Update of an earlier post:
Another name that was mentioned but with no sign of active membership: Claire P. Beck. Only the context makes it possible to figure out who this was.
Beck was noted in The Fortean Society Magazine number 7 (before the name switched to Doubt). This was from June 1943. On page 5, Thayer was proclaiming the rising prominence of science fiction--or scientifiction, as it was then sometimes styled:
“Before Fort, any fiction making more or less free with ‘Science’ was classified always, as of the Jules Verne school. And there wasn’t a great deal of it, but in the past twenty years, what its exponents and admirers call Scientifiction, has grown like something in a dream. Millions of fans prefer these tales to either whodunits or horror, and the number of publications devoted to the imaginative extension of ‘scientific laws’ and the enlargement of human attributes (Wild Talents, so to speak) has become legion.
“The band is almost unanimously Fortean and some of our most prized members come from its ranks, all whooping up Charles Fort’s fame.”
Among those Thayer name-checked was Claire P. Beck. Presumably, he means Claire P. Beck the science fiction fan. (The ‘P,’ by the way, was pseudonymous, standing for poor.)
Beck was born in California in 1919. His father, a contractor, died when he was very young, and his mother was left to raise four children. Life had to have been hard for the family. (In 1930, Claire’s eldest brother William was the only breadwinner in the family, working as a newspaper printer.) Within a few years, while still a teenager, Beck became involved with science fiction fandom—he especially liked Lovecraft and Clark Ashton Smith—and took over publication of The Science Fiction Review, renaming it The Science Fiction Critic. By 1940, his mother had become a tax collector, and had enough money to own her home; that year, Claire attended a year of college while also working as a census taker. His education was interrupted World War II—he joined the army in 1941.
Claire Beck died in Lakeport, California, where he had lived most of his life, in March 1999.
Beck was affiliated with other science fiction groups, too, notably San Francisco’s Science Fiction Advancement Association and Sam Moskowitz’s New Fandom.
Another name that was mentioned but with no sign of active membership: Claire P. Beck. Only the context makes it possible to figure out who this was.
Beck was noted in The Fortean Society Magazine number 7 (before the name switched to Doubt). This was from June 1943. On page 5, Thayer was proclaiming the rising prominence of science fiction--or scientifiction, as it was then sometimes styled:
“Before Fort, any fiction making more or less free with ‘Science’ was classified always, as of the Jules Verne school. And there wasn’t a great deal of it, but in the past twenty years, what its exponents and admirers call Scientifiction, has grown like something in a dream. Millions of fans prefer these tales to either whodunits or horror, and the number of publications devoted to the imaginative extension of ‘scientific laws’ and the enlargement of human attributes (Wild Talents, so to speak) has become legion.
“The band is almost unanimously Fortean and some of our most prized members come from its ranks, all whooping up Charles Fort’s fame.”
Among those Thayer name-checked was Claire P. Beck. Presumably, he means Claire P. Beck the science fiction fan. (The ‘P,’ by the way, was pseudonymous, standing for poor.)
Beck was born in California in 1919. His father, a contractor, died when he was very young, and his mother was left to raise four children. Life had to have been hard for the family. (In 1930, Claire’s eldest brother William was the only breadwinner in the family, working as a newspaper printer.) Within a few years, while still a teenager, Beck became involved with science fiction fandom—he especially liked Lovecraft and Clark Ashton Smith—and took over publication of The Science Fiction Review, renaming it The Science Fiction Critic. By 1940, his mother had become a tax collector, and had enough money to own her home; that year, Claire attended a year of college while also working as a census taker. His education was interrupted World War II—he joined the army in 1941.
Claire Beck died in Lakeport, California, where he had lived most of his life, in March 1999.
Beck was affiliated with other science fiction groups, too, notably San Francisco’s Science Fiction Advancement Association and Sam Moskowitz’s New Fandom.
