Forrest J Ackerman
Channel: 宇宙のすべての知識 プリンシピア
Date: 2018-12-21

Forrest J Ackerman, by Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=11740 / CC BY SA 3.0

Forrest J Ackerman

Forrest James Ackerman (November 24, 1916 – December 4, 2008) was an American magazine editor, science fiction writer and literary agent, a founder of science fiction fandom, a leading expert on science fiction, horror, and fantasy films, and acknowledged as the world's most avid collector of genre books and movie memorabilia. He was based in Los Angeles, California.

During his career as a literary agent, Ackerman represented such science fiction authors as Ray Bradbury, Isaac Asimov, A.E. Van Vogt, Curt Siodmak, and L. Ron Hubbard. For more than seven decades, he was one of science fiction's staunchest spokesmen and promoters.

Ackerman was the editor and principal writer of the American magazine "Famous Monsters of Filmland", as well as an actor, from the 1950s into the 21st century. He appears in several documentaries related to this period in popular culture, like "Famous Monster: Forrest J Ackerman" (directed by Michael R. MacDonald and written by Ian Johnston), which premiered at the Egyptian Theatre in March 2009, during the Forrest J Ackerman tribute; "The Ackermonster Chronicles!" (a 2012 documentary about Ackerman by writer and filmmaker Jason V Brock); and "Charles Beaumont: The Short Life of Twilight Zone's Magic Man", about the late author Charles Beaumont, a former client of The Ackerman Agency.

Also called "Forry", "Uncle Forry", "The Ackermonster", "Dr. Acula", "Forjak", "4e" and "4SJ", Ackerman was central to the formation, organization and spread of science fiction fandom and a key figure in the wider cultural perception of science fiction as a literary, art, and film genre. Famous for his word play and neologisms, he coined the genre nickname "sci-fi". In 1953, he was voted "#1 Fan Personality" by the members of the World Science Fiction Society, a unique Hugo Award never granted to anyone else.

He was also among the first and most outspoken advocates of Esperanto in the science fiction community.

Ackerman was born Forrest James Ackerman (though he would refer to himself from the early 1930s on as "Forrest J Ackerman" with no period after the middle initial), on November 24, 1916, in Los Angeles, to Carroll Cridland (née Wyman; 1883–1977) and William Schilling Ackerman (1892–1951). His father, Chief Statistician for the Associated Oil Company, and assistant to the Vice-President in charge of transportation, was from New York and his mother was from Ohio (the daughter of architect George Wyman); she was nine years older than William.

Ackerman attended the University of California at Berkeley for a year (1934–1935), then worked as a movie projectionist and at odd jobs with fan friends prior to spending three years in the U.S. Army after enlisting on August 15, 1942, where he rose to the rank of staff sergeant, held the position of editor of his base's newspaper, and passed his entire time in service at Fort MacArthur, California.

Ackerman saw his first "imagi-movie" in 1922 ("One Glorious Day"), purchased his first science fiction magazine, "Amazing Stories", in 1926, created the Boys' Scientifiction Club in 1930 ("girl-fans were as rare as unicorn's horns in those days"). He contributed to both of the first science fiction fanzines, "The Time Traveller", and the "Science Fiction Magazine", published and edited by Shuster and Siegel of Superman fame, in 1932, and by 1933 had 127 correspondents around the ...