Hugo Gernsback’s Rocket Completes its Flight from Australia to Illinois

Filed under Found on the Web

Over at The Way the Future Blogs, Frederik Pohl shows us that his 2010 Hugo award for "Best Fan Writer" has touched down after its continent-spanning flight.

Now if you’re familiar with his decades of professional work as a science fiction writer and editor you might be muttering "Fan Writer…?" to yourself and, believe me, I understand, but Pohl’s earned the award in at least one of two ways: first for his blog – whose name is a play on his retrospective book The Way the Future Was – and second because he was one of the very first science fiction fans in the modern sense. Which, I think , means "in any sense".

If you read the book (which I recommend) you’ll find that fans then were exactly like fans are today; that in itself is interesting. You’ll also find that in spite of his influence as a writer he may have contributed even more to the genre when he was wearing his editor’s hat, or his agent’s hat. Or both. Though I don’t suggest he stacked them in the way your mind’s eye is seeing them right now.

On a related note I’ve recently enjoyed a happily rambling interview with Pohl and Jack Vance at the Starship Sofa site. It’s probably more a conversation than an interview. And that’s probably why I liked it so well.