N - Ah! Halfway thru the alphabet, and about three-fourths of the stencils finished. (It is longer than you think!)
nank - (MFS) - Not even the MFS knew what this means; why should you want to?
national extraction - All known scientifictionists, with the exceptions of Gallic Georges Gallet, Deutschlander Herbert Ha?????ussler, and Hungarian Andrew Lenard, come from American or British Empire homes. The European extraction of the Amerifans is predominantly English and German; there are a large number of Jews. No survey of fan extraction has been made since the shoft????? of the center of fan population to the Mid-East.
Necronomicon - (Lovecraft) - A book by Alhazred, the mad Arab, full of dread secrets and tales of the Elder Gods, and darker hints, which Lovecraft often referred to in his stories. Many collectors have gone digging around in libraries for it, but it actually does not exist, the nearest thing to it being some shadowy books by medievals. Necronomicon apparently was used as a name for the league organization sponsored by Weird Tales, from which the Outsiders' Club is descended. We append an incantation to Yog-Sothoth, taken from the Necronomicon: "Ygnaiih-- ygnaiih--- thflthkh'ngha--Yog-Sothoth--y'bthuk---h'ehye--n'grkdl'lh."
Nell - (Ackerman) - Pet name for the Science Fiction News Letter. The anniversary issue was to be called Nell Ann; some of the material for it ended up in Escape.
neophyte - A newcomer, a recruit, a green goon, a convert to fandom, a good guy gone wrong.
neotric - (Hearst:Ackerman) - An adjective of rather vague meaning, seeming to involve hospitality to new ideas, startling innovations that are little more than whims, and novelty for novelty's sake. Such neotric habits as the wearing of green-rimmed harlequin spectacles and use of green-and-brown typeribbon and streamlynd spelng (simplifyditto) are Pacificoastfan version of Bohemianism.
Neppie - Pet name for Nepenthe, fanzine of Singleton's.
Newark Convention - Unofficial name for the First National ditto.
Newark Neanderthal - Nickname for Sam Moskowitz, from his residence and physique.
Newarkon - The proposed Newark Conference.
Newark SFL - An offshoot of the QSFL, with members also drawn from the Solaroid Club. Formed in 1939 of New Jersey fans including Moskowitz, Crain, Osheroff, de la Ree, Gaetz, and others. It did not become important as an organization.
New Fandom - (Speer:Moskowitz) - Name derived from a series of articles entitled Annals of the New Fandom, altho they referred to the Second Fandom, while New Fandom rose and fell in the Second Transition. The organization was launched in the late summer of 1938, about the time that reaction was setting in against the Wollheimists and the Second Fandom generally. Moskowitz was the initiator of New Fandom, strongly assisted by Sykora and Taurasi, and to a lesser extent Racic, van Houten, and others. They started the organization with the membership of the old SFAA, turned over by van Houten. NF announced that it would put on the World Convention in 1939, and ignored all protests by Wollheim, who had been appointed by the defunct NYBISA to head a committee for that purpose. NF also ignored the existence of fan feuds, and won the support of the great majority who were opposed to their continuance.
At the Philcon in the fall it was recognized as the organization to take responsibility for the World Convention. Thereafter, fans generally joined up. Regional representatives were appointed, an official organ issued, dues paid, etc. The pros gave a great deal of cooperation. The Convention was put on, very successfully on the whole. It was never clear tho just what the connection was between the sponsorship of the Convention by the Triumvirate, and the organization New Fandom, for NF was treated as something contributing to and receiving from the convention fund when the accounts were published, rather than actually being the financer. Up to this time Managing Secretary Moskowitz had held absolute powers, it being explained that it was necessary to have a going organization to get people to join, and limited time till the Convention precluding the decision of details by democratic vote.
SaM called it a democratic dictatorship, meaning that they had to regard the opinions of the fans, just as pro editors do. After the Convention, they spoke of putting NF on a democratic basis. At the Philcon of 1939 they presented a constitution more or less describing the setup as it already existed, plus elected officials, rather than incorporating the features desired by Rothman, Speer, and others. The Futurians believed that the constitution and by-laws, a long, obscure thing, held concealed machinery by which the Futurians could be kept out. The Triumvirs had to agree to submit this constitution to a vote along with any other that might be endorsed by a given number of members of New Fandom. Such a constitution was presented by Speer not long after. They Unholy Three proved unwilling to submit them to a vote, and delayed.
In the spring of 1940 they called a conference at Newark to which the Phillies, Warner, and Speer were invited. Warner and Speer sent regrets; the Phillies attended, and the conference appointed temporary officers for New Fandom in line with the setup of the Triumvirs' proposed constitution. However, the official organ has ceased to come out; despite much talk of future projects, the organization had undertaken no activity since the Convention except for the leaders' making various declaration in the name of New Fandom; and both leaders and member seemed willing to let the whole matter drop.
newsines - Fanzines intended to give news of fan activities. Ordinarily they appear weekly, but there have been triweeklies (once every three weeks), and there was a publication by McPhail in the quarterly FAPA mailings which called itself a news sheet. The first important newsie was Dick Wilson's Science Fiction News Letter, presently competed by James Taurasi's Fantasy-News (later Will Sykora's), which attained the largest circulation, probably, of any fanzine since the Fantasy Magazine days at least. Since 1938 there has nearly always been at least one newsweekly in fandom. A new development was the weekly Fanewscard, tho there was an earlier printed newscard published by Ted Carnell for some months after Great Britain went to war.
NFFF - National Fantasy Fan Federation. With the decline of New Fandom, damon knight and Art Widner suggested forming a new general fan organization along certain lines, and fans were asked to lend support and suggestions. In 1941 it began functioning after a preliminary election, and President Chauvenet drew up a rather long constitution, describing minutiae of procedure to be followed. Due to the Fincom report, this was not adopted, and tho approval of a constitution was finally secured, an interregnum began in June 1942. This was broken by Evans' Blitzkrieg, but only temporarily.
America having entered the War in late 1941, more and more active fans were removed from activity by going into the Army and other overtime occupations, so that the government structure envisioned for the NFFF could not be worked. The NFFF was to include all fans, it was hoped, determined by activity tests. The US would be divided into several regions, each of which would have certain functions within itself; there was also some provision for affiliating local groups. The central administration of the Federation, besides the elected officers and the Advisory Board, would include several committees, and a permanent judicial or legal body of certain middle-aged fans. The NFFF was expected to perform such functions as coordination and standardizatin, and undertake such projects as were forwarded by the Plancom and approved by the Directorate.
nicknames - Besides penames and the usual English names, Bob, Jack, Don, Joe, Looie, Forry, etc, fans use several kinds of distinctive monikers. Some are derived from the initials, such as Efjay, 4sJ, and the J, Daw, W, O?????, the F, jufus, Tubby, DW3?????, Elarcy, Deeby, Ecco, 2J4, Heck?????, Tripoli, yhos, and the Esperantic Morojo, Pogo, Vodoso, arlawi, Alojo, ktp.
There are names based on various characteristics; Skylark Smith, Oily Will, Doc, Saint Harry, the Newark Neanderthal, Whimsy Wilson, Fascist Speer, Ephless El, Ego, il Duce of Flushing Flats, der Fuhrer of the Newark Swamps, the Mikado of Long Island City, Fonepole, Foghorn Samuel, the #1 Face, the Hermit of Hagerstown, The Michelist, Rad, Tex, Ruja-blu, the Grand Old Man, and the Hermit.
There are various combinations and unEnglish corruptions of first and last names, such as 4e, Fojak, SaM, Gakspiro????? Mirta Forsto, Wacky, TeD, Rajocz, Rustebar, Jinx, Suddsy, Raym, Buns, and Jike?????. There are also several names used as official which aren't legally the bearers': Jack Darrow, Bob Tucker, leslie perri, Dirk Wylie, and Jack Robins.
nonce-word - Use your store-bought dictionary, dummy; who do you think I am, G & C Merriam?
non-fiction - All prose writing except fiction, including articles, departments and editorial stuff.
nonstoparagrafing - (Ackerman) - Paragrafing in which no line is skipped between paragrafs, and the new paragraf is indented the length of the last line of the preceding one; in other words, when the typist reaches the end of the paragraf, he drops down a line, maybe hits the space bar once or twice, and goes on writing, as is done in this publication. [[This is visual]]] Practice varies on what to do in a case like that, where a paragraf ends flush with the right-hand margin. Ackerman skips a line and indents five spaces; Speer doesn't like that because the skip-a-line paragrafing should mean a greater break than usual in the discussion, and he tries to avoid ending a paragraf at the rh margin; if it does happen, he uses a # mark (typewriterese for [[paragraph mark]]) to make a new fractional line.
Norcon - A small fan gathering over the 43-44 year-end at Manchester Britain.
nova - A designation given by Campbell to stories written on old themes which breathed new life into them. JWC dropped it even quicker than he did "mutant", with a final defiant gesture or two. Nova Press was a publishing house of Ashley, EEEvans, Wiedenbeck, and Perry, in 1942, who soon joined ASP.
Novacious Pubs - The publishing house of Mirta Forsto, marked for its neotric novelties, Ackermanese addictions, and the marvelous typewriters it commanded, Later called dyktawo pubs.
NYBISA - New York Branch of the ISA, the principal one. All officers of the ISA on the eve of dissolution were from the New York Branch, Sykora being President, vice-presidency vacant, Secretary Kubilius in the hospital, Wollheim Treasurer. Frederik Pohl was Official Editor. Wollheim was also Vice-Chairman of the NYB while Sykora was Chairman. Therefore, with the resignation of Sykora, followed by Pohl, Wollheim became the only officer of either ISA or NYBISA except Kubilius, who agreed to let him take over. The NYBISA was the most active club, with the greatest assortment of later famous fans, that New York has had; it provided the background for the next five years of New York fandom, and became something of a golden age in retrospect.
Nycon - The First World Science-Fiction Convention in New York in 1939; called originally by its enemies who denied that it was a "world" convention, the name was generally adopted after the Chicon. The enemies of WSFC committee also called it the World's Fair Science-Fiction Convention, 1939 being the first year of the NY Worlds fair.
NYFS - The New York Fantasy Society. Organized after the wreck of the ISA, it gave birth to Michelism and other things, and next year joined the GNYSFL.
Data entered by Peter Barker