelism, and the CPASF.

communism - Communism with a small c designates a society which gets production from each according to his abilities and gives products to each according to his needs. It is more or less anarchistic in that it hopes that coertion by the state will be unnecessary.

Communism with a large C, which is what fans usually mean, is Marxism as modified by Lenin and Stalin, plus the tactics of Earl Browder and Harry Bridges.

completist - A dope who tries to have a complete collection in some line. The line may be as broad as having all the prozines ever published, or as narrow as collecting all the Golden Atom tales or all official correspondence during one's incumbency in some office. The trouble arises when the collector misses purchasing an issue (or fails to keep a carbon copy, or whatever), or when his ambitions extend back to a time before he started saving the stuff. Then he prowls the 2d-hand magazine shops, writes letters to everybody who mite know where a particular prize is, worries librarians and other public servants, and occasionally makes a marvelous find in some unexpected place and goes around rejoicing. A novel type of completism is Rothman's record and determination of attending every major convention held in this country.

composing in the stick - Making up what you are saying as you type the stencil. The expression comes from hand-set printing, where the letters for each line are thrust into a "stick". A great deal of the contents of individ fanzines and editorials in other fmz are composed "in the stick", without dummying.

confabulation - A fan gathering larger than a fan visit (that is, it should involve fans from more than one locality besides that in which it occurs), but not being built up or attended or conducted like a conference.

The name is a new one, and almost the only events so called so far have been the Washington Confabulations. The first of these was in early 1940, when Perdue, recently arrived from Wyoming, Rothman, not long from Philadelphia, and Speer, of Washington for more than a year, got together and called themselves a confabulation. The second was in the summer of 1941, when Dr and Mrs Swisher visited the Washington Worry-Warts, and Chauvenet came up from Charlottesville. This Confabulation issued the Washington Manifesto. Joe Gilbert's visit in October was also called a confabulation. Unger has referred to the Scientiforums as confabulations.

conference - A smaller convention, which should have a specific purpose to be accomplished aside from the cameraderie. The word came into use after the Newark Convention, and has been used to designate the following:

The PSFS Conference in October 1938, Philadelphia. It was attended by the fans who were launching New Fandom, a number of their backers among the pros, and others.

In June 1939 the OSA Powwow met in an Oklahoma City hotel room, attended by McPhail and former Oklahomans from Washington and New Mexico/Flushing.

Third day of the Nycon, where most of the attendees were playing softball on Flushing Flats, the Futurians and their sympathizers met in a Futurian Conference. They discussed the Exclusion Act and Michelism.

The Philco of 1939 was held in the same hall as the Third Eastern Conv rathern in the back of the Baltadonis saloon. Futurians and Queensies were both present in force, for the last time at any one gathering, and a fite almost happened between Sykora and Wollheim. The discussion was on a general fan organization; Rothman, Speer, and Kyle wanted to launch a new one, each having ideas about what it should be. The Triumvirs presented their constitution for New Fandom and attempted unsuccessfully to get it approved. No conclusion about a new org was reached. Sykora showed fan movies afterwards. Several Bloomington (or Chicon) Conferences, including the Barnyard Con, were held in 1939 and 1940 to plan the Chicon, attendees being Reinsberg, Korshak, Tucker, and other figures, but not including W Lawrence Hamling, another prominent Chicago fan, who objected for reasons of anti-Semitism. The last Philly Conference was in November 1940, in a GAR hall. It was called the Fifth Annual, the first and third Conventions also being counted. Chief bone of contention in 1940 was the proposed Newarkon.

This Newark Conference was intended as something for Easterners to attend who couldn't go to the Denvention in 1941. Fandom generally refused to support the idea because it was believed that it would conflict with the Denvention, and Sykora and Moskowitz laid the responsibility for the idea to Taurasi, who wasn't at the Philadelphia meeting. The Newarkon did not take place.

Boskones are held in February of each year, beginning in 1941, the first anniversary of the Stranger Club. No set schedule of proceedings has emerged. The first heard of the (???????) died in the SFL scrap.

A Dixiecon was planned for 1941 at Columbia South Carolina, but canceled because the president of the DFF, Earl Barr Hanson, couldn't come up from Florida at the time set.

The Michiconference originated in November 1941, and was attended by more fans from elsewhere in the Mid-East than from Michigan, which was no small number. They formed the Mid-West Fantasy Fan Federation. Fan movies were shown, and an auction held.

Another Philco was belatedly announced for January 1942, but called off in favor of Boskone II. B2 was well attended, witnessed the dramatization of Legion of Legions, and discussed the NFFF and the problem of the Pacificon.

In November 1942 the Michiconference became an annual matter. Degler was seen at close range, the MFS boys got stewed, everybody met everybody else, and a good time was had by all.

The Hastings S-F Conference was allegedly held in Hastings Minnesota 29 November 42; if so, it was an alcoholic affair, judging by the report of it which was published.

Because of attrition of fan ranks by the draft, Boskone III had a small attendance. Most of the afternoon was taken up with playing Widner's s-f game, Interplanetary, which was still in an experimental stage.

Altho the Mid-West Federation was dormant, the Galactic Roamers invited individual fen to another Michiconference at the end of October 43. Attendees gave Slan Shack its baptism of fire, took an intelligence test, and stuff. The so-bekannt Cosmic Circle Exclusion Act was in connection with this gathering.

convention - A large fan gathering, the formerly used of any fan gathering.

The first Science-Fiction Convention was at Philadelphia in 1936, when the NYB-ISA visited the Philadelphia branch. It was marked by horseplay and cameraderie.

The Second Eastern States Science-Fiction Convention was held in New York early in 1937, under the auspices of the ISA. The chief event, aside from the first mention of a World Science Fiction Convention, was a handshake between Wollheim and Julius Schwartz which ended the warfare of their factions.

The Third Eastern Science-Fiction Convention was back in Philadelphia on Hallowe'en of 1937. Most notable event was the speech launching Michelism. On the liter side was the Shaggoth 6 thing.

The Newark Convention, officially the First National Science-Fiction (or Fantasy) Convention, was held at Newark on 29 May 38, on call of Will Sykora and Sam Moskowitz. It was marred by sniping and feuding on the subjects of Michelism, the ISA, the WSFC, and personalities, but was the first to pass the hundred mark in attendance. Wollheimists called it the Fourth Eastern for a long time.

Similarly they called the WSFCI the Fifth Eastern. The World Science-Fiction Convention ("First" added later) was held in New York on 2 3 4 July 1939 under the auspices of New Fandom, and was the largest before the war ended major conventions, approaching a total atttendance of 200. It set the pattern for subsequent conventions lasting more than one day, but was marred by the Exclusion Act.

The Chicago 1940 World Science-Fiction Convention was held at Chicago around Labor Day 1940 under IFF auspices. The Chicon was significant of the new harmony in fandom, and took place in snazzier surrounding than fen had theretofore enjoyed save at the Paul Banquet on 3 July 39.

The Denvention was the Third World Science-Fiction Convention, Denver 4 5 6 July 1941. Guest of Honor Heinlein made an outstanding speech. Remarkable too was the travelling that fans did to get there, the Widneride, riding the rods, making the trip on a starvation shoestring, etc. The award for the fan overcoming the greatest difficulties to attend was deserved by many.

The Fourth World Science-Fiction Convention, the Pacificon, was to be held in Los Angeles in 1942, but it was finally voted to suspend it because of the involvement of the United States in the war and threat to the West Coast.

Great Britain's SFA had annual conventions at London in 1937, 1938, and 1939, which were featured by speeches from men of considerable standing in the world of letters and science, and by consumption of great quantities of beer, but your Diderot is unable to supply separate details.

The Midlands Science-Fiction Convention was scheduled for Birmingham in April 43, under BFS auspices. This ignorant one has no subsequent report.

In addition to these main events (and the conferences and confabs), there have been numerous meetings facetiously called conventions, included here for the sake of completeness: The first Interplanetary S-F Convention was held in a fone booth by Jack Gillespie and Cyril Kornbluth, sometime around 1938. The 4 r Eastern, or First Pan-National Science-Fiction Convention was the meeting of Speer and Wilson in Philadelphia in 1938, called Pan-National because, unlike the "First National", it had a representative from west of the Appalachians. The tendency more recently seems to be to label all such pseudo-conventions as somethingcons, which has given us a wave of such words as Sydcon, Pacificon Jr., Staplecon, Midgicon, Schnectacon, Fancon, and Norcon.

Thru the three World Science-Fiction Conventions, a standard pattern for such an event has emerged. Normally, there is one every year. There is a special organization for people to join for publicity purposes, but absolute control as to the program and rules of proceedings is given to the local men. The prozines give the affair publicity, and sometimes local papers write it up before or after. Slogans on the general model of "New York in '39!" are repeated in fanzines and on envelopes of letters, and every fan of fandom tried to figure out some means of attending, but when the convention finally comes, a large fraction of its attendance is of scientifictionists from in or near the convention city. The program runs two or three days: the first day is planned for the business. On the first day will be speeches by celebrities, showing of a fantasy movie, and a costume party in the evening. Second day includes business matters connected with the convention organization, and where to hold the next year's convention. In the evening is a banquet in honor of a science-fiction celebrity who is there (Paul in 1939, Smith in 1940, and Heinlein in 1941). The auction is put wherever it can be fitted. There are get-togethers before and after the convention days by those who arrive early &/or stay late.

The expression "world convention" has sometimes been called into question, particularly by Britishers, since all attendees were from the US except a possible Englishman at the Nycon and Conadian at the Chicon. Ackerman has replied that we want the British fans to feel that these are their conventions too, that the war prevented them from having any large gatherings in 1940 and 1941, when America's last two were held. It mite be compared to the "World Series", in which only American teams participate, because more than half the baseball in the world is played in the United States.

Conway - Family name of Futurian noms de plume. Bowen Conway is Michel, Graham ditto is Wollheim, Millicent Diana same Elsie Balter Wollheim, Ritter C - damon knight, Roger idem all the Futurians,Van Cortlandt C'wy is Cyril Kornbluth, and Wormwood Kermit Conway III is Doc's pename.

co-ordinator - Title of the head of certain organizations in the Mid-East; suggests the function that Battle Creek believed a general fan organization should perform, I e. avoiding duplication of effort. (as for example if somebody else published a fan dictionary independently at the same time as this), and bringing together fanpower for approved projects.

common-law copyright - Under statutory copyright a person has the right for a limited time to prohibit publication or parafrazing of long sections of a copyrighted work. Under the common-law copyright, however, unless authorization to publish is implied (as in letters to the editor) or expressed, the writer has absolute power to prohibit publication in any way of anything he has written or drawn or composed. This rests on the rule in common law that the product of a man's labor, including mental labor (even tho slite!), is his to do with as he wishes. The common-law copyright is lost upon registration for statutory copyright, upon general publication, or abandonment. General publication consists in making the work available to an indefinite portion of the general public. Publication in the FAPA is not general publication, for instance, because the FAPA has membership restrictions, but if one also offers his FAPA pub for sale to anyone with a dime, he loses his control. Abandonment may be inferred from acquiescence in unauthorized use, but unauthorized general publication does not in itself destroy the common law rights. We mite add that statutory copyright is secured by first publishing the thing, with a notice saying "Copyright Joe Phan 1954" or something like, and then sending two copies and a registration form and fee to the Copyright Office of the Library of Congress. Publication without such a notice constitutes dedication to the general public. Incidently, articles by you in someone else's fanzine can be copyrighted by you.

correspondence - The chief fan activity is still letter-writing, tho fan visits and pubbing fmz have reduced its importance somewhat. Letters are written to pros, to fans as individuals, to fanzine editors, and to chains of fans. The subject matter ranges from cabbages to kings; it includes opinions on fan and prozines, problems in connection with organizations, requests for information, diatribes in connection with fan feuds, arrangements for visits, gossip about fans' personal affairs, news of fan activities, discussion of philosophical and scientific and sociological points, directions to easily available pornografy, musical preferences, cryptografy, hoaxes, -- everything that goes into fanzine nonfiction, and more.

Certain rules should govern correspondence between fans. The SFL had a rule that members must promise to answer promptly all correspondence addressed to them as SFLers. Unless he is a regular correspondent and knows that you take longer to reply, a fan's letter should be answered or at least acknowledged by postcard within two months. Now we quote C L Dodgson: "..don't fill more than a page and a half with apologies for not having written sooner!

The best subject, to begin with, is your friend's last letter. Write with the letter open before you. Answer his questions, and make any remarks his letter suggests." In commenting on magazines, your Samuel Johnson has found it convenient to make marginal notations, on first reading, of remarks he will want to make in the letter of comment. Fans generally typewrite their correspondence, and most of the most active ones keep carbon copies; incoming correspondence certainly should always be filed, never thrown away. Air mail is used when there is any excuse for it. In emergencies, special delivery airmail is often resorted to, or telegrams and long distance telephone calls. Nice people will respond to such communications within twenty-four hours. Other requests for material which set a deadline require compliance or regrets within the time set, when the fan has previously agreed to supply the material (as by accepting appointment to a committee).

Fans delite in whimsical details such as putting the postage stamp on upside down, or typing on the envelope cracks aimed at the postmaster. Another whimsicality has become convention with many fen -- using a different complimentary close for each letter. In time they run out of the obvious ones, such as "Love and kisses", and "Very sincerely yours" (equivalent to a slap in the face), and "Sciencerelyours", and start using such amazing good-byes as "Splfrsk!" and "Majestatsbeleidigung!"

Cosmian League - A tear-off-the-name-strip organization sponsored by Cosmic Stories; no activity except getting people to join up.

Cosmic Circle - Claude Degler attended the Chicon in 1940, and at Denver in 1941 delivered a speech purporting to have been written by Martians. He appears to have had some activity in the Indiana Fantasy Association, and a part in publishing a minor fanzine, Infinite. At the 1942 Michiconference several attendees got bad impressions of him, but he was still virtually unknown when he arrived late at the 1943 Boskone. Four months later he reappeared at the Schenectacon. In the intervening time, he appears to have received his 4F classification, and spent a month hitchhiking thru the southeastern states, with his mother in Newcastle Ind sending money orders to him along the route, from funds he had saved. Getting names and addresses from the readers' departments of the pros, he contacted various scientifictionists unknown to fandom, and wherever they were willing, constituted each as a local and a state organization, which he hoped would grow. The Circle of Aztor (Tenn), Louisiana Fandom, Alabama All-Fans, Valdosta (Ga) Philosophers, and Georgia Cosmen were created in this way. Since Degler was constantly thinking up organization and conference names, they are not treated elsewhere in this guidebook. At the "Live Oak Conference" with Raym Washington and sister, he organized the Cosmic Thinkers (local), Florida Cosmos Society, and reconstituted the Dixie Fantasy Federation, with Raym at its head.

From the South he made a triumphal return to Indiana, where such organizations as the Cosmic Club (later called the Futurian Society of Indiana), Circle City Cosmic Society (Indianapolis), Muncie Mutants Irvington Circle (Indpls suburb), and the Rose City Science Circle (Newcastle, formerly Buck Rogers Club), were supposed to exist already. After earning some more money, he departed late in June for the Schenectacon.

Thence to Boston, where he "had a long talk" with Widner on such subjects as Slan Center. Later, in a remote hamlet in N H, the New Hampshire FFF was formed. Visiting Jim Avery while the latter was home on leave, Degler got the Maine Scientifiction Association declared revived, then made the Mainecon Jr with Norman Stanley. After this he went into Quebec to swear to the citizenship of an Indian girl who had hitchhiked thither with him a year before and been detained. After forming the Future Fantasy French at the "Quebec Conference" he returned alone to New York.

He slept on the floor at Little Jarnevon until some time after Schwartz and Shaw began telling him to leave, and worked on some Cosmic Circle publications which were supposed to be angeled by someone in Indiana. In the Cosmic Circle, which was to be a union of all persons everywhere who had a cosmic outlook, these local and regional organizations were affiliated with the Planet Fantasy Federation, whose Council included Don Rogers (the pseudonym for Degler used in all his publications), Raym Washington, and some people around Newcastle. It is claimed that the movement was tested in Newcastle for years before the missionary work began (1943 was the year 4 of the Cosmic Concept), but information from other than Degler is very vague. There was Helen Bradleigh, pseudonym for Joan Domnick, a teen-age girl whom townsmen had prevented from starting the super-race with Degler, and who was head of the Psychological Ministry because she was reading a book on psychology. A minor fanzine artist, Morrie Jenkinson, appeared under the name of Rex Matthews. Also, not members of the Cosmic Circle, were a younger girl, Martha Matley, who headed a "vughu" cult claiming connection with ghughuism, and Frankfort Nelson Stein, whose existence has been questioned.

Shaw was at first impressed by Degler's ideas, and against his wishes was named head of Slan Slum as a local organization and the Empire State Slans. The autonomous Cosmen of the Island were headed (and constituted) by Russell Wilsey, a new fan of Long Island. Larry and Claude also formed the Hannes Bok Art Society, not affiliated with the Cosmic Circle, to appreciate the work of Bok. Degler took down the names and addresses, past and present, on Fantasy Fiction Field's subscription list; this made up most of his mailing list for the Cosmic Circle publications.

After Coordinator Claude left New York in August, many of the fanzines of Schwartz's and Unger's collections were missing, and they charged that Superfan took them. Because of this, and because Degler called on a girl Larry knew, against his expressed wishes, and because the Cosmic Circle was beginning to look grotesque, Larry Shaw resigned from the CC and declared feud on Degler. Meanwhile, the latter's lanky form appeared briefly in Philadelphia, where Ozzie Train was bored and later, without his knowledge, named head of a new Philadelphia Fantasy Society. Rogers then turned up in Hagarstown, apparently intending to stay with Harry Warner for some time, but due to illness in Warner's family was persuaded to move on. He caught a ride going west, and visited some unknown scientifictionists in Oklahoma where the Oklahoma Fantasy Circle was established, and set up the Manana Society de Sonora and the Southwest Fantasy Foundation (comprising New Mexico, Nevada, and Arizona).

Arriving in Shangri-La, he joined the LASFS and used the clubroom facilities to publish weekly "news" sheets alternately titled Cosmic Circle Commentator and Fanews Analyzer, and some publications written by others and credited to them, tho reworked by him. The Circle Amateur Publishers' Alliance was formed, which would have a mailing list of 500 (the Cosmic Circle claimed more than 200 members). In the weeekly sheets the Cosmic Circle program reached full form: Don Rogers answered a positive "Yes!" to the old question, "Are fans slans?" He proposed to contact cosmic-minded mutants everywhere, using radio prograns and other publicity to this end. Numerous special service bureaus, for functions such as purchasing mimeo supplies cooperatively, supplying fans in the military with free fan- and prozines, and planning tours for other travelling fans, were announced as being set up in the Newcastle headquarters. Publications projected included a directory of fans' addresses, True Fantastic Experiences, Spicy Spaceship Stories, and others. A fanational literature was urged to promote cohesiveness in the new race. It was announced that a piece of land in Arkansas (owned by Degler's mother) was available for use as Cosmic Camp by vacationing cosmen. The Slan Center idea was pushed to its ultimate extreme, and the Coordinator foresaw the day when those who now "carried" 22 states (that many state organizations were claimed to exist), would inherit the solar system. The first stop was organization of exactly the type that fanarchists snort at. With the demise of the NFFF, Degler said, the Third Fandom had ended, and the Fourth Fandom was now coming into existence under the aegis of the Planet Fantasy Federation. Pending their consent (which was emphatically not given), prominent fans were named as regional representatives (regional organizations included the Southern Circle, the Gulf Circle, Northwest Federation, and others bearing the common sectional names); and almost every actifan he'd visited and some he hadn't, who received him civilly and listened to him politely, was named as a supporter of the Cosmic Circle. The weeklies carried a hodge-podge of policy pronouncements by the Coordinator, recollections of his trips, a few items of general interest and inaccuracy, and Cosmic Circle news like Rogers' being shut out of the LA clubroom one day and Helen Bradleigh conducting a summer school for cosmic children (she tended children for working mothers in her spare time). The most noticable characteristic of the publications was that they were the worst-looking legible fanzines ever published: abounding strikeovers; paragraphs nonexistent; edges of the stencil crowded, no spacing after periods; misspellings; overuse of caps, quotation marks, and underlines; wandering, unplanned sentences; countless simple gramatical errors like "can and has went"; store of malapropisms like calling Widner a stolid and far-seeing fan; ad n.

T Bruce Yerke became alarmed at the prospect of publicity for fandom directed at potential fans and the general public appearing in such garments, and sent several fans a request for information about Degler, on which to base a report on the Cosmic Circle. Degler reacted with violent denunciation of Yerke, but was persuaded to cease firing till the report was prepared and published. In the report, Yerke stated his belief that Degler was a nearly precipitated case of schizophrenia, a paranoiac with delusions of grandeur and persecution complex, and called for a ban on him if he refused to reform his practices. Leading Angelenoes endorsed the report.

While he was now in LA, Superfan had gained James Kepner and other new fen as members; and Ackerman let himself be named honorary member of one more organization. Before long, all (except Ackerman) resigned from the organization, and the branches that Degler had set up, the Futurian Society of California (United Califans) and the Futurian Society of Los Angeles, were memberless after he left.

A Floricon had been planned for an indefinite date in Live Oak, but upon learning thru Fanewscard of the Michiconference date, Degler gave up even his plan for a "Blitzkreig" thru the Pacific Northwest in order to attend (however, a Columbia Science Fantasy Society for Oregon, Olympia Fantasians, and British Columbians had been announced). He stopped in San Francisco and gained George Ebey as a member. In Salt Lake City he added Utah to the South-West Fantasy Unit as the Utah Cosmic Fans. Holding the 2d Caspercon with Perdue, he borrowed money for the remainder of the trip to Battle Creek, where he arrived on 29 Oct as the Ashleys were beginning to move to Slan Shack. Al Ashley told him the Conference didn't want him, and when asked, tried to explain why, but only got arguments in return. Finally Degler said he had no place to sleep and only 60¢, but the Ashleys refused to lend him anything.

When Superfan came back to Newcastle, Frank N. Stein, who had taken over an Oakgrove Fantasy Society and was imputed with reestablishing Slan Slum there, formed a Futurian Alliance to fite the old-fan clique who were responsible for this new Exclusion Act, the Ashley Atrocity, and were trying to keep down the new and young fans (--all this per Claude Degler). Degler claimed that the CC was neutral in this war, but left no shade of doubt as to where his sympathies lay, in the fite against the "National Fantasy Fascist Federation".

[More to Come]


Data entry by Judy Bemis