Open Letters to Star Wars Zine Publishers (1981)

The Open Letters to Star Wars Zine Publishers were a series of letters sent in 1981 to many Star Wars fanzine publishers/editors by the director of the Official Star Wars Fan Club, Maureen Garrett.
The letters, responding to the publishing of a few explicit fanfics, warned zines not to publish "X-Rated" content under threat of legal action. One letter stated that continued violations might result in Star Wars zine-making being prohibited entirely. Fans were upset in part because they had previously asked for clarification on Lucasfilm's zine policy but had not gotten a clear answer.
==First, A Little History==
Fans learned early on that George Lucas was no Gene Roddenberry. While Roddenberry had been a willing and entertaining convention guest and had given approval (both verbal and tacit) to fanworks, George Lucas was a completely different animal. Lucas made no convention appearances, no Roddenberry Phone Calls, and he didn't submit chatty updates to fan-created newsletters. Distant, detached, and non-communicative, Lucas remained a mystery to most fans. 
===1977===
It was as early as 1977 when George Lucas and 20th Century Fox began making attempts to corral and contain zines their fanwork creators. 
Star Wars had debuted on May 24, 1977, and representatives from 20th Century Fox and Lucasfilm were at Space-Con #4 the third week in June of that year: "At Space-Con 4 in LA, they came prepared and told dealers that they could not sell unlicensed Star Wars merchandise." "That didn't stop fans of the film from making their own. They just couldn't sell it to each other. You name it, they had it. Homemade Wookie costumes and more. A Bay Area high school shop class even got into the act as students made their own Stormtrooper armor out of plastic just as the film crews had done." by Roger Colton, April 12, 2011 (you'll have to scroll down past the stupid ads) 
One fan stated that: 
In December 1977, a fan asked: 
When the editor of a zine, Hyper Space, sent a 1977 issue of his zine to George Lucas, he received this reply, dated December 20, 1977: 
===1978===
In a January 1978 letter to Interstat, Sharon Emily wrote: 
In the February 1978 issue of Probe, the editor wrote: 
Another example of this early control was mentioned by Allyson Whitfield in several 1978 letters to zines: 
In June 1978, Leslie Fish alluded to underground Han/Luke, with a gleeful hope for even more diversity: 
In August 1978, Carol Mularski commented on the issue of Star Wars fiction and sex: 
In November 1978, Lori Chapek-Carleton mentioned a letter she had received from Lucasfilm regarding her zine Warped Space: 
The letter sent to fans during 1978 (one example was printed in the January 1979 issue of Against the Sith #3 said: 
Several fans, however, did not receive payment for the zines they sent to Miller. In Warped Space #41, the editor describes having to pursue payment, and speculated about some company reorganization: 
===1979===
In May 1979, Pam Kowalski responded to Leslie Fish's comments that were in Warped Space #38 that Lucas was "strangling" Star Wars fandom: 
Meanwhile, in the "official" George Lucas galaxy, there was mention of some disarray in an early-to-mid 1979 flyer for The Official Star Wars Fan Club. In it, Craig Miller told fans that there had been some heavy thinking going on: 
The gathering of fanworks for Lucasfilm's personal files was mentioned in the June 1979 issue of Falcon's Flight: From that zine's editorial: 
===1980===
Some 1980 anecdotal events and comments regarding fanworks and the uneasy relationship between fans and TPTB:
In April 1980, the editor of Twin Suns, Jani Hicks, wrote a essay called S'Our Wars, Too, that was critical of fan liaison "Craig Miller and his traveling medicine show." By the time the second issue of that zine was published in March 1981, Hicks was stated that she was happy to see that Miller had been replaced by Maureen Garrett, "whom we can testify from personal experience is probably the most sympathetic-to-fans professionally involved SW's-er we have ever heard of, or dealt with..." The second issue was, in fact, dedicated to Garrett as a symbol of that appreciation. This appreciation, however, of Garrett didn't last long as Twin Suns ceased publication in response to concern over censorship from Lucasfilm that arose when Maureen Garrett sent cease and desist orders to many zine publishers. 
The 1980 how-to zine, Protocols, had this warning for prospective Star Wars zine eds: "The producers of Star Wars are very touchy about zines. They DON'T encourage them. Be very careful with a SW zine." 
In May 1980, the editors of Galactic Flight made this statement in the third issue of their zine: "Galactic Flight is now in the collections of Gary Kurtz, George Lucas, Lucasfilms Inc., and Twentieth-Century Fox. Thank you, gentlemen, for your interest in our zine." 
In May 1980, the Open Letter to Star Wars Fans by the Duncans was sent to fans, zine eds, and to George Lucas. This open letter was something that most certainly did not foster good relations between Lucas and fans. 
From a June 1980 interview with Craig Miller (fan liaison for LucasFilm) for the zine Alderaan: 
Early on, fans were researching and writing articles and essays about the legality of fanfiction. One example was by Carol Mularski in October 1980: 
===Early 1981: In Which the Hive is Actively Poked===
Another early fan article researching the legalities of fan fiction was by Judith Gran: Fandom vs The Courts: Fan Fiction and Fair Use, printed in the June 1981 issue of the letterzine Alderaan.
At least two fans had actively poked the hive in spring 1981, perhaps a bit earlier. 
One of these fans was Jane Firmstone, author of a drawerfic called Moon Silver. In spring 1981, Firmstone explained: 
This exchange between Firmstone and Maureen Garrett was known to some fans: 
One of those fans was Jonas Soderblad, editor of The Dark Lord. In his editorial for the third issue of this zine, Soderblad wrote: (Note: T.R. is Eva Albertsson who was a co-editor, translator, and the author of many stories including The True Force): 
 
Strangely, despite the statement: "not too much of the sexy stuff, that is, gay stories or too explicitly heterosexual stories," Soderblad included a story in that issue of "The Dark Lord" that many fans felt was extreme and in poor taste. This was The True Force, and it, along with A Slow Boat to Bespin, triggered the letters that were sent to faneds about six months later.
It is very, very likely that if it weren't for Firmstone's willingness to openness and to "educate" Lucas and company, and without Soderblad's "lengthy" letter to Lucas that altered Lucas to his very amateurish zine printed in Sweden, that the topic, while not avoided, certainly could have been much more of minor blip.
Despite these warnings and worries, Lucasfilm had been more or less allowing Star Wars zines (all gen at this time) to flourish.
That all came to a head when a series of open letters by Lucasfilm via Maureen Garrett were sent to many fans beginning in August 1981.
==Some Early Stories that Rocked the Boat==
One fan sent the het underground story Moon Silver to Maureen Garrett, with less than positive results. That incident led to the Lucas uproar regarding two stories published in spring 1981: the PG-13 rated rated this way by the author and editor when it was reprinted in The Collected Circle of Fire (1985) het story Slow Boat to Bespin, which had been published in the multimedia zine Guardian #3 in May 1981, and The True Force, in The Dark Lord #3/4. 
All these stories generated a series of letters from Maureen Garrett and began a complicated fandom journey.
 
 
Image:twinsuns3-15.jpg|1982 illo by eluki bes shahar which accompanies the editorial in Twin Suns #3
 
==One Controversial Story: Defused by Pizza==
A Marketable Commodity, published in late summer 1981, squeaked under the wire regarding hassles with Lucasfilm, TPTB, and sexual content.
A fan wrote a LoC regarding this story, and the letter as well as the authors' response, was printed in April 1983 in the last issue of Pegasus.
The fan's comment: 
The editor/authors' response 
==Another Controversial Story: Printed in a Censored Form==
Ships in the Night was very shortly after, and is a sequel to, A Marketable Commodity's.
 
The story was published in Warped Space #46 in September 1981. Originally, pages 107-112 were deleted from the story, and fans had to send an age statement to receive the missing pages. The full story was printed in subsequent reprints. 
From the editor of Warped Space: 
See Ships in the Night for more details.
==Who Got the Letters?==
Below is a list of some publishers who reported receiving the letters, some of whom printed them in their zines.
* Alderaan (final issue) | Comlink | The Dark Lord | Datazine | Empire Review | Guardian | Jundland Wastes | News of the Rebellion | Organia | SPICA | Twin Suns | Warped Space
==The First Letters: July and August 1981==
===Howard Roffman, Associate General Counsel for Lucasfilm===
The editors of Guardian received the first letter. It was dated July 30, 1981.
===Linda Deneroff and Cynthia Levine: Zine Editors===
This is Linda and Cynthia's response, dated August 4, 1981, a response "which we foolishly thought would put an end to the matter." from Comlink #55 
==The Form Letter Sent to Fanzines: August 1981: Maureen Garrett, Director, Star Wars Fan Club==
 
This is the text of the form letter sent to general zines, dated August 1981:
==A Letter Sent to "Warped Space", "Alderaan", "Comlink", and Others: August 1981: Maureen Garrett, Director, Star Wars Fan Club==
 
Text of the letter sent to Warped Space. While the letter is undated here, it was sent at the same time as the first letter (August 1981), as both letters appeared in full in Alderaan #15 and Warped Space #46. 
==Maureen Garrett Thanks a Zine Editor for Behaving Well==
The editor of Archaeology 101 "lovingly" dedicated her zine to: "to George Lucas, a man with a Vision; Harrison Ford, the vehicle of the Vision; and Steven Spielberg, the pilot of the Vision."
She adds: 
Included in the zine is a letter of comment by Maureen Garrett: 
==Response to the First Letter: Fall 1981: Linda Deneroff==
In fall of 1981, Linda Deneroff wrote of the letter she received from George Lucas: 
Another letter by Linda Deneroff, also in the fall of 1981: 
==Response to the First Letter: Fall 1981: Lori Chapek-Carleton==
Lori Chapek-Carleton, editor of Warped Space, included copies of the first two letters by Garrett in an insert to "Warped Space" #46, and included her response, one which touched upon "Warped Space's" inclusion of the story Ships in the Night, albeit with some text removed.
It was preceded by:It preceded by: 
 
==Letters Sent to "Jundland Wastes" and "News of the Rebellion": September 1981: Maureen Garrett, Director, Star Wars Fan Club== 
Maureen Garrett wrote a letter that was published in the November issue of Jundland Wastes #5/6. It was dated September 17, 1981 and addressed a later by Chris Callahan. The reason there were two letters by Garrett in this issue of "Jundland Wastes" is because there had been a flurry of communication and many responses were collected and printed even though they were not always in chronological order. The editor of "Jundland Wastes" wrote: "These letters reached me at varying stages of the controversy, almost all prior to the letter just printed. Many of them are responses to an earlier set of letters from Lucasfilm, printed in Alderaan and Comlink."
==Letters Sent to "Jundland Wastes" and "News of the Rebellion": October 1981: Maureen Garrett, Director, Star Wars Fan Club==
This letter, dated October 7, 1981, was published in Jundland Wastes #5/6 (November 1981) and in News of the Rebellion #10 (December 1981):
The editor of News of the Rebellion #10 prefaced Garrett's letter in her zine with: 
==Another Response Letter: November 1981: Lucasfilm==
When two editors of a proposed zine, "Excelsior" appears to to not have been published , wrote Garrett asking for clarification, they received a letter in response, one that did a fair amount of waffling about what constituted offensive content. 
==Later Comments by Linda Deneroff: 1982, 1993 ==
In 1982, Linda Deneroff, editor of Guardian, wrote of the phone call between Maureen Garrett and herself: 
In 1993, Linda Deneroff recounted the whole affair to fans:
In 1993, Linda Deneroff commented on these two letters:
==A Small Band of Rebels==
Not all fans accepted the thematic restrictions imposed by the Star Wars fan club and Lucasfilm. 
In the summer of 1981, the editor of the zine Imperial Entanglements submitted a non-explicit slash story written by Barbara T and another author to Lucasfilm for their review and consideration.These are the names as used on this page per Barbara T's request. This story was called Hoth Admiral.
In September 1981, Maureen Garrett and Lucasfilm's legal counsel rejected the story, saying:
 regarding The Executor Cycle: "Good grief, Serzho ... what did we DO!?"]]
The editor of Imperial Entanglements wrote a letter of protest directly to Lucasfilm. In the letter, she explained that the proposed story contained no physical expressions of any kind of sexual activity and lacked reference to anatomical details. By excluding non-explicit homosexual fan fiction while allowing non-explicit heterosexual fanfiction, Lucasfilm would be adopting a prejudicial and offensive attitude towards gays and lesbians. She also took issue with the concept that "even Imperial crew members" must be allowed to maintain their "innocence" by pointing out that these same Imperial crew members had committed acts of genocide, mutilation and torture. And by setting "homosexual expressions of love" in opposition to "innocence" Lucasfilm would be implying that homosexuality was morally undesirable. The letter ended with the editor somewhat wryly commenting that previously published slash fan fiction in the Star Wars universe had not harmed the Star Wars brand. An official policy of prejudice against an organized minority might, however. The editor then distributed the two letters amongst Star Wars fanzine publishers. Editor's letter to Lucasfilm, undated, submitted by Barbara T. 
A month passed, and soon second-hand reports began circulating that perhaps Lucasfilm might be reconsidering their stance against slash fan fiction. On October 21, 1981 one of the authors, Barbara T wrote directly to Maureen Garrett seeking confirmation of the rumors:
The response was brief and to the point: 
And so the first "officially sanctioned" non-explicit and, yes, in the rather nebulously bounds of good taste, Star Wars slash story was published. Also see: Hoth Admiral.
==These Letters' Effect on Other Fandoms==
Very shortly before the seminal Starsky & Hutch slash zine,"Trace Elements," was printed, a fan wrote: 
==Fan Reaction==
The reactions of individual fans, of course, were varied. 
Some fans didn't have a problem with Lucasfilm's policy, stating they didn't like to read about explicit sex anyway, or that Lucasfilm had the perfect right to dictate what was written as Star Wars was his creation. Some fans cited the Star Trek fandom's supposed decline into fanfiction debauchery and didn't want Star Wars to take a similar route. Other fans wrote that they would write fanfic with sex, but would keep the material "tasteful." Some fans were extremely upset, cried censorship and stifled creativity, and they questioned the ownership of the Star Wars creative world. And yes, some fans openly declared that they would write and draw whatever they pleased, regardless of George Lucas' preferences. 
After the first of these letters, a common unique disclaimer in early Star Wars zines noted in their submission requests that "Lucas's standards will be followed" or 'Please observe Lucas Film guidelines" or "All stories must conform to Lucasfilm guidelines." 
One thing to keep in mind: at the time of these letters from LucasFilm, there hadn't been any Star Wars slash fiction printed at all in zines, making George Lucas' objections based solely on explicit het pass-around and drawerfic material that was being casually mailed from fan to fan. 
K.S. Boyd noted that: 
===1981===
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Due to these letters, at least one zined, Jani Hicks, said she would no longer publish or purchase Star Wars materials, citing fear as well as complete disillusionment:
A fan writes an Open Letter to Lucas himself: 
A fan writes that ST and SW are different in that, while ST is Gene Roddenberry's creation, there were many different writers of the show and that with SW, George Lucas is the only creator: 
Addressing Lucas himself, a fan writes: 
A fan writes that accusing fans of writing X-rated fiction is an "attempt to darken Lucasfilm's reputation" is wrong. 
A fan blames Star Trek for the censorship conflicts: 
From the editor of Warped Space: 
From a fan commenting on a recent story, Ships in the Night: 
More comments about Ships in the Night:
More comments about Ships in the Night:
More comments about Ships in the Night:
More comments about Ships in the Night:
===1982===
The editor of Empire Review addressed this topic with her own introduction, followed by the reprint of the three Garrett letters, and then some fan comments: 
From a fan in Empire Review #4:
 
From a fan in Datazine #18: Earth*Trash a Star-Wars-centric joke and parody zine, took a jab at the censorship issue by including in its first issue "the ultimate SW story, in which George has deleted all suspicious materials.From an ad in Datazine #20"
===1983===
A fan wrote about a well-behaved zine, well-behaved fans, and the possibility of this good behavior leading to future employment:
===1985===
"The Backlash Tango," a filk by Zeudi Nimn and Ann Onimous (to the tune of "Never Say No" from "The Fantastics" by Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt) was printed in A Tremor in the Force #2:
===1986===
===2002===
===2009===
From The Incomparable Jundland Wastes (2009): 
===2015===
==Fannish Commentary: Articles==
* In Whose Back Yard? by Judith Gran (1981)
* Fan Fiction and Copyright by Judith Gran (1981)
* Something X-tra by Sara Campbell (1981)
* By Any Other Name by Kathleen Retz and Catherine Siebert (1982)
* Unifying Star Wars Fandom -- A Panel Discussion (1992)
==A Short Note from Maureen Garrett in 1983==
The 1983 Media West con program book had a short note from Maureen Garrett. Her contribution was written, in part, to publicize the new Star Wars movie. In it, she refers to past conflict with Star Wars fans and writes: 
==One End Result of the Conflicts? A Fanzine Archive!==
For more, see The Fanzine Archives: A Library for the Preservation & Circulation of Fan-created Material.
And what happened to all the zines that Lucasfilm collected? 
The zines were turned over to First Terran Enclave, and they ran it as a lending library from summer 1986 to December 1987.
 
 
Between January 1988 and sometime in 1989, the zines resided in an unknown location and were not circulated for two years.
In November 1989, Ming wrote a letter to Comlink and explained she was re-opening the fanzine lending library and hoped to have it up and running in the spring of 1990. Soon other fans asked if she'd take copies of non-Star Wars zines, and she started collecting them, too, eventually remodeling her house to make shelf space for the hundreds, then thousands of different fanzines she acquired and cataloged. Local fans helped log in new zines, but was Ming's show for more than 20 years. The final version of her library became known as The Fanzine Archives: A Library for the Preservation & Circulation of Fan-created Material. The Fanzine Archives became a federally recognized, non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation and circulation of fanzines. The Archives maintained an active circulating library of over 300 fanzines, and a permanent collection of over 3,000 titles.
In August 2008, the library was closed due to Ming's poor health. Ming asked fans to help her find a permanent home for the 3,000 plus zines she carefully accumulated and indexed. "Note: As of August 2008, the Fanzine Archives is closed due to health constraints of the Librarian. Thank you to all the fans whose creativity, effort and inspiration have made this project possible over the years. We are considering passing the library on to a new librarian, if we could find someone with the capacity to store the vast collection of zines, and the willingness to distribute them freely as a service to all fans. If you think you are this person, please send a real, paper letter to Ming Wathne" Closing note, August 2008.
In early 2009, the Open Doors committee of the Organization for Transformative Works helped to place the Fanzine Archives with the Special Collections department of the University of Iowa Libraries as part of the Fan Culture Preservation Project. 62 boxes of zines were transferred to the University, where they were cataloged. Ming's Finding Aid is here and the list of other fandom Finding Aids is here: Fandom related Zine Collections at the University Of Iowa. 
==No, George Lucas Didn't Collect Zines So He Could Loan Them to You...And Some Other Falsehoods==
A fan in perhaps 2020 piped up in a Twitter conversation, and while they got some pieces of history right, got it all mixed up:
==References==
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